Tang History Is No Passing Haze, Part One: The Founding of the Tang Dynasty (Revised Edition)

The Tang Dynasty Wasn’t All That Great tells the history of the Tang Dynasty in a lighthearted, witty style. This is the first volume. The glorious Tang era that people long for began with Li Yuan, who seemed something of a pushover. Before him stood Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of Sui, the very model of a tyrant remembered throughout history. After him came Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang, a ruler renowned for bringing peace and order. Caught between infamy and eternal glory, Li Yuan was destined to be overlooked. Yet this very man, the young nephew of Empress Dugu of Sui whom his cousin Yang Guang sneeringly called an old woman, became the gravedigger of the Sui Dynasty. In the chaos at the end of Sui, Li Yuan was neither the first to rise up nor the strongest, but he was the one who had the last laugh. A formidable man who kept a low profile, he exposed the festering wounds of Sui governance and led the Li family men in their uprising at Jinyang. They fought to pacify Shanxi, battled fiercely at Luoyang, and faced their decisive showdown at Hulao... Unbeaten across the land, they ultimately laid the grand foundations of the three-hundred-year Tang Dynasty.