This Empire Is Not Too Cold

This is a popular historical work about the Tang Dynasty, and it is also a journey to disenchant the word "prosperity". From the time Jinyang raised troops in 617 AD to the usurpation of Tang Dynasty by Zhu Wen in 907 AD, it lasted two hundred and ninety years. In these nearly three centuries, the Chinese created a level of civilization that attracted the attention of the whole world - Chang'an was the largest city on earth at that time, and the Silk Road extended from there to the distant Mediterranean. Businessmen, monks, and overseas students from various countries traveled through it, and Tang poetry became the universal language of the entire East Asian cultural circle. But what's behind the prosperous times? It's the mass murder of brothers at Xuanwu Gate, the mountains of bones piled up on Wu Zetian's way to the throne, the hundreds of thousands of people who starved to death in Chang'an City during the An-Shi Rebellion, and the puppet emperors who were deposed at will by the eunuchs in the late Tang Dynasty. What this book wants to do is simple: to take the Tang Dynasty off the altar and turn it into an era composed of living people again. Here there is power and killing, as well as poetry and fine wine; there are proud men like Li Shimin, as well as unknown soldiers who have been forgotten by history. Everyone made a choice in their own position, and these choices come together to become the "history" we see. This book is strictly based on official historical records such as "Old Book of Tang", "New Book of Tang", and "Zi Zhi Tong Jian". It does not fictionalize plots or perform interpretations out of thin air. But in terms of language, I will try to make it read like a group of real people living their lives - because this is how history happens. It takes historical data as its bones and human nature and logic as its wings. This is my promise.