Saving the Tang Dynasty

Years later, when Gu Ke stands on soil scorched by blood and bone, and, surrounded by his personal guards, picks up fragments of Daming Palace reduced to rubble in Chang’an, he may recall the morning he first saw it while taking the imperial examinations. When the Great Way is abandoned, benevolence and righteousness arise; when wisdom appears, great hypocrisy follows. When the Son of Heaven’s six family ties fall into discord, there are the Shence Army’s eunuch commanders; when the regional governors plunge into chaos, there are their unruly personal guards. Thus, when the Way is lost, virtue follows; when virtue is lost, benevolence follows; when benevolence is lost, righteousness follows; when righteousness is lost, ritual follows. Since the founding of the Tang, the capital has fallen nine times, and the Son of Heaven has moved six times. Regional warlords rise everywhere, and their personal guards grow arrogant and unruly. Eunuchs take control of the government, while powerful clans grow greedy and corrupt. If no hero draws his sword and rises up, will the common people suffer for only ten years? The thirteenth year of Xiantong, 872 AD, was the last period of peace in the Tang dynasty. After that, warlords rose everywhere, and heaven and earth were turned upside down. In the late Tang and Five Dynasties, military strongmen seized power, killing until the land was littered with corpses and ruling like beasts that devoured people. The so-called Son of Heaven in Chang’an and the personal guards of Weibo were no different. For the people of the Tang, perhaps the legend of Chang’an was destined to endure forever. But the besieged city called Chang’an had long since become a noose around their necks. The road to Shu is harder than climbing to the blue sky. Is it nothing more than a fool’s dream to invoke the ideals of the Later Han during the late Tang and Five Dynasties?