During the seventy-two years from 907 to 979 AD, there was a short but extremely chaotic period in Chinese history, namely the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms".
This period was later called the "seventy-two years of greatness" after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, and was jokingly called the most worthless period of the Chinese emperor. In contrast, the Qing Dynasty lasted 296 years, during which only twelve emperors took turns in power.
In ancient times, emperors were revered as "Sons of Heaven", symbolizing that they were the special beings chosen by God. However, during the chaotic period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, why was the emperor's position so unstable and even insignificant?
What kind of series of events led to the chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms?In Mencius, there is a saying: "Born in sorrow, die in peace".
This famous sentence has a profound warning significance for the fall of the Tang Dynasty. Tang Xuanzong enjoyed the long-term superficial peace of the Tang Dynasty too much, ignored political corruption, and overly favored An Lushan, which eventually led to An Lushan launching the "Anshi Rebellion".
This massive civil war swept across the entire Tang Dynasty, causing a large number of people to die in the Tang Dynasty, and the once glorious Tang Dynasty came to naught in an instant. Since then, the Tang Dynasty has turned from prosperity to decline, and its national strength has gradually declined.
Although the "Anshi Rebellion" was eventually quelled due to the rebels' infighting and many other reasons, the deep chaos brought by the war to the society cannot be ignoredThe sharp decline in population has led to a shortage of labor and greater class oppression;However, the real reason that led to the demise of the Tang Dynasty was that the "Anshi Rebellion" provided conditions for feudal secession and weakened feudal centralization.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the "Huangchao Rebellion" was very serious, and the phenomenon of feudal secession was widespread. Historically, the behavior of the generals of the feudal towns such as Youzhou and Weibo in the middle and late Tang Dynasty who had military power and was not completely controlled by the imperial court was called the secession of feudal towns, and the secession of feudal towns was the direct cause of the fall of the Tang Dynasty.
In 907 AD, Zhu Wen replaced the throne of Emperor Ai of Tang in the name of Chan Rang and became one of the forces of the feudal town. From then on, the "Five Dynasties" began, and the time span of this period was from 907 AD to 960 AD, and these five dynasties were the five regimes that made the capital in the Central Plains after the fall of the Tang Dynasty.
Between 902 and 979 A.D., there were the "Ten Kingdoms", which were ten independent feudal towns that existed at the same time or in succession, and were representative.
The representative regimes of these ten feudal towns included Wu, Tang, Wu Yue, Former and Later Shu, Northern and Southern Han, and Min Pingchu. Although the periods of the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms differed in time, they both reflected the turbulence and ** of the political situation in China after the fall of the Tang Dynasty.
In the New History of the Five Dynasties, the historical period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is recorded as a whole. Later Liang Taizu Zhu Wen, the terminator of the once glorious Tang Dynasty, was given the name "Zhu Quanzhong" by Tang Xizong for his meritorious work in suppressing the Huangchao Army, but this was only a superficial reward.
His ambitions went far beyond that, and when he reached the pinnacle of power, he couldn't wait to announce his ascension to the throne as emperor, set the capital of Kaifeng, Henan, and changed the name of the country to Liang. However, Zhu Wen's imperial career was short-lived, and he was killed by his second son Zhu Yougui after less than five years of reign.
Zhu Yougui succeeded as Emperor of Later Liang, and after a year of reign, he was killed by his younger brother Zhu Yao, who became the last emperor of Later Liang, who reigned for ten years.
In 923 A.D., Li Cunmiao, the king of Jin, proclaimed himself emperor in Weizhou and changed his country name to Tang, that is, the Later Tang Dynasty. At the end of the year, the Later Liang perished, and Li Cunqiao moved the capital to Luoyang. Because Li Congke was the adopted son of Li Siyuan, Shi Jingjiao was dissatisfied with his usurpation of the throne and called the emperor, and then the Central Plains region went through two changes of dynasty and changed six emperors, until 960 AD, Zhao Kuangyin launched a mutiny, and the yellow robe was added to establish the Northern Song Dynasty, and the five dynasties were declared over.
In fact, the reason why the Ten Kingdoms are called "Ten Kingdoms" is only because their strength is relatively weak, not as good as the five dynasties of the Central Plains during that period. The ancient proverb "the general trend of the world, divided for a long time must be united, and a long time must be divided" is no exception in the chaotic period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
In the first year of Guangshun, in 951 AD, Guo Wei called Zhou Taizu and established the Later Zhou regime. He implemented a frugal policy, reduced harsh government, and attracted displaced people who had gone south due to the war to return to the Central Plains, making the Later Zhou Dynasty prosperous.
Soon after, Guo Wei died and was succeeded by Chai Rong. Chai Rong made a grand wish to develop the country in ten years, raise the people in ten years, and achieve peace in the world in ten years.
He worked hard to unify the whole country and reduce the suffering of the common people in war. However, Chai Rong died young, and the world fell into turmoil. One of Chai Rong's subordinates followed him in the southern and northern wars and made great achievements.
Although his way may not have been what Chai Rong had hoped for, he also took over the banner of domination of the world after Chai Rong's death and became Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty.
Chai Zongxun was still young, and the government was controlled by the ministers, which caused dissatisfaction among the soldiers. Zhao Kuangyin had a very high prestige in the army, and after incitement, the whole army supported him to become emperor. Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Pu conspired to "Chenqiao Mutiny", successfully added a yellow robe, and became the emperor.
Although Zhao Kuangyin, who held military power, was opposed by the minister, he was finally recognized. On the fourth day of the first month, Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne in Kaifeng, with Song as the national name, and the Zhou Dynasty perished, and the five dynasties ended.
At that time, among the ten kingdoms, there were Hou Shu, Northern Han, Southern Tang, Wu Yue, etc., and most of them chose to submit to the Song Dynasty due to the disparity in strength.
Zhao Kuangyin followed the advice of his advisers and adopted the strategy of "easy first and then difficult, first south and then north", and successfully unified the world. In 979 AD, Zhao Jiong personally conquered the Northern Han Dynasty, which made the Song Dynasty basically unify the whole country, and the Ten Kingdoms also came to an end.
During the seventy-two years of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, fourteen emperors took turns in power, however, the position of the emperor became insignificant. This is mainly because after the Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty, Jiedu made one side more powerful and stronger.
For example, because An Lushan was favored by Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, he mastered the power of the Jiedu envoy and the interview envoy, making Hebei Province his private territory. In order to quell the Anshi Rebellion, the imperial court allowed local Jiedu envoys to have military power and become local military and political governors.
These factors led to a decline in the emperor's position.
Jiedu made great power and heavy responsibility, the large was responsible for military command, and the small was for local observation, and gradually evolved into a feudal town at the end of the Tang Dynasty, also known as "Fang Town".
To a certain extent, they are free from the centralization of power, but they do not completely negate the rule of **. The large number of settings of the Jiedu envoy may have played an important role in the Tang Dynasty's decision to quell the Anshi Rebellion.
However, after the pacification, the imperial court did not properly deal with the power of the feudal towns, which led to their self-respect for their troops, which eventually became the reason for the fall of the Tang Dynasty. As the modern saying goes, "power comes out of the barrel of a gun", and the same was true in that era.
If the imperial court was strong enough to intimidate heavily armed feudal towns, this might be avoided. However, the Anshi Rebellion caused the Central Plains to be miserable, and the people were struggling to survive, and the imperial court devoted most of its energy to recovery, and its force was significantly weakened.
In the Huangchao Uprising, the imperial court ** asked all feudal towns to jointly encircle and suppress the Huangchao army. However, as more and more feudal towns broke with the imperial court, changed from a state of no secession to a state of secession, and began to engage in wars of annexation, the role of the imperial court gradually weakened, and the Tang dynasty existed in name only.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was one of the most chaotic periods in history, and it was also the period when the emperor was least taken seriously. Although the population of the Tang Dynasty was sharply reduced due to the Anshi Rebellion, "the times create heroes", and many heroes such as Chai Rong and Zhao Kuangyin also emerged during this period, leaving behind stories that are talked about.