Tragic Greatness vs. Tragic Beauty

Introduction

When he ascended the Dragon throne in 712 AD , China reached its epitome of organizational steadiness, economics boom, military expansion and cultural splendor. After the An Shi rebellion , China becomes disorganized - political erosions was rampant, economic adversity amplify and suffering of its people were unprecedented. Never did future dynastic cycles return to such glorious state ever again.
Due to the vast historical significance of this calamity, this essay includes who are the three main characters? Where are they originated from? Why and how they contributed in the events leading to the rebellion? What was the fundamental cause of the rebellion? How does the past see these historical events? Last but not the least, what resulted in the rise of An Lushan and its implication to future dynastic cycles?

The Veritable Son of Heaven

Personifying the climax of the Tang’s influence, Emperor Xuanzong, the seventh emperor of Tang dynasty is one of the most significant monarchies in ancient China (712-756). His personal name is Li Longji , and posthumously known as Ming Huang . When Xuanzong is a child, the imperial court was in total anarchy - favourism, nepotism and cronyism were out of control. The imperial power had been transferred from incompetent emperors to their female counterparts since the reign of Gaozong , Zhongzong and Ruizong . When he became the son of heaven, he restored economic prosperity, strengthen military expansion and maintain peace. Aside from that, cultural flourished with the establishment of Hanlin Academy which is conducive and harmoniously blend in promoting moralistic Confucianism, naturalistic Taoism and the assimilation of ideas which in turn influence academia, artiste, painters and poets to burgeon artistic brilliance. Into the bargain, foreigners are well integrated into the Tang Society since Emperor Taizong era . After the demotion of Empress Wang and followed by the death of Consort Wu , he began to lose interest in politics, thus rely on obsequious advisers and ingratiating palace eunuchs. As a result administration was disregard , military establishment deterioration and border relations declined . A man of such great caliber during his prime in the Kaiyuan era (713-741) was marked by continuous peace and prosperity, but despondently only to lose it all in old age partly for the love of a woman during the Tianbao period (742-756).

Precious Consort Yang

In 745, he began to take interest on the wife of Prince Shou called Yang Yuhuan. As she is being blessed with the physical attributes of a woman at such young age , Xuanzong couldn’t help but notice her presence. He knew the imperialistic repercussion if he openly took the wife of his son. He therefore enforces the nullification of her marriage with Prince Shou and make Yang’s divorce her own husband to become a nun . She is probably sixteen or seventeen years old . This unorthodox method had been previously used by his ancestry to gain status and power. When she was assimilated into the palace ground, she is known as T’ai Chen , soon after she was conferred the rank of “precious consort ”. Her new rank of Guifei was the highest among the harem and next to that of the empress. She probably did not view her situation as immoral rather raising her nobility status. Furthermore, the emperor needs her as much as she needed the emperor. In addition, her clan and family see this as an opportunity to further alleviate her clan reputation and secure high ranking appointment due to her influence with the emperor. Since she is the emperor’s favorite consort and the empress relegated, she is the most powerful woman in the imperial harem. Due to her bearing, she convinced Xuanzong to appoint her family’s member to some of the highest imperial post. Her cousin, Yang Guozhong became the chief minister after the death of Li Linfu , her sisters was assimilated in various states as consorts or concubine. As a result, this leads to the totalitarian control of the Yang Clan in imperial politics through political conspiracy.

The Barbarian General

As the son of heaven focused his entire attention on a woman and artistic pleasure, the imperial power began to be monopolized by the Yang Family and control of the frontier armies shifted into the hand of foreign generals of questionable. An Lushan a fat and crude General who was born of a Turkic mother and a Sogdian father came into power. His close friendship with Lady Yang and the emperor provided great prospect for him as they thought he is just a simpleton. In 751, she adopted An Lushan as a son, thus providing greater autonomy in getting into the emperor and lady yang’s good books. With this, he was given greater military control of up to forty percent of the total Tang’s military capabilities after winning numerous military campaigns in the Northern steppes . On the other hand, Yang Guozhong became prime minister after the death of Li Linfu. Due to An Lushan gaining favour and trust from the couple, Yang Guozhong becomes suspicious of a non-Chinese Military Leader. Within the empire, internal conflicts set in – Yang Guozhong is trying to destroy Lushan as he might be a threat to the Yang’s sphere of interest and influence the Yang’s circle of power, Crown Prince Suzong wasn’t a supporter to him either and loyal opposition general of Tang, General Goshu Han is a threat to Lushan’s military control and might. Most probably, his real attention wasn’t about to eradicate the emperor or about his desire for Yang Guifei but about power and staying in control. The emperor has lived far too long for his own good and would eventually kick the bucket, Chancellor Yang Guozhong is suspicious about him, the crown prince is not in his favor and Tang loyal general is a hindrance to his military expansion; where would that leave An Lushan? If only Li Linfu was still alive perhaps history will take a different turn of event however that is not the case, thus rebellion was the only answer.

An Lu-Shan Rebellion

In 755, the deflected armies led by Lushan and Shi Siming marched south towards Chang’an with the intention to overthrow the emperor and instate himself as Emperor of the newly created Yan Dynasty . Possibly, the army wasn’t deflecting but was utterly convinced by An Lu Shan that the mutiny was suppose to aid the emperor in subduing the incitement to rebellion faction led by Yang Guozhong. I would call this as the lie that worked. Due to this event, Xuanzong recalled the army at its borders. While doing so, he ordered the imperial army to confront An Lushan’s overpowering armies at the Yellow river but was subdued due to an ambush of the Yan armies. Tang Loyalist General Geshu Han went to the emperor’s aid but was also defeated at Tong Guan by another Yan general, Cui Qianyou . With the fall of Tong Guan, the collapse of capital city Chang’an was apparent and inevitable as it is directly connected with the defense of Tong Guan. Due to this negative dominoes effect of Tang Defense, Tang disintegrates

Exodus of the imperial family

Knowing that the uprising is foreseeable, the imperial family fled from the capital to Chengdu, the capital of Jiangnan Circuit . Upon arriving at Mawei station, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), the army started to become rebellious and mutiny occurs unless an ultimatum is reached. The army was convinced that the An Shi rebellion was caused by the Yang’s family and nothing else that brings the once great Tang to its knees. Soon Yang Guozhong was brutally murdered. Being resolute, they demanded the death of the precious consort as well. General Chen Xuanli , approached the son of heaven, saying “As Guozhong has been executed of his betrayal, is it appropriate for his sister, the imperial concubine also be eliminated?” Although Ming Huang was pleased with the armies for showing loyalty at such testing time, he was reluctantly to say no to their demand. However his loyal eunuch, Gao Lishi advised the emperor that the outcome of the safety your majesty and the survival of Tang depends by appeasing the troop’s resentment, only then he will be able to find peace and security. Although Xuanzong tried to convince them that Yang Guifei had nothing to do with his brother’s treachery since she is always leading a bohemian type of life and to do such a foolish thing will only jeopardize her status and standard of living. However, none was convinced. He had no choice but ordered his trusted eunuch, Gao Lishi to reveal her fate. At the age of thirty-eight years old, she was executed by being strangled by the neck till the last flicker of life extinguished from her eyes.

With the fall of Chang’an, General Lushan declared himself as emperor of the newly established Yan dynasty in Loyang. The Confucian ideal had labeled all non-Chinese as barbarian and inferior . But now a barbarian was the most powerful man in china. Maybe Confucius had been right not to trust outsiders. As for emperor Xuanzong, he abdicated and self exiled to Sichuan as Taishang Huang and relinquished his power to his son, Suzong . His inconsolable sadness and longing for Yang Guifei was immortalized in a poem called “A song of Unending sorrow .”

Discussion

The fragmentation of Tang’s Golden age could be divided into three aspects – military, political, economics and social.

Lu Shan took advantage of his position as a resolute military commander of Pinglu Army which headquartered in modern Chaoyang, Liaoning. This remote location prevented a direct control of the Central government. The military policy called the fubing system was backfired when it was first adopted to create large armies under a single unified commander to guard the frontier, so as to prevent or lessened the threat of a military coup. This resulted in the consolidation of power that leads to uncheck cancerous growth of military influence. This system created a probable unhappiness and demoralized among the soldiers with the prolong warfare with the frontiers. Since this policy goes hand in hand with its agriculture production, the prolong wars which hampered the cultivation of land based products which angered the peasants. Almost all of Tang Generals are of barbarian lineage, this resulted in a competitive environment in order to win the emperor’s favour thus lying and flattery are common in such unquestionable scenarios.

Within Chinese governing body, a conflict of interest causes a power struggle between meritocracy and preferential treatment officials. As the Yang clan was assimilated into Imperial politics, the usage of the imperial examination seems to be useless in order to sought promotion. In addition, Xuanzong only function to become the son of heaven is perhaps to pursue his idealistic dream of the cultivation of arts and culture and nothing else. His foresight and energy are being clouded and channeled wrongly in pursuits for power, pleasure and brilliance. An aging emperor resulted in a probable deterioration of health which in turn caused him to have lesser involvement in politics and consequently bring about the erosion of emperor legitimacy. Yang Guifei indirectly influence him in affecting his role as the son of heaven. Xuanzong in fact didn’t learn his lesson from previous dynasties in which women had brought about the tragedy of the whole nation . This is further emphasized by Confucius in his analects in Chapter 16 verse 7 . The deliberate policy suggested by Li Linfu of using non-Chinese as military governor on the basis that they were better soldier and have no political or faction connection, that bring about such catastrophic consequences. Although the involvement of eunuch in political involvement was very minimal initially but Xuanzong’s lenient policy towards his subjects resulted in undue influence of eunuchs in the late Tang Dynasty . The dictatorship of Li Linfu is the product of diverging sets of interests within the imperial politics. To make matter worse, the rise of Yang Guozhong causes the imperial politics to be in total disarray as he lacks the administrative rigor, practicing unorthodox ways to govern the Tang Dynasty.
The onset of economic policies brought about unity and peace between north and South China. Due to this economic stability, large scale immigration occurs from all of the world into Tang China resulted in different race, culture and languages intermingling with each other. This effect bolsters a ridge of economic instability between the rich and the poor by the onset of the so called “runaway households” or “immigrant households”. The constant war between Tang, Tibet and Nanchao resulted in large financial burden to its state treasury. Furthermore economic policies implemented by Li Linfu and the establishment of the Tang Hanlin Academy might cause great fiscal fluctuation which causes much financial depression between the rich and the poor.

Conclusion

Although the rebellion was subdued, the once great Tang dynasty declines as administration was overlook, military establishment began to be lenient owing to the laidback training and preparation during peacetime and border relations depreciated. The Tang culture would never return to its past glory. China began to resume its traditional old policy of non-intervention and rejecting non-Chinese ideas and values and regressed to its conventional Confucian ideology as seen during the Song Period. The onset of the rebellion is not solely caused by a woman but the involvement of many external and internal factors which contributes in the disintegrating force of the nation. A man of Confucian renaissance of good hindsight in enabling China to reach its Golden age, tenacious objective in bringing peace and prosperity, resolute force and advocator of the arts and culture won his way into the confused and anarchy situation during his youth. However his foresight and energy was confuse and focus by pretentious dreams of military glory than his forefathers, basking in earth pleasures and increasing age which precipitated the catastrophic downfall of the once Great Tang. The An Lushan rebellion has ended the love affair between a romantic emperor and his consort along with it the Golden age of Tang which steadily split up into a number of independent states in the so called five dynasties period.

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