 | The works of Li Po, the Chinese poet |  |
II
The Tangs came to power in the early decades of the
seventh century when Mahomet was just starting out on
his first campaigns. Tai Tsung, the second emperor
of the dynasty, in the twenty-three years of his reign
(627-650) consolidated the hostile sections of the
country and laid a firm foundation for his empire,
which he greatly expanded by conquering Tibet and subduing
the Tartar tribes of the Mongolian desert. Wu
Hu—an empress (684-704)—has been much maligned
for usurping the male prerogative of sovereignty; but
she was undoubtedly one of China's ablest rulers and did
more than uphold the prestige of her land during the
last quarter of the century. Then followed shortly
Hsuan Tsung, who ascended the dragon throne in 713
and ruled for forty-two years.
It was an age of great political power for China.
Her suzeraignty extended from Siberia to the Himalaya
mountain range, and from Korea to the Caspian Sea.
of Medina sent precious stones, horses, and spice. From
the Japanese capital, Nara, came envoys and students
at frequent intervals, while once, in 643, from far
Greece Emperor Theodosius despatched a mission to
the court of Cathay.
It was an age of prosperity. The fertile valleys of
the Yellow River and the Yangtze-kiang were turned
into fields of rice, barley and waving corn, amid gleaming
streams and lakes. Peace reigned in China proper
—the vast domain that had once been torn up and made
desolate by internecine wars during the four centuries
of the Three Kingdoms and the Six Dynasties. Even
in the remotest rural district, the wine-pennant, a tavern
sign, was seen flying on the roadside, denoting the presence
of tranquility and good cheer, while large cities
like Lo-yang (i.e. Honan-fu, Honan) and Chin-ling
(i. e. Nanking, Kiansu) flourished immensely with increasing
trade and travel.
Chang-an, the present city of Hsian-fu in Shensi, was
the capital and the wonder of the age. The city was
never so rich, splendid, and spendthrift. "See ye,"
proudly sings a poet, "the splendor of the imperial
abode, and know the majesty of the Son of Heaven!"
Beside the main castle with its nine-fold gates, there
were thirty-six imperial palaces that reared over the
city their resplendent towers and pillars of gold, while
innumerable mansions and villas of noblemen vied with
one another in magnificence. By day the broad avenues
were thronged with motley crowds of townfolk,
gallants on horseback, and mandarin cars drawn by
yokes of black oxen. And there were countless houses
of pleasure, which opened their doors by night, and
with faces like the moon.
It was also an age of religious proselytism. Buddhism
had been in China for centuries before the Tang
dynasty, and the country was dotted with monasteries
and pagodas. It was in the reign of Tai Tsung that
Yuen Tsang, a Buddhist priest, made his famous pilgrimage
to India and brought back several hundred volumes
of Sanscrit sutras. While Confucianism remained ostensibly
the guiding principle of state and social morality,
Taoism had gathered a rich incrustation of mythology
and superstition and was fast winning a following
of both the court and the common people. Laotzu,
the founder of the religion, was claimed by the reigning
dynasty as its remote progenitor and was honored
with an imperial title. In 636 the Nestorian missionaries
were allowed to settle in Chang-an and erect their
church. They were followed by Zoroastrians, and even
Saracens who entered the Chinese capital with their
sword in sheath.
Thus Chang-an became not only the center of religious
proselytism, but also a great cosmopolitan city where
Syrians, Arabs, Persians, Tartars, Tibetans, Koreans,
Japanese and Tonkinese and other peoples of widely
divergent races and faiths lived side by side, presenting
a remarkable contrast to the ferocious religious and
racial strife then prevailing in Europe. Again, in
Chang-an there were colleges of various grades, beside
special institutes for caligraphy, arithmetic and music.
Astronomy was encouraged by Tai Tsung, who also
filled the imperial library with more than two hundred
thousand books. Hsuan Tsung saw to it that there was
empire.
Hsuan Tsung himself was regarded as a perfect prince,
wise and valiant, a sportsman accomplished in all
knightly exercises and a master of all elegant arts.
Being a musician, he established in his palace an
operatic school, called the "Pear Garden," at which
both male and female actors were trained, and in which
historians find the prototype of the modern Chinese
drama. The emperor surrounded himself with a brilliant
court of poets, artists, and beautiful women. Odes
were offered him by Li Po and Tu Fu; Li Kuei-nien sang
at his bidding, while Yang Kuei-fei, the loveliest of the
three thousand palace ladies, ever accompanied his
palanquin. Although in his latter years he indulged in
all sorts of extravagant revelry, he was never vulgar.
It is fitting that he is still remembered by the name
of Ming Huang—the "Illustrious Sovereign."
But in order to complete the picture of this era there
is a darker side, which really brought into full play
the spiritual energies of the Chinese race. Within, the
court, from the very beginning of the dynasty, was upset
more than once by the bloody intrigues of princes and
princesses who coveted the imperial crown. Without,
China had her Vandals and Goths and Franks, to whom
her wealth and splendor offered irresistible temptation
to pillage. The border warfare never ceased, and not
without many a serious reverse for the imperial forces,
which made forays in retaliation, often far into the
hostile territories, losing their men by thousands. Tai
Tsung's Korean expedition was nothing but a gigantic
fiasco, and the conquest of that peninsula was completed
the Kitans, a redoubtable foe, appeared on the northern
border. In the west the restive and warlike Tibetans
could not be wholly pacified by political marriages,
in which the imperial princesses were bestowed on the
barbarian chieftains from time to time. The armies of
Hsuan Tsung were most unfortunate. In 751 thirty
thousand men perished in the desert of Gobi; while in
the campaigns in Yunnan against the southern barbarians
the Chinese lost, it is said, two hundred thousand
men. Finally came the rebellion of An Lu-shan, which
like a storm swept the mid-imperial plains, drenched
them in blood, and left the empire tottering on the brink
of ruin.
An Lu-shan was a soldier of the Kitan race, who distinguished
himself in fighting against his own tribes,
and who won the favor of Yang Kuei-fei and the confidence
of Hsuan Tsung. His promotion was rapid. He
was ennobled as a duke, and made the governor of the
border provinces of the north, where he held under command
the best armies of the empire and nursed an inordinate
ambition, biding his time. Meanwhile at the
court, the blind love of Hsuan Tsung for Yang Kuei-fei
was corrupting the government. Her brother Yang
Kuo-chung was appointed prime-minister, while eunuchs
held high offices of state. At last in the spring of
755, An Lu-shan, under the pretext of ridding the court
of Yang Kuo-chung, raised the standard of rebellion.
He quickly captured the city of Lo-yang, occupied the
entire territory north of the Yellow River, comprising
the provinces of Shansi and Chili, and was soon marching
eastward on Chang-an. He had proclaimed himself
the Emperor of the Great Yen dynasty.
"Is it possible!" exclaimed Hsuan Tsung, now an
aged monarch, in amazement at the ingratitude of his
vassal and at the impending catastrophe. The defense
at the Pass of Tung Kwan collapsed. The emperor
was forced to flee from the capital one rainy morning,
with his favorite mistress and a handful of his faithful
servants. The soldiers escorting Hsuan Tsung blamed
Yang Kuo-chung for the disaster, and he and all his
kin were massacred. Yang Kuei-fei herself did not escape.
She was ruthlessly snatched from the arms of
her imperial lover, and was strangled and buried on
the roadside without ceremony. The emperor abdicated
in favor of his son, and proceeded mournfully to
Ssuchuan, the land of Shuh.
The new emperor, Su Tsung, mustered a strong army
under General Kuo Tsu-i to oppose the foes. Confusion
was added by the revolt of Prince Ling, the sixteenth
son of Hsuan Tsung, who challenged the authority of
his brother from his stronghold in the southern provinces,
though this uprising was promptly suppressed.
An Lu-shan was driven from Chang-an in 757, and was
shortly murdered by his own son, who was in turn killed
by An Lu-shan's general, Shi Ssu-ming, another Kitan
Tartar, who assumed the imperial title and retained the
northern provinces in his iron grip. But Shi Ssu-ming
himself was soon assassinated by his son, and the rebellion
came finally to an end in 762. We need not
follow the history longer. In that very year the former
emperor, Hsuan Tsung, who had returned from exile
to a lonely palace in Chang-an, died, broken-hearted.
Such was the era. It had, on the one hand, internal
peace, prosperity, cosmopolitan culture, profuse hospitalities
and literary patronage; on the other, distant
with its tragic drama of stupendous magnitude,
that brought forth Li Po and his race of poets, kindled
their imagination, and touched their heart-strings to immortal
song.
| The works of Li Po, the Chinese poet | |