The Tang Dynasty (618--907 AD) was an important period in China's feudal society.
The history of the Tang Dynasty mainly refers to the "Old Book of Tang" and "New Book of Tang". The "Old Tang Book" compiled by officials during the Five Dynasties and later Jin Dynasty is the earliest existing historical book that systematically records the history of the Tang Dynasty. It was originally called "Book of Tang". It was renamed "Old Book of Tang" only after the publication of "New Book of Tang" compiled by Ouyang Xiu, Song Qi and others in the Song Dynasty. "Old Book of Tang" has two hundred volumes, including twenty volumes of chronicles, thirty volumes of chronicles, and one hundred and fifty volumes of biographies.
The country name "Tang" is the ancient name of Jin, which generally refers to the central area of ??Shanxi Province today. Legend has it that the monarch Yao was known as the "Tao Tang" clan. During the Zhou Dynasty, there was a small country called Tang in what is now Hubei Province. Li Yuan succeeded Tang Guogong during the Sui Dynasty; after Emperor Gong of the Sui Dynasty abdicated, he took Tang as the country's name. After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the Later Tang Dynasty founded by Li Cunxu of the Five Dynasties and the Southern Tang Dynasty of the Ten Kingdoms both claimed to be the successors of the Tang Dynasty and used "Tang" as their country name. In fact, their emperor had no blood relationship with the Tang Dynasty.
The Li family of the Tang Dynasty royal family claimed to be from the Han nationality of Zhao County. At the same time, the Li family was also a military aristocrat of Longxi. The Li family in Longxi has been a famous military family in China since the Qin Dynasty. This family has produced famous generals such as Li Guang, the flying general of the Western Han Dynasty. However, some people doubt this statement and believe that the Li family of the Tang Dynasty royal family has Xianbei ancestry. The "Old Book of Tang" and "New Book of Tang" state that the Li family of the Tang Dynasty royal family is the descendant of Laozi Li Er, and Li Hao, the founding monarch of Xiliang in the Sixteen Kingdoms, is also his distant ancestor. During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Xianbeiization policy was implemented, and the Li family was forced to change to "Daye family", which was a newly created surname. After the fall of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, it was restored to the Li family.
The Tang Dynasty, together with the Song Dynasty, is considered by historian Huang Renyu to be the second imperial period of China after the Qin and Han Dynasties. Japanese historians generally believe that the Tang Dynasty is the end of China's "Middle Ages" period. The national power of the Tang Dynasty was one of the best in Chinese history, so the Chinese were also called "Tang people".
Map of the territory of the Tang Dynasty at its peak. At its peak, the territory of the Tang Dynasty stretched from Andong in the east to Anxi on the Aral Sea in Central Asia in the west. It included what is now northern Vietnam in the south and the northern part of the Mongolian Plateau in the north. There were many foreign ethnic groups around the Tang Dynasty. In order to effectively manage the Turks, Uighurs, Mohe, Tiele, Shiwei, Khitan, etc., six major protective offices were established in Anxi, Anbei, Andong, Annan, Shanyu, and Beiting.
However, in the decades after the Anshi Rebellion, a large number of Helong border soldiers participated in quelling the rebellion (mainly from the Longyou Jiedushi and Shuofang Jiedushi), resulting in a void in border defenses. Tubo took advantage of the situation to advance, and Huihe invaded. The possession of the Hetao Grassland greatly reduced the territory that the Tang government could control. Both Gansu and Liang were inaccessible to the west of the Yellow River. By the end of the Tang Dynasty, control of the west of Dunhuang was also completely lost. In the Northeast, due to the rise of Silla, the Andong Protectorate had already withdrawn to the west of the Liao River. At the same time, the Khitan, Xi and other tribes became a serious problem. Tubo and Nanzhao in the southwest also caused heavy losses to the Tang government after the mid-Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Dynasty initiated the establishment of the Daohe Prefecture in the history of Chinese administrative regions. During the Zhenguan period of the early Tang Dynasty, the country was divided into ten regions including Guannei, Henan, Hedong, Hebei, Shannan, Longyou, Huainan, Jiangnan, Jiannan, and Lingnan. During the Kaiyuan period, Shannan and Jiangnan were divided into east and west, and the Gyeonggi, Duji, and Qianzhong roads were added to form a fifteen-way pattern. There are prefectures and prefectures under the roads, and counties under the prefectures and prefectures. At the end of Kaiyuan, there were 328 prefectures and prefectures and 1,573 counties in the country.
[Edit this paragraph] The establishment of the Tang Dynasty
Li Yuan was the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, peasant uprisings spread all over the country. In the eleventh year of Daye (615), Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty appointed Li Yuan as the ambassador of comfort to Hedong, Shanxi. Soon after, he asked Taiyuan to stay behind, prepare for the Turks in the north, and suppress the Turks in what is now Shanxi Province. Peasants revolted. At that time, the Sui regime was on the verge of collapse, the ruling class had experienced major splits again and again, and landlord armed forces and rebels were scattered throughout the country. Li Yuan always had great ambitions. After moving to Taiyuan, he saw that the Sui Dynasty was about to be defeated, and he had the idea of ??replacing it. In the twelfth year of the Great Cause, the peasant uprising had taken over the country. The Sui Dynasty could no longer concentrate its forces to effectively attack various armed groups. In May of the following year, Li Yuan killed the deputy left-behind Wang Wei and Gao Junya in Taiyuan, officially announcing the uprising. .
In July, Li Yuan, his eldest son Jiancheng and his second son Shimin sent their troops south, defeated Huoyi (now Huo County, Shanxi Province), crossed the Yellow River, and advanced to the southwest. In November, he invaded Chang'an. Soon after, it was announced that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty would be honored as the Supreme Emperor, and Yang You, the grandson of Emperor Yang, would be elected as the emperor. He would change his name to Yining and become Emperor Gong of the Sui Dynasty. Li Yuan was appointed prime minister and promoted to king of Tang Dynasty. In March of the 14th year of Daye, Emperor Sui Yang was killed in Jiangdu. In May, Li Yuan forced Emperor Gong to abdicate and proclaimed himself emperor. The country was named Tang, and he was Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty. After changing the military ethics of Yuan Dynasty, the capital is still Chang'an. On the fourth day of June in the ninth year of Takeori, King Li Shimin of Qin ambushed Xuanwumen and launched a palace coup, killing his brother Prince Jiancheng and his fourth brother King Yuanji of Qi, forcing Gaozu to make himself the crown prince. Soon, Shimin ascended the throne as Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Li Yuan abdicated and became the Supreme Emperor. The following year it was changed to Yuan Zhenguan. Not long after Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty came to the throne, in the second year of Zhenguan (628), he sent a large army to conquer the Liang division capital that occupied Xiazhou (now Baichengzi, Inner Mongolia). The division capital was killed by his subordinates. Xiazhou was owned by the Tang Dynasty, and the country was unified.
As an outstanding statesman and enlightened emperor, Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty accepted the lessons of the Sui Dynasty and was frightened by the remaining power of the peasant uprising. It is called the rule of Zhenguan.
In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan (649), Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty passed away, and his ninth son, Li Zhi, came to the throne and became Emperor Gaozong. During the reign of Tang Gaozong and Li Zhi, Empress Wu Zetian gradually stepped onto the political stage and became the only female emperor in Chinese history. She was the daughter of the warrior Yu, who entered the palace at the age of fourteen and became a talented person of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. After Taizong's death, she entered Ganye Temple as a nun. After Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty came to the throne, he called her into the palace and named her Zhaoyi. In the sixth year of Yonghui (655), Emperor Gaozong, with the support of Li Ji, Xu Jingzong and others, announced that he would depose Queen Wang and make her queen instead. Starting from Xianqing (656-661), political power gradually came into the hands of Empress Wu, and the emperor and Empress Wu were called the "Two Saints" in the world. After the death of Gaozong in the first year of Hongdao (683), Wu Zetian established Prince Li Xian as emperor, who was Zhongzong. Soon after, Zhongzong was deposed and another son, Li Dan, was made emperor, which was Ruizong. In the first year of Tianshou (690), Wu Zetian finally deposed Ruizong and proclaimed himself emperor, and changed the name of the country to Zhou. The Wuzhou regime lasted for fifteen years (690-705).
Wu Zetian controlled the country for nearly half a century. In the first year of Shenlong (705), prime ministers Zhang Jianzhi, Huan Yanfan, Yuan Shuji and others instigated the Yulin Army Li Chen, Li Duozuo and others to launch a coup. He killed Wu Zetian's cronies Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi's brothers, supported the restoration of Zhongzong Li Xian, and reestablished the Li dynasty. After Zhongzong's restoration, he was still a puppet emperor, with power falling into the hands of Queen Weishi, his daughter Princess Anle, Empress Wu's remaining party Wu Sansi and others. Zhongzong died in the fourth year of Jinglong (710). Empress Wei made Li Chongmao, the king of Wen, the young emperor, and wanted to harm Li Dan, the prime minister. Li Danzi Longji then launched a coup, killed Empress Wei, Princess Anle and the remaining forces of the Wu family, and supported Li Dan to the throne as Ruizong. Afterwards, Princess Taiping, Ruizong's sister, gained great power due to her support, and a power struggle broke out between her and Li Longji. Ruizong gave way to Prince Longji in the first year of Yanhe (712) and became Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. The following year, Princess Taiping was sentenced to death, and her party members were either killed or expelled, and the chaotic political situation ended. In the same year, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty changed the Yuan Dynasty to Kaiyuan.
After Tang Xuanzong came to the throne, he worked hard to govern and strive to make a difference. Therefore, during the Kaiyuan period, a situation of political clarity and prosperity for the people was formed, which is known as the prosperous Kaiyuan era in history. This was the second heyday in Chinese history after the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. During the Tianbao reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, amidst the prosperity of singing and dancing, he gradually transformed into an emperor who was greedy for pleasure. In the 22nd year of Kaiyuan (734), Li Linfu, who was "a sweet talker and a sword", became the prime minister and held the position for nineteen years. Li Linfu was a sinister and vicious man who rejected the virtuous. The next powerful official, Yang Guozhong, was Yang Guifei's cousin and served as an envoy for more than 40 years. Xuanzong trusted him blindly and could not see anything wrong, and the officials became silent because of it. From the Xuanzong Dynasty, the situation of eunuchs intervening in politics began to appear. Gao Lishi was so favored that he often had to submit the writings from all directions before he could enter the imperial court. In short, by the end of Tang Xuanzong's reign, a serious crisis had emerged behind the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
History of the Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty (960-1279) is an era in Chinese history that inherited the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and the Yuan Dynasty. According to the changes in the capital and territory, it can be divided into The Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty are collectively called the Two Song Dynasties.
In order to avoid the separatism of vassal towns and the chaos of eunuchs since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty adopted a policy of emphasizing culture over military affairs. On the one hand, it was weak militarily. In 1127, the two emperors of Hui and Qin were captured by the Jin people, forcing the Song Dynasty to Moved south; died in the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in the Battle of Yashan in 1279. However, the Song Dynasty was also one of the most prosperous eras in terms of economy, culture and education in Chinese history. Confucianism was revived, and the society was filled with the atmosphere of respecting teachers and respecting education. Science and technology also advanced by leaps and bounds, and politics were more open and clean. In the end, there were no serious eunuchs and political chaos in the Song Dynasty. The number and scale of local separatist regimes, mutinies, and civil unrest are relatively rare in Chinese history. The famous historian Chen Yinke said: "The culture of the Chinese nation has evolved over thousands of years and reached its peak in the Zhao and Song Dynasties." There are also some people in Western and Japanese historians who believe that the Song Dynasty was the Renaissance and economic revolution in Chinese history. exist.
The Shame of Jingkang Song Huizong was a talented artist, but he was also the king of subjugation.