The Great Shift of Heaven and Earth in the Tang Dynasty

Written from the perspective of political history, this is an outline of the Tang dynasty, focused on the decline of the aristocracy and the transformation of society toward a commoner order. It unfolds in three stages: framework, substance, and spirit. Institutional change forms the framework, the fates of individuals provide the substance, and historical settings give it spirit. It asks how, over the Tang dynasty’s three centuries, the hierarchical society dominated by the military aristocracy of Guanzhong was eroded and dismantled by the very institutions it created, including the imperial examinations, recruited armies, the two-tax system, and military governors, giving rise to the beginnings of a new society in which commoner officials and local elites gradually took center stage. The Age of Aristocratic Rule, the Age of Institutional Revolution, the Age of Warlord Rivalries, the Age of Literati Rule, and the Age of Commoner Reckoning: these five volumes trace the evolution of power structures in the Tang dynasty and offer an in-depth analysis of the inner logic behind its structural transformations.