Tang Dynasty: After the An Lushan Rebellion (756-805 AD)
The year 756 say the entrance of General An Lushan from the north. He was made a governor of three defense forces by Emperor Xuanzong, with headquarters near the current day Beijing. He also appointed to many high-ranking offices and a title of nobility. In the year before his invasion, in 755, An became aware of a plot to remove him from power by Chief Minister Yang, a cousin of the favorite imperial concubine, Yang Guifei. With about 150,000 troops General An moved south against the ill-trained and equipped imperial army. The best of the imperial forces were instead deployed on the distant northern frontiers. Within a few weeks the capital of Loyang fell, and An proclaimed himself emperor of a new dynasty.
The next summer, the emperor made the fatal mistake to order his well entrenched forces guarding Chang’an to go outside to confront An’s army. When this assault failed, the way into the other capital was wide open. Emperor Xuanzong and his palace followers had to quickly flee the city. To the west of the capital, Chang’an, his palace troops rebelled and forced the death of Chief Minister Yang and the concubine Yang Guifei. This historical event was well written about by the poet Bai Juyi several decades later and to be found on this website under the title of Long Song of Remorse.
The emperor and his remaining forces fled into the province of Sichuan, where he abdicated his throne. An Lushan himself later died the next year, 757, strangled by a former palace eunuch. The effects of this uprising was devastating to the empire. It never fully recovered. Border defenses collapsed, and outsiders raided and plundered for more than two decades. The poet Du Fu wrote many excellent poems about this period in Chinese history.
In order to hold the northern and western hordes, the central government created a policy of establishing military governorships in the interior of China modeled on what came before in defense of the northern frontiers. This militarized large areas of the empire, and decentralized power to the provincial level. The existence of the empire therefore relied upon loyal governors, mostly military generals, outside the direct control of the court and capital cities. Along with the loss of military and political control came also the loss of revenues into the imperial treasury. The emperors were forced to sell Buddhist and Daoist ordination certificates, titles of nobility and even the examination degrees. The old taxation and land systems completely collapsed.
By the year 780, the emperor abolished all previous taxes and created a more simplified biennial assessment. Taxes were collected in the summer and autumn when the farmers harvested their crops. A household tax was based upon the size of the family and how many acres they owned. Taxes were collected in cash (copper coins), in grain and/or cloth. This system was so successful that it lasted for seven hundred years.
The government also made a large amount of their revenue on the salt monopoly. Commissioners ran this system. They controlled production at salt wells, and the evaporation pans along the coasts. Salt was to the Tang empire what oil is to our current economies. It was essential to the preservation of food, so everyone needed.
Many of the Chinese people migrated south during this period. The north was a more dangerous, violent and corrupt place to live.