Tang dynasty: A Visual History

The Tang dynasty (618-907) succeeded the short-lived Sui and made China the richest, most powerful and most open society of its day. Its capital Chang'an, with a million people, was the world's largest city. Tang armies destroyed the Turkic khaganates and reached Central Asia; Buddhism, poetry, painting and printing flourished; and China's only empress, Wu Zetian, ruled in her own name. The An Lushan rebellion of 755 broke central power, and the dynasty ended amid warlords in 907.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Tang dynasty. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Registered population of Tang China

Official registers; the collapse after 755 reflects the breakdown of registration as much as deaths.

Timeline of the Tang dynasty

1. 618
   Tang foundedLi Yuan takes the throne.
2. 626
   Xuanwu Gate incidentTaizong seizes power.
3. 630
   Eastern Turks destroyedTaizong hailed as Heavenly Khagan.
4. 690
   Wu Zetian proclaims herself emperor
5. 751
   Battle of TalasArab victory checks Tang Central Asia.
6. 755
   An Lushan rebellionEnds 763.
7. 845
   Buddhist persecutionThousands of monasteries closed.
8. 881
   Huang Chao sacks Chang'an
9. 907
   Tang endsZhu Wen founds Later Liang.

Founding and Taizong

Li Yuan, a Sui general, seized the throne in 618; his son Li Shimin killed two brothers at the Xuanwu Gate in 626 and forced his father to abdicate. As Emperor Taizong he became a model ruler: he destroyed the Eastern Turkic Khaganate in 630 and was proclaimed 'Heavenly Khagan' by the steppe peoples, reformed the law code and staffed government through examinations.

Wu Zetian and the High Tang

Wu Zetian rose from concubine to empress to, in 690, emperor of her own Zhou dynasty, the only woman to rule China in her own right. Her grandson Xuanzong (712-756) presided over the peak: Chang'an teemed with Sogdian merchants, Persian princes and Japanese students; Li Bai and Du Fu wrote; and Tang power reached the Pamirs, until an Arab army beat the Tang at Talas in 751.

An Lushan and the long decline

In 755 the frontier general An Lushan rebelled and took both capitals. Xuanzong fled and his beloved consort Yang Guifei was strangled by mutinous guards. The revolt took eight years and perhaps tens of millions of lives to suppress, and left military governors ruling much of the country. A Buddhist persecution in 845, the Huang Chao rebellion (874-884) that sacked Guangzhou and Chang'an, and eunuch domination of the court finished the Tang; the warlord Zhu Wen deposed the last emperor in 907.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Sui dynasty (581 to 618)
• Eastern Turkic Khaganate (603 to 630)
• Western Turkic Khaganate (603 to 742)
• Tibetan Empire (618 to 842)
• Uyghur Khaganate (744 to 840)
• Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258)
• Northern Song dynasty (960 to 1127)

Wars of the same era and region

• An Lushan Rebellion (755 to 763)
• Goguryeo-Sui War (598 to 614)

8 surprising things about the Tang dynasty

1. Chang'an was laid out on a grid 9.7 by 8.6 km with a curfew drum; it inspired the layouts of Kyoto and Nara.
2. Wu Zetian invented about a dozen new characters, including one for her own name, and had them retired after her death.
3. The Tang gave the world woodblock printing; the Diamond Sutra of 868 is the oldest dated printed book.
4. Tang women played polo, and Persian-style dress and hairstyles were fashionable at court.
5. The Tang census of 754 recorded about 53 million people; a decade later officials could find only 17 million.
6. The Tang defeated the Japanese and Korean Baekje fleets at Baekgang in 663, and Japan spent the next century copying Tang institutions.
7. China's tea drinking culture and Lu Yu's Classic of Tea date to the Tang.
8. The Tang emperor Xuanzong's love affair with Yang Guifei became the most famous romance in Chinese literature.

Sources

• Tang dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Tang dynasty Wikipedia
• Tang Dynasty World History Encyclopedia
• Mark Edward Lewis, China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty (2009) Harvard University Press

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