Tang Dynasty II

  General Description   The Tang Dynasty is widely considered a cultural and political high point of imperial China. The dynasty was founded by Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang, when the threat of insurrection forced the previous Sui dynasty court to flee from Luoyang, the capital, to Yangzhou. Li Yuan marched to Luoyang and seized the abandoned capital in 618 CE. ^[1] He became the first emperor of the Tang dynasty (r. 618-626 CE) and is posthumously known as Gaozu. Under the Early Tang Dynasty, the capital was moved from Chang’an to Luoyang. ^[2] We divide the Dynasty into an Early period (618-763 CE) and Late period (763-907 CE), separated by the decline in imperial authority and instability of experienced by the Tang in the 750s, culminating in the An Lushan rebellion to close out the Early period (755‒763 CE).
The Tang Dynasty continued to rule China after the defeat of the An Lushan rebellion (755‒763 CE). ^[3] However, the government never fully recovered from its impact. ^[3] Tang border defences were devastated, leading to attacks from outsiders and pirates. The Tang government maintained an often-uneasy alliance with the Uighurs against the Tibetans. ^[4] In 790, Tibetan forces occupied Chinese land in eastern Turkestan and ended Chinese rule in the region for almost a thousand years. ^{[5] [6]}
Late Tang China was marked by conflict, with the occasional brief period of peace. Emperor Xianzong’s campaigns against rebel governors in the early 9th century restored almost all of China back to direct rule under the Tang government. ^[5] Xianzong was successful in restoring stability to the Tang Empire and his death was followed by 40 years of peace. ^[7] Later, Emperor Wuzong persecuted Buddhists and adherents of other non-indigenous religions. His movement reached its height in 845 CE and most monasteries were destroyed, but his successors reversed his anti-Buddhist policies. ^[8]
The dynasty fell in 881 CE after a series of internal rebellions, leading to about a century characterized by the rise of powerful warlords in the south and political turmoil in the north ^[9] before another period of Chinese efflorescence under the Northern Song Dynasty. ^[10]
Population and political organization
The Late Tang Dynasty was marked by tensions between the central government and military garrisons. ^[11] In 763 CE, two-thirds of the provincial governors were military commanders. ^[4] Tang emperors attempted to weaken the central bureaucracy by having military governors pay direct tribute instead of taxes. ^[12] The Tang government implemented the two-tax system in 780 CE, which replaced the ’equal land’ distribution system of the Early Tang. ^[13] This system of taxation represented an attempt to weaken military garrison governments and to divert taxation income to the central government. ^[13]
The Late Tang central government was marked by the rise of eunuchs. Eunuchs did not hold powerful positions in the Early Tang government, but in the later period the Department of the Inner Palace, staffed by eunuchs, became a powerful governmental authority ‒ more powerful than the emperor’s chief ministers. ^[14]
Because the dynasty was marked by almost constant conflict, the population of Late Tang China is difficult to estimate. In 766 CE there were between 40 million and 55 million citizens, ^[15] and in 900 CE there were between 60 million and 80 million. ^[16]

[1]: (Benn 2002, 1) Charles Benn. 2002. China’s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[2]: (Lewis 2009, 37) Mark Edward Lewis. 2009. China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[3]: (Perkins 1999, 11) Dorothy Perkins. 1999. Encyclopedia of China. New York: Routledge.

[4]: (Benn 2002, 12) Charles Benn. 2002. Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

[5]: (Lewis 2009, 64) Mark Edward Lewis. 2009. China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[6]: (Benn 2002, 11) Charles Benn. 2002. Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

[7]: (Benn 2002, 16) Charles Benn. 2002. Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

[8]: (Benn 2002, 16-17) Charles Benn. 2002. Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

[9]: (Ebrey 1996, 136) Patricia Buckley Ebrey. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[10]: (Benn 2002, 18) Charles Benn. 2002. Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

[11]: (Lewis 2009, 60) Mark Edward Lewis. 2009. China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[12]: (Lewis 2009, 63) Mark Edward Lewis. 2009. China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[13]: (Lewis 2009, 65) Mark Edward Lewis. 2009. China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[14]: (Dalby 1979, 571-72) Michael T. Dalby. 1979. ’Court Politics in Late T’ang Times’, in The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T’ang China, 589-906 AD, Part One, edited by D. C. Twitchett, 561-681. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[15]: (Rodzinski 1979, 130) Witold Rodzinski. 1979. A History of China, Volume 1. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

[16]: (Lorge 2005, 182) Peter A. Lorge. 2005. War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900‒1795. Abingdon: Routledge.