In the winter of the fourteenth year of Tang Tianbao (755), the Tang Dynasty, which had been in charge of more than a hundred years, ushered in its darkest moment, and the generals an Lushan and Shi Siming, who guarded the northern frontier, launched a huge rebellion and opened an eight-year-long "hell mode".
This rebellion is not only an important event in the history of the Tang Dynasty, but also an important watershed in the transformation of ancient Chinese history from prosperity to decline. Because this rebellion was mainly launched by An Lushan and Shi Siming, it was called the "An Shi Rebellion", also known as the "Tianbao Rebellion". No one would have imagined that this rebellion would last for eight years, and it took three generations of emperors to gather the strength of the country and exert their strength to extinguish this hellfire.
However, the former flourishing Tang Dynasty, which was full of flowers and treasures, was also severely burned, leaving an incurable scar, which tormented the late Tang Dynasty for more than a hundred years, not only profoundly changing the fate of the Tang Dynasty, but also completely reversing the direction of China's history.
The Anshi Rebellion dealt a heavy blow to the Tang Dynasty, causing great damage to the Tang Dynasty, which was proud of East Asia. The history books record that after the rebellion was put down, the first-tier cities of The Tang Dynasty with a population of one million, Chang'an and Luoyang, were all in ruins and devastation, from Chang'an East to Xuzhou, north to Anyang between the rich land of the Central Plains and white bones, the population was cut off, and there was no chicken chirping for thousands of miles, just like the Shuluo Field.
Sima Guang, a historian of the Northern Song Dynasty, said bitterly when talking about the Anshi Rebellion: "Since the chaos of the anshi, the soldiers have ceased to fight, the people have fallen to the ground, and there has been no accusation, all for more than two hundred years. ”
If it is said that the destruction of living beings is a visible external injury, then what is more serious left for the Tang Dynasty is the invisible internal injury, and this internal injury is the division of the feudal town.
Eight years of counterinsurgency war formed a number of large and small feudal towns, which had heavy troops, controlled local finances, and appointed their own officials. Even the "first-in-command" moderation of the clan town has become a "hereditary system", with a father and a son succeeding or a brother and a brother. The central government of the Tang Dynasty, which had no soldiers and no money, was helpless to deal with these flying feudal towns, could not afford to provoke them at all, and gradually lost its authority, and the situation of the division of feudal towns was finally out of control.
Some people may wonder why the imperial court did not punish these unruly feudal towns?
These feudal towns consisted of two groups of people, one was the Tang army general who participated in the counter-rebellion, and after the war, he was rewarded as the emperor of tu, and the other was the rebel general who surrendered in the war, who not only received pardon from the imperial court, but also soared to the top and became the king of the mountain on the side of the division.
These people have one thing in common, that is, the soldiers are strong and strong, there are soldiers who have money and territory, they are like independent kingdoms, but they are nominally subordinate to the imperial court.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the unified Tang Dynasty fell into a divided situation of division, and although the rebellion was quelled, the legacy left behind was not only not solved, but worsened day by day. This fragmentation lasted for more than a hundred years, throughout the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Until the end of the Tang Dynasty, after the outbreak of the peasant revolt led by Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao, many feudal towns that resembled "independent kingdoms" simply took the opportunity to establish themselves as kings and openly broke with the imperial court.
The Huangchao Rebellion dealt a fatal final blow to the moribund Tang Dynasty, after which even superficial submissions were abandoned by the various feudal towns.
In 907, Zhu Quanzhong (Zhu Wen), the warlord of Xuanwu and the King of Liang, tore off his last disguise and openly forced the last emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Ai, to take the throne, usurping the Tang Dynasty for nearly three hundred years, and history entered another period of great division.
This is the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in history.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is a transitional period between the Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty, although it has not existed for too long, and it is only seventy-two years in a broad sense. But these seventy years were not willing to be mediocre, and they rose to a new height, and they were ranked with the Spring and Autumn Warring States and the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China's history.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms are divided into two parts, "Five Dynasties" and "Ten Kingdoms", and the Five Dynasties are located in the Central Plains and occupy the so-called "orthodox" status. Therefore, almost all later history books regard the Five Dynasties as orthodox and the Ten Kingdoms as a puppet regime.
As the name suggests, the Five Dynasties is a combination of five dynasties, referring to Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han and Later Zhou. These five dynasties were not long, the longest was seventeen years after The Later Liang, and the shortest was four years for the Later Han Dynasty (and the two emperors were also replaced). Because these five country names have been used before, historians have added a "back" word to them to show the difference.
The Ten Kingdoms are collective names for the ten divided regimes outside the Central Plains, namely Wu, Southern Tang, Wuyue, Min, Southern Han, Chu, Jingnan, Former Shu, Later Shu, and Northern Han. Except for the Northern Han Dynasty, which is located in the north of Shanxi, the other nine are all located in the southern region.
It should be noted that at that time, there were not only ten separatist regimes, but only the largest of the ten countries, in fact, there were at least a dozen large and small separatist regimes at that time.
As the first part of the "West Building History Series", our story begins with Wu and the Southern Tang Dynasty in the Ten Kingdoms.
Wu and the Southern Tang Were the most extensive, economically developed, and culturally prosperous of the Ten Kingdoms, occupying most of Jiangsu in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, all of Jiangxi, eastern Hubei, and most of Anhui in the Huai River Basin. These areas have been the land of fish and rice since ancient times, and since the middle of the Tang Dynasty, they have gradually risen strongly economically, posing a strong challenge to the economic hegemony of the north.
The founder of the State of Wu was Yang Xingmi, a native of Luzhou (present-day Hefei, Anhui), whose capital was Yangzhou. After four generations of monarchs, he was usurped by Li Fu of Pengcheng (present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu) and established the Southern Tang Dynasty, which was destroyed by the Northern Song Dynasty after three generations, and the two dynasties combined to last fifty-six years. For more than fifty years, the north has been in constant war and chaos, and the people have no livelihood. However, the vast land south of the Yangtze River has maintained a precious peace situation, and long-term political stability has laid a solid foundation for economic development and cultural prosperity.
Spring rain apricot blossoms, building platform sheng song.
The outer building of the Qingshan Building outside the mountain, the song and dance of the West Lake for a few hours, the long time of peace corroded the ambition and ambition of the small imperial court in jiangnan, and the Manchu Dynasty scholars and doctors sang wine as songs, drunkenly dreamed of death, and threw the powerful enemies in the north who were staring at the tiger to the cloud of nine clouds.
Ancients: Although the country is safe, forgetting the war will be dangerous, the small imperial court in Jiangnan is filled with the decadent atmosphere of Wen Tian wu xi, and the whole country is like an old house with many holes, and it only takes a storm to collapse.
Three thousand miles of old mountains and rivers, a dream in fifty years.
In the seventh year of the Northern Song Dynasty (974), the Song army attacked Jinling (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu), and the small imperial court in Jiangnan, which lasted for fifty-six years, was declared in vain. Our story is about this poetic "Jiangnan relic", tracing back to the roots, the story still has to start from the last year of the Tang Dynasty when the sky collapsed and the crowds chased deer...
exegesis:
Zai: Another name for year. In the twenty-ninth year of the new century, Tang Xuanzong changed the year name tianbao yuan year, and in the third year of tianbao, it was changed to zai, called tianbao three years. According to the ancient book "Erya", Xia is called Nian, Shang is called Qi, Zhou is called Nian, and Tang Yu is called Zai. The chronology in years began in the Zhou Dynasty, and Tang Yu was the ancient sages Yao and Shun, and the Yao Shun era was considered to be the Taiping Dynasty. The old and complacent Tang Xuanzong changed his year to Zai, believing that he had reached the height of Yao Shun. Zaizi was used from Tianbao Sanzai (744) to Xuanzong's son Suzong to De Sanzai (758), changed to Yuan Qianyuan Yuan, and replaced Zai with year, which took only 14 years.
Three generations of emperors: Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, Tang Suzong Li Heng, Tang Dynasty Emperor Li Yu grandchildren three generations relayed to kill thieves.
See The Old Book of Tang, Volume 70, Biography of Guo Ziyi: East to Zheng and Bi, up to Xu Fang, north to Qin Huai, through Xiang Tu, people are cut off, and thousands of miles are depressed.
From "Zizhi Tongjian Tang Ji Thirty-Six"
Jiedushi Envoy: Tang Dynasty local feudal governor, Shangma Zhijun, Xiama Anmin. Originated from the position of general manager in the early Tang Dynasty, he later served as an interview envoy and obtained local civil, military and political and financial powers. In the second year of Emperor Jingyun of Tang Ruizong, He Bayansi was made the governor of Liangzhou, Chong hexi Jiedushi, and Jiedushi became an official position from then on.
Zhu Quanzhong: His real name was Zhu Wen (朱溫), a general of the Huangchao army, who later surrendered to the Tang army, turned his gun to suppress Huang Chao, and because of his meritorious service to the Xuanwu Army, Tang Zhaozong gave the name Quanzhong. A few years later, Quan Zhong killed Tang Zhaozong and seized the Tang Dynasty.