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Emperor Xuanzong of Tang

Given / Temple NameLi LongjiStyle / AliasEmperor Ming of Tang

The same emperor of both the Kaiyuan golden age and the An Lushan Rebellion

Holders of the Mandate · Emperors & Kings

The Kaiyuan golden ageThe An Lushan RebellionThe Pear Garden

Who they are

Li Longji’s life is cut into two halves that seem like two different men. In the first: a coup to kill Empress Wei, the enforced death of Princess Taiping, Yao Chong and Song Jing as chancellors, nearly thirty years of diligent rule, and the very height of the Tang — in the Kaiyuan years population, grain prices, and territory all peaked, and Du Fu recalled, "In the full flush of Kaiyuan, even small towns held ten thousand households." In the second: doting on Consort Yang, employing Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong, handing all of Hebei’s military power to An Lushan; in 755 the An Lushan Rebellion broke out, he fled in panic to Shu, and at Mawei Slope his own guards mutinied and forced the consort’s death. After the rebellion he lived confined as retired emperor, longing in his cold palace for the ones he had lost until the end. In one man, the golden age and the catastrophe wore the same face.

Key stories

Mawei Slope

When An Lushan broke Tong Pass, Xuanzong fled west in panic with the consort and close ministers. At the Mawei post-station, the hungry, exhausted guards mutinied, first killing Yang Guozhong, then surrounding the station and demanding the death of Consort Yang — "the root of the rebels still lives." Xuanzong protested, "The consort dwells deep in the palace; how could she know of Guozhong’s treason?" Gao Lishi cut to it in a sentence: "The consort is truly innocent, but the troops have killed Guozhong, and with the consort at Your Majesty’s side, how can they feel safe?" So Xuanzong ordered her strangled in the shrine hall. Bai Juyi’s "Song of Everlasting Regret" made this scene sung for a thousand years.

The Pear Garden emperor

Xuanzong was versed in music and personally trained several hundred musicians in the Pear Garden of the forbidden park, called "the Emperor’s Pear Garden disciples"; the theatrical profession still calls itself the Pear Garden trade and honors him as its founding master. His "Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Coat," a peak of Tang ritual music, was scattered and lost after the An Lushan Rebellion. An emperor who pushed the dynasty to a double summit of art and power also proved another thing: however splendid a golden age’s operating system, if the security patch cannot be installed, a single crash is enough.