In the fourteenth year of Tianbao (AD 755), the Anshi Rebellion began. An Lushan Fan Yang rose up to revolt, and the clamor shook the ground until Tongguan fell. Chang ‘an, the capital of the world, became fragile and embarrassed in the sound of Yuyang’s drums, and the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty also collapsed. Why did the accident break out? Why did the prosperity collapse? The experience of people who are separated from the experience is enough to explain and convey. Li Longji’s monarch and his subjects suddenly switched from conceited to hastily resigned from the temple; The evils of Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong, the two prime ministers; Yang Yuhuan’s "where are those perfect eyes, where are those pearly teeth?" in Mayiyi; Prince Li Heng’s forbearance and grandiose performance; An Lushan’s Hu Xuan dance and dragging the river; Zhang Suiyang’s teeth and Yan Changshan’s tongue in the bloody sun; It is Li Bai, Du Fu and Wang Wei who can’t be separated from the troubled times … This group of people, who have gone through the troubled times from the prosperous times, are facing their own difficulties and have different breakthroughs and choices in the unexpected period from the prosperous times to the troubled times. Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong, An Lushan, Yan Gaoqing, Ge Shuhan, Yang Yuhuan, Li Heng, Zhang Xun and others abandoned Chang ‘an, and focused on the important issues in the process of Tang Dynasty’s prosperity and decline, so as to re-portray the complete historical picture of the Anshi Rebellion.
The following is the content of this lantern bearer activity:
Zhang Mingyang, a writer, historical writer and senior media person, wrote a new work, Abandoning Chang ‘an.
The Anshi Rebellion is both strange and familiar to many Chinese, which can be said to be "the most familiar stranger". During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty in Li Longji, this rebellion was provoked by An Lushan, during which the famous Mayiyi mutiny took place. The Anshi Rebellion is a very important event in the history of China, which can be interpreted in many dimensions.
The prosperous time of Xuanzong came to an abrupt end.
The Anshi Rebellion broke out at the end of Xuanzong’s prosperous period.
There are many prosperous times in the history of China, such as the rule of Wenjing, Zhenguan, Kaiyuan, Kanggan and so on, and the prosperous time of Xuanzong is very different from other prosperous times, that is, the way it ended. Many prosperous times come to an end naturally, with a slow downward process or a half-life. For example, in the last years of Qianlong, Qianlong became increasingly old and began to be fatuous. His successor, Emperor Jiaqing, was not a talented emperor, so the prosperous time of Kangxi and Qianlong ended in a long period of time. But Xuanzong’s prosperous time was different, and it came to an abrupt end. When An Lushan started his army, Xuanzong’s prosperous time was still at its peak in a sense, and the Anshi Rebellion was like an emergency, which suddenly broke the rhythm of the prosperous time. This may be unique in the history of China.
A troubled time that was caught off guard made everyone unprepared. It is this suddenness that makes history show its strong tension, and the different faces of various historical figures are fully highlighted at the turn of prosperous times and troubled times.
The most flustered person should be Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. He obviously didn’t make any psychological preparation for the rebellion. Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty defined himself as a great emperor and a prosperous monarch, so in the middle and late period of Xuanzong’s era, one of his favorite things was to expand and open up the border. Therefore, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty needed such a powerful role as An Lushan to help him infinitely enlarge the military achievements of the prosperous times and the glory of the Tang Dynasty. He trusted An Lushan very much, and the emperor’s full trust brought a lot of decentralization and resource inclination to An Lushan. An Lushan sat up all the way, and finally had the capital of rebellion.
Li Longji
The fierce court struggle became a hotbed of rebellion.
Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty never thought that An Lushan would rebel, because according to the tradition of the court in the Tang Dynasty, the emperor focused on the coup at the court, but did not pay attention to the crisis outside the court. There have been many court coups in the history of the Tang Dynasty, such as the well-known change of Xuanwu Gate, and the end of Wu Zetian’s era through court coups, and even the rise of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was achieved through court coups. The fierce infighting in the court of the Tang Dynasty became a hotbed of chaos and influenced the historical trend. The Anshi Rebellion was also closely related to the infighting in the court to a great extent. We often say now that Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, such a brilliant emperor, why did he use Li Linfu first and then Yang Guozhong as a "traitor"? I don’t think it is enough to use the logical explanation of the foreign dynasty alone. From the perspective of court infighting, the emperor did so with his intention. Li Linfu was good at governing the country and Yang Guozhong was good at managing money, but one of the biggest reasons why Tang Xuanzong used them was not to focus on the national development plan, but to let them do their dirty work-beware of the prince. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty is very familiar with the historical traditions of the Tang Dynasty. He himself forced his father Tang Ruizong Li Dan to abdicate, so he was worried that his son would "deal with him as he deals with you", so he has been guarding against this.
Therefore, we can see that in the later period of Xuanzong’s prosperous period, there were two major political themes: the external political theme was to open up the frontier, that is, to ask the Northwest Army of An Lushan and Datang to open up its territory; The internal political theme is the struggle between Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and the Prince.
Li Longji’s attitude towards the prince is worth pondering. On the one hand, he doesn’t want to abolish the prince, because out of political rationality, he knows that he will die one day, and the throne will always be passed on to the prince; On the other hand, he didn’t want the prince to form his own political power before his death, so as to avoid a palace coup against himself. So he crushed the prince all the way, especially in the era of Li Linfu. In a few years, he set off three major cases against the prince in a row, which was called "Tianbao Three Prisons" in history. Li Longji did these things out of instinctive vigilance against the position of the prince, not against Li Heng himself-he didn’t have any special dissatisfaction with Li Heng and Li Longji, and he didn’t want to change people.
"Wang Xian Ying Jia Tu", painted anonymously in Southern Song Dynasty. This picture depicts the scene of Tang Suzong Li Heng visiting Xian Yi in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province after the Anshi Rebellion, welcoming Emperor Li Longji who returned from Sichuan.
Two prime ministers who made meritorious service in the process of suppressing the prince.
Li Longji’s ambivalent attitude towards the Prince has brought a lot of "troubles" to Prime Minister Li Linfu, making it difficult for him to be a man. On the one hand, if he doesn’t suppress the prince according to Li Longji’s wishes, his prime minister will sit unsteadily; But on the other hand, today’s prince is the future emperor. Will the prince let himself go after he ascended the throne? Obviously impossible. Even if Li Linfu himself died, the new emperor might not spare the descendants of the Li Linfu family. Therefore, while suppressing the prince to gain the favor of the emperor, Li Linfu also has a "plan" to protect himself: by "adding firewood and adding fire", all kinds of events involving the prince are magnified, hoping to get rid of the prince in order to avoid future troubles. Interestingly, at this time, Tang Xuanzong, who was ambivalent, would stand up to protect the prince again. He didn’t want to see the prince abolished. The complicated relationship between these three people has been going on, and there are several rounds in the middle where things are particularly fierce.
Another important figure in the prosperous time of Xuanzong was Yang Guozhong. Yang Guozhong’s financial management ability is very strong, and Tang Xuanzong needs economic support to establish military achievements, so Yang Guozhong can play a role; Moreover, he is Yang Guifei’s distant eldest brother, and this nepotism helps to be superior. When Yang Guozhong just rose, he worked under Li Linfu. When Li Linfu helped Tang Xuanzong plan to suppress the "Tianbao Three Prisons" of the Prince, Yang Guozhong was a loyal thug of Li Linfu and made a lot of contributions in the process of cracking down on the Prince. Therefore, it can also be said that this may be another reason why Tang Xuanzong took a fancy to Yang Guozhong.
After Li Linfu’s death, Yang Guozhong came to power. At that time, three major political forces were formed in the Tang Dynasty: one was the consort group of Yang Guozhong and Yang Guifei, the other was Prince Li Heng, and the third was the frontier forces represented by An Lushan. On top of these three parties, Li Longji hopes to play a detached role, and through behind-the-scenes manipulation, he hopes to achieve mutual checks and balances among the three parties. However, judging from the outbreak of An Shi Rebellion, Li Longji was unable to control the infighting among the three forces within a limited range, which eventually led to disaster.
Intertwined opposites
Li Longji failed to realize the internal checks and balances he envisioned, and he failed to fix several groups of oppositions in the political situation of the court.
An Lushan VS Yang Guozhong
An Lushan and Yang Guozhong were political allies at first, and at the end of Li Linfu’s administration, they jointly killed Li Linfu. But after Li Linfu died, the two men turned against each other. Although An Lushan was ambitious, he made up his mind to rebel, not for a long time, but for about 12 to 13 years in Tianbao. Before the rebellion, An Lushan’s ambition was to become the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, but his road to worship the Prime Minister was blocked by Yang Guozhong. An Lushan was very disappointed, not only because his political aspirations failed, but also because his battle with Yang Guozhong for favor ended in his failure. In An Lushan’s view, the most trusted and favored person in Tang Xuanzong was Yang Guozhong, not himself. Fall from grace made An Lushan feel afraid. He was worried that his position in the Northeast might be lost, and that his personal safety was threatened by Yang Guozhong, so he gradually sprouted a rebellious mind. Therefore, we can also say that An Lushan’s starting part is also driven by "self-protection".
The struggle between Yang Guozhong and An Lushan contributed to the outbreak of An Shi Rebellion. And Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty has always attached great importance to An Lushan’s military achievements, which created conditions for An Lushan’s rebellion. The subjective will and the strength of rebellion are already available, and it is natural to break out of rebellion.
Yang Guozhong and An Lushan, selected from The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties in Qing Dynasty.
An Lushan VS Prince Li Heng
The relationship between An Lushan and Prince Li Heng is also quite interesting. There is a saying that An Lushan intends to rebel after Li Longji’s death. Perhaps An Lushan still has some feelings for Tang Xuanzong and is unwilling to expect anything easily. For Prince Li Heng, An Lushan is more contemptuous. There is a famous joke in history: An Lushan went to the DPRK to see Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, and Emperor Xuanzong introduced him to Prince Li Heng. An Lushan even said in front of everyone, "I am a courtier, I don’t know what the prince is?" When Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty explained that the prince was Chu Jun, he added, "I am a fool, but I only know that there is your majesty, but I don’t know that there is more Chu Jun." This demeaning behavior of the prince in public may be regarded as the crime of decapitation by others, but Tang Xuanzong was very happy in his heart: he felt An Lushan’s loyalty and was psychologically satisfied in suppressing the prince. From this, we can also see that An Lushan is not a reckless man, but a schemer.
An Lushan, Yang Guozhong and Li Linfu, they all have one thing in common, that is, they cater to Tang Xuanzong’s precautions against Prince Li Heng.
Yang Guozhong VS Prince Li Heng
The relationship between Yang Guozhong and Prince Li Heng is even worse. Yang Guozhong came to power by suppressing the prince, so there is no room for everything in his relationship with the prince. Yang Guozhong knew that as long as Li Heng was in charge in the future, he would certainly be finished, so Yang Guozhong was eager to abolish the prince. The power struggle between An Lushan and Yang Guozhong partly led to the outbreak of An Shi Rebellion, but the initial process of An Shi Rebellion was largely shaped by the struggle between Yang Guozhong and Prince Li Heng. After the Anshi Rebellion broke out, Li Longji’s mood may be a little collapsed, and he lacks confidence in quelling the rebellion. So he wants to transfer a lot of power to Prince Li Heng, so that the Prince can supervise the country and settle the chaos. Yang Guozhong was shocked when he knew this, so he mobilized various forces of Yang’s family to persuade Li Longji to give up the idea. Many speculators in the Tang Dynasty also saw the opportunity. They felt that the wind was blowing towards the Prince, so many people went to the Prince camp intentionally or unintentionally, which also aggravated Yang Guozhong’s sense of crisis.
Goshuhan VS Yang Guozhong
The direct reason why Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty fled Chang ‘an was the fall of Tongguan. In the face of the rebel offensive, Ge Shuhan, the general guarding Tongguan, refused to go out to meet the enemy. He felt that his troops were more than enough to defend the city and lacked in attack, while Tongguan was easy to defend but difficult to attack, so he planned not to hold out. His idea met with fierce opposition from Yang Guozhong. Under the repeated urging of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Yang Guozhong, Ge Shuhan was finally forced to lead troops to go through the customs, and was ambushed by the rebels and suffered a fiasco. Why did Yang Guozhong instigate Geshuhan to send troops? The main reason behind this is the fierce struggle between Gershohan and Yang Guozhong. At that time, Geshuhan was the agent of the prince in the army, and Yang Guozhong was afraid of the prince and worried that Geshuhan would kill himself if he mastered the relieving. So, for Yang Guozhong, An Lushan is an enemy, but the more realistic and direct threat is Geshuhan, so Yang Guozhong forced Geshuhan to send troops, not only to quickly solve the rebels, but also to take the opportunity to recover the relieving. What Yang Guozhong didn’t expect was that his selfish behavior not only killed Geshuhan, but also directly led to the fall of Tongguan, forcing Li Longji and a group of ministers to abandon Chang ‘an and flee. Yang Guozhong also killed himself and died in the Mayiyi mutiny.
As for the Mayiyi mutiny, why did Yang Guozhong die? On the one hand, it was because the army had instinctive hatred for people who had brought disaster to the country like Yang Guozhong, and there was also a big reason that Li Heng forces existed behind the Mayiyi mutiny, and Li Heng hated Yang Guozhong and even the whole Young family, so Yang Guozhong had to be removed.
Tang poets at the turn of prosperity and troubled times
The Anshi Rebellion changed the lives of many people, not only those politicians inside and outside the court, but also the cultural elites of the empire. The experiences of Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Gao Shi, Wang Changling, Cen Can, etc. at the turn of this prosperous time and troubled times have also left the mark of the times.
li po
As a great poet, before and after the An Shi Rebellion, Li Bai was a person who especially wanted to be an official. However, Li Bai didn’t know that his political talent was quite limited. Li Bai entered the palace and became Li Longji’s literary minister, feeling very proud, but Li Longji knew that Li Bai’s specialty was poetry, and he had no political ability, so Li Bai was not reused. Li Bai was so frustrated that he left Chang ‘an. However, Li Bai’s idea of being an official has never been shattered, so he made a faint move after the Anshi Rebellion-going to Yongwang, which directly put Li Bai in trouble. After Prince Li Heng succeeded to the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, Li Longji gave another son Yong Wang an imperial edict, asking him to arise and use Yong Wang to balance Li Heng. Many discerning people know that Yongwangqibing is the infighting of the royal family. This thing can’t be touched, and it is very dangerous to touch it. Moreover, Yongwangqibing is really unreasonable. Although it was authorized by Li Longji, the emperor was already in Li Heng at this time, and Li Heng was eager to get rid of Yongwang. Therefore, when Li Bai defected to Yongwang, he was caught in a political whirlpool. Yongwang was soon defeated, and Li Bai became a traitor to the Li Heng court, so he fled all the way. Because of Li Bai’s famous poems, many people interceded for him. Li Bai was not severely punished, but he was sent later. The famous poem "Early Release of Baidicheng" was written by Li Bai after learning that he was pardoned.
li po
Du Fu
Du Fu’s situation is similar to that of Li Bai. Before the Anshi Rebellion, he became a very small official, so embarrassed that he couldn’t even support his family, and his sons starved to death. After the An Shi Rebellion broke out, his poem title was not so big at that time, and he could not compare with Li Bai, let alone Wang Wei. In modern terms, there is no broken circle, and even the rebel An Lushan doesn’t know Du Fu. This can also be said to be Du Fu’s "luck", because he was unknown, he did not become a prisoner. Later, the direction of Du Fu’s escape was very accurate, and he fled to Fengxiang and defected to Li Heng. Li Heng was recruiting at this time, and he was very happy to see someone coming to defect, so he awarded Du Fu a good official position called Zuo Shiyi. So Du Fu is called Du Fu’s Collection in history. This position is the biggest official Du Fu has ever held in his life. But the good times didn’t last long. Du Fu entered the Li Heng court not long after, and the prime minister Fang Guan was dismissed by Li Heng because of his strong color as an old minister of the emperor’s father. At this point, Du Fu stood up and spoke out, and was demoted by Li Heng as an accomplice. Since then, he has been living in exile and has become the Du Fu we are familiar with. Like Li Bai, Du Fu was caught in the whirlpool of royal infighting. Du Fu wrote many poems about An Shi Rebellion after he was demoted. Although nature makes people laugh, it also gives Du Fu inspiration and material for his literary creation.
Du Fu
Wang Wei
Wang Wei’s fate is very strange. He was then the most famous poet in the empire-not Li Bai, not Du Fu. After the fall of Chang ‘an, Wang Wei became a prisoner of An Lushan. Because of Wang Wei’s famous poems, An Lushan didn’t want to kill him, but forced him to surrender and made him a modest immortal. Wang Wei followed suit and became a political vase of the rebels. It didn’t take long for Wang Wei to be a political vase, and fate played a joke on him again. After the rebels occupied Chang ‘an for more than a year, Li Heng regained Chang ‘an, but Wang Wei was not taken away by the rebels and became a prisoner of Li Heng. Li Heng is going to severely punish Wang Wei, but Wang Wei is so famous that many people help him. Moreover, Wang Wei really didn’t do anything bad in An Lushan. In addition, Wang Wei’s younger brother is also an official who is willing to make atonement for his brother by abandoning his official. Therefore, Wang Wei was not greatly affected in the end.
The court and the literary world forgave Wang Wei, but Wang Wei never got out of this guilty mood all his life. Wang Wei has been rethinking in his later years, wondering why he didn’t sacrifice his life for justice and how he became a prisoner. This kind of reflection tormented Wang Wei and made him live in pain all the time.
In this chaos, in the sudden end of the prosperous times, we are familiar with historical figures and those we are not familiar with. They made their own choices in this chaos, and then everyone paid the price for these choices.
Wang Wei
Q&A
Q：What do you think of Chen Kaige’s handling of "An Shi Rebellion" in The Legend of the Demon Cat?
A：I think "The Legend of the Demon Cat" is very good, and it is a better work of Chen Kaige in recent years. As a film, we can’t expect too much from it in terms of historical restoration. If we must point out the areas that can be improved in the film, I think the film may be able to jump out of the love narrative of Li Longji and Yang Guifei and make more supplements in other aspects, such as Prince Li Heng, which can actually be brought in, which involves the so-called behind-the-scenes murderer who killed Yang Guifei. Li Heng’s role in killing Yang Guifei was basically not reflected in the film.
Q：What do you think is the role and function of An Lushan’s aide Shi Siming in the Anshi Rebellion?
A：This question is very interesting. Shi Siming was not an important figure at the beginning of the An Shi Rebellion, even he didn’t enter the core. When the Anshi Rebellion broke out, An Lushan gathered a group of people to plot, but Shi Siming was not among them. Therefore, Shi Siming’s role was mainly in the middle and late period of the Anshi Rebellion, when An Lushan sent him to Hebei to stabilize the rear area. At this time, Shi Siming gradually accumulated his own power and rose day by day. If An Lushan dies, Shi Siming will still be loyal and afraid of An Lushan. An Lushan was killed by his own son, and Shi Siming’s fate was similar to that of An Lushan, who was also killed by his own son. Generally speaking, Shi Siming’s position and function were not so obvious at least before the An Shi Rebellion broke out.
