From 705 to 712 AD, four coups erupted in just eight years: the Shenlong, Jinglong, Tanglong, and Xiantian coups. The Daming Palace went from a resplendent imperial city to a blood-soaked killing ground. At court, everyone lived in fear, while the common people suffered terribly.
In 713 AD, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang ushered in the Kaiyuan era. Yet beneath the façade of a flourishing age, an even greater crisis was gathering. The seeds of factional strife, planted as early as Di Renjie’s time, grew wildly as power nourished them, pushing the Tang Dynasty step by step toward an abyss of ruin...
Some say the “law of the land” is a mirror held high, reflecting every injustice in the world.
But he says, “The law of the land? It’s the ruler on top and the law beneath him. First come the rules of the royal family; what’s left over is the law for the common people! The scales of this world have always tipped toward the powerful!”
