The Tang Dynasty was the pinnacle of ancient Chinese history, which is indisputable, as most people know, and the powerful Han Dynasty was called the "Xiong Tang Sheng Han" and became the two golden ages of China's feudal society. But when it comes to the longest feudal dynasty in Chinese history, I am afraid that many people do not know it - it is also the Tang Dynasty.
Great Tang Dynasty
Among the great unified dynasties that existed in feudal society for a long time, the following are more prominent:
Western Han Dynasty: 202 BC - 8 AD, 210 years of existence.
Eastern Han Dynasty: 25 AD - 220 AD, existed in 195 years.
Tang: 618 AD - 907 AD, existed for 289 years.
Northern Song Dynasty: 960 AD - 1127 AD, existed for 167 years.
Yuan: 1271 AD - 1368 AD, 97 years of existence.
Ming: 1368 AD - 1644 AD, existed for 276 years.
Qing: 1636 AD - 1912 AD, existed for 272 years.
The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty began with Li Shimin, emperor Taizong of Tang
In the above-mentioned unified feudal dynasties, according to the length of time of existence, it can be sorted by lifespan:
1 Tang Dynasty, 2 Ming Dynasty, 3 Qing Dynasty, 4 Western Han Dynasty, 5 Eastern Han Dynasty, 6 Northern Song Dynasty, 7 Yuan Dynasty. Among them, the Northern Song Dynasty is not a unified feudal dynasty in the traditional sense, after all, it does not have a corner of peace, to say that there are nomadic peoples in the north, which dynasty does not?
Speaking of the Tang Dynasty, it is not only the strongest in feudal society, but also the longest-lived in feudal society, and it is a well-deserved brother. However, the Tang Dynasty did not come to peace in the past three hundred years, if you take a person's life as an analogy, the Tang Dynasty spent this life probably like this:
Sheng Tang
The young Tang Dynasty was in good health, thriving, and growing up very quickly; after entering the peak of the body, robust and symmetrical, and could get full marks for each physical examination; but the Tang Dynasty in its prime years did not cherish its own body, overeating, the physique declined very quickly, and had a serious illness, if it were not for the encounter with a doctor surnamed Guo, the Tang Dynasty would have died in middle age; but Dr. Guo, who saved the life of the Tang Dynasty, was not a god, and tang Dynasty grew three extremely serious malignant tumors (Quan Jian, Fan Zhen, and Friends), good or bad, Until death, it could not be cured, and later it was because of these three tumors that the great Tang Dynasty finally breathed its last breath.
So who is this Dr. Guo who saved the Tang Dynasty? Why is it that without him, the Tang Dynasty would have died in its prime?
Dr. Guo is Guo Ziyi, if you want to say that he is the second general of the Tang Dynasty, there is no first! Because in the history of the Tang Dynasty in the past three hundred years, famous generals have gathered and big coffee has emerged, but to say that the Tang Dynasty that recreated the Tang Dynasty and would perish without him, I am afraid that only Guo Ziyi is one, which must be admitted.
Guo Ziyi
Guo Ziyi is a tiger in the door, but the first half of his life seems to be not prosperous at all. In the official field of the Tang Dynasty, he was buried and half-cut for most of his life, and not even the major officers of the various aspects (the commander of the Grand Military Region) were mixed. Among the shining generals of the same era, all ran in front of Guo Ziyi, and most of them were younger than him, including his future colleagues and enemies: Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing, Wang Zhongsi, Ge Shuhan, An Sishun, and the big-bellied Hu man An Lushan.
What is more strange is that Guo Ziyi originally grew up in an environment where it was relatively easy to make military achievements and thus get ahead, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji was very happy, all the border marshals were busy expanding and asking for rewards, the above mentioned Gao, Feng, Brother, An and other people all became the stars of the government and the public because of the side merits, of which An Lushan even risked merit to ask for rewards and killed innocents to sit on the high position of the Three Towns Festival, and soon he was awarded the title of king, becoming the first side general to be crowned king since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty.
When these people were regarded as heroes of the Tang Dynasty one by one, the elderly Guo Ziyi was still quietly cattening in Shuofang, and when a Shuofang Jiedu Right Soldier and Horse Envoy, although he was already a high-ranking general, it was really nothing in the northern frontier where the generals walked everywhere. If datang had been singing and dancing like this, perhaps Guo Ziyi would have survived peacefully until retirement, not only would there not have been a great general named Guo Dashi who was famous in the history of Zhenqing, but it was even difficult to say whether there was a chance of a single independent transmission in the old and new "Book of Tang".
Anshi Rebellion
Guo Ziyi should probably thank An Lushan, if he had not launched a rebellion and disturbed Tang Xuanzong's good dreams, and The Tang Dynasty would never have a peaceful day, then Guo Ziyi would not have the opportunity to recreate the Tang Dynasty.
Yuyang Nai came agitatedly, startling the neon feather song. The Nine-Fold City is full of smoke and dust, and thousands of people ride southwest
—— Bai Juyi's "Long Hate Song".
It was precisely because An Lushan launched a rebellion that Tang Xuanzong fled to Western Shu in panic, and the 58-year-old Guo Ziyi was solemnly promoted by history, and the elderly and dim-witted emperor made the most important and correct decision in his life: to appoint Guo Ziyi as the envoy of Shuofang Jiedushi. That is to say, when Guo Ziyi became the commander of the Grand Military Region, he was close to retirement age, although the Tang Dynasty did not have a clear retirement age limit.
Lee Kwang-bi
Guo Ziyi was ordered to immediately fight a beautiful battle, first sending Li Guangbi to lead 10,000 troops out of Hebei from Jingxing, hitting the rebel Shi Siming by surprise, and then the pro-unification army crossed the Taihang Mountains, and Guo and Li joined forces to beat the Hebei rebels Shi Siming and Cai Xide to pieces. After stabilizing the situation in Hebei, he also suggested that Tang Xuanzong, who had not yet fled west into Shu at that time, asked Ge Shuhan to take Haotong Pass, compress the rebel army into a small area in Hebei, Henan, and then lead his troops to attack the old lair of Fanyang An Lushan, so that the An Lushan rebellion could be put down in less than a year.
Unfortunately, Tang Xuanzong could not distinguish between good and bad, and Guo Ziyi, Li Bi, and Ge Shuhan asked him to guard Tongguan's advice, but instead listened to Yang Guozhong's ghost words and urged Ge Shuhan to come out of the pass for a decisive battle. Ge Shuhan wept bitterly and led his troops out of the pass, and the result was not what Guo Ziyi expected, he was ambushed by the rebels, and only 8,000 of the 200,000 troops were defeated, not only did Ge Shuhan himself lose his soldiers and was captured, but Tongguan was also lost. Once Tongguan was lost, Chang'an was difficult to protect, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fled west, and Li Xiang, who had been trembling and trembling for many years as crown prince, seized the opportunity to stand on his own, went north to Shuofang, and relied on the only large military region in the country with a complete structure to continue to command the national War of Resistance.
Since then, the Shuofang Army has become the main force against the rebels, and has profoundly influenced the political situation of the Tang Dynasty for many years to come. To put it bluntly, among the ten towns of the Tang Dynasty, the rebel army of An Lushan in the northeast, the army of the northwestern towns had scattered with the rout of Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing, and Ge Shuhan, the only army of the Tang Dynasty to suppress the rebellion was the Shuofang Army, and the three outstanding generals who emerged in the Shuofang Army became the de facto supreme commanders of the Tang army in the "Eight-Year War of Resistance", they were Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi, and Gugu Huai'en.
ShuoFangjun countered the rebellion
If you simply discuss battle merits, these three people may be on par, Guo Ziyi is not necessarily the most powerful, there has always been a saying that Li Guangbi is the first in battle merit, but the Anshi rebellion was eliminated at the hands of the servant Gu Huaien. However, due to these three personality characteristics, three completely different endings have been created.
In the later stages of the Anshi Rebellion, Li Guangbi was stationed on the Jianghuai front, and because he was afraid of being framed by the power supervisor Yu Chao'en, he did not dare to enter the dynasty, and the king sat idly by when he had difficulties, resulting in the separation of the upper and lower levels, especially the ambitious Tian Shengong did not listen to his orders at all, and Li Guangbi died of depression.
The servant Huai'en biao was stubborn and stubborn, because of the background of Hui Hui, coupled with the problem of handling the rebel generals in Hebei, which triggered the suspicion of the imperial court, and finally embarked on the road of no return from the counter-rebel hero to the rebellious second minister, and finally died violently on the march, although through Guo Ziyi's efforts, Emperor Suzong no longer pursued, but after all, the end was quite disgraceful.
Eunuchs were one of the three major cancers of the middle and late Tang Dynasties
Only Guo Ziyi has always been valued by the imperial court and has always been loyal to the imperial court. It is precisely because of this that after the Anshi Rebellion was put down, he repeatedly rushed to the front line of counter-rebellion, fought with Hui And Tubo with wits and courage, saved the Tang Dynasty in danger several times, and even left Guo Linggong alone with the reputation of retiring enemy soldiers.
According to Shi Zai, Guo Ziyi "has power to the world and is not jealous of the dynasty, and the master is not doubtful of the generation of merit", and the monarchs and subjects trust each other, and their happiness is harmonious. But the truth is that the imperial court and the emperor are jealous and suspicious of him, and even some traitors and eunuchs have tried to harm him many times, but he used superhuman wisdom to hide from him.
Guo Ziyi never fought with people, never fell in love with the stack, and whenever the imperial court was in danger, he was always the first to stand up; when the emperor wanted to take back the military power, he immediately offered the military power with both hands; you said one is one, two is two, and there is never two words. Even Yu Chao'en, who was extremely jealous of him, dug up his ancestral grave and killed him at The Zhangjing Temple, but Guo Ziyi resolved the crisis during the conversation, neither investigating the fault of the grave, nor pursuing the people who pursued him poorly, on the contrary, he pushed yu Chao'en's heart, and actually made the bad guys 100 percent of Yu Chao'en moved to tears.
Tomb of Guo Ziyi
The supreme wisdom of the world has created the only perfect person in the history of the Tang Dynasty, fu, Lu, Shou, and Kao, whether it is the emperor of the Tang Dynasty in the current world or the Qingshi in later generations, all of which have given Guo Ziyi a lofty reputation. Tang Suzong once said: "The country is rebuilt, and Qing Li is also." He also said, "Although my home country is really rebuilt by the Secretary of State." "
There are hundreds of famous generals in the Tang Dynasty, and the only one who can have the merit of recreating the Tang Dynasty is Guo Ziyi. There are many heroes in Ling yan pavilion, there are Guo Ziyi's predecessors, there are also his descendants, but there is only one who can continue to live for the Tang Dynasty for 150 years like him.
In 781, Guo Ziyi died at the age of 85, and he was not only made a prince and given the title of Guo Fenyang, but the emperor wanted him to serve as Shang Shuling, a very prominent official position that had previously been held only by Emperor Taizong of Tang. In the Tang Dynasty, where kings with different surnames are everywhere, a Fenyang king may not be a big deal, but Shang Shuling is a real first official position!