Tang Dynasty Falls

In 907, the Tang dynasty, which had ruled China for nearly three centuries and presided over one of the most cosmopolitan and culturally brilliant eras in its history, came to an end when its last emperor was forced to abdicate. The warlord Zhu Wen took the throne and founded a new state, the Later Liang. His seizure of power opened the age known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, a period of fragmentation that lasted until the Song dynasty gradually reunified most of China in the later tenth century.

The Tang's collapse was slow. The empire had been badly shaken by the An Lushan Rebellion, which began in 755 and left the court dependent on regional military governors, known as jiedushi. Over time many of these governors became effectively hereditary rulers who controlled their own armies and tax revenues and often ignored the capital. Further strain came from fiscal problems, court factionalism, and the growing influence of palace eunuchs, who at times controlled the emperors themselves.

The final blow was the Huang Chao rebellion of the 870s and 880s. Huang Chao's forces ranged across much of China and captured both major capitals, Chang'an and Luoyang, forcing the court to flee. The Tang survived nominally, but it had lost real authority. Zhu Wen, a former rebel who had defected to the imperial side and been rewarded with power, rose to dominate the weakened court. He eliminated rivals, including eunuchs and powerful officials, and eventually installed and then deposed Tang emperors before taking the throne himself.

The decades that followed were turbulent. In the north, five short-lived dynasties succeeded one another in rapid order: Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou. Several were founded by military men, some of non-Han Turkic origin, which reflected the continued importance of the frontier armies. Meanwhile the south was divided among a number of more stable regional kingdoms, such as Wu-Yue, Min, and Southern Tang. Historians count ten of these, though the exact grouping varies. In the northeast, the Khitan Liao state grew powerful and later gained the Sixteen Prefectures, a strategic region that long affected relations with China.

Though often portrayed as an age of chaos, the period was not without achievements. Some southern kingdoms prospered through trade, agriculture, and patronage of the arts, and printing technology spread. Politically, the era left a lasting lesson about the danger of overmighty military commanders, which the Song dynasty took to heart by emphasizing civilian rule over the army.