The Northern Song Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty reached heights of power, wealth, military ambition, and cultural brilliance that made it one of the defining empires of Chinese history. But behind that success lay a more complicated story of emperors and empresses, frontier wars, ambitious generals, court intrigue, rebellion, and a constant struggle over who actually controlled the state.The Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties: A History of China - Part Two begins in the later reign of Emperor Gaozong and follows the extraordinary rise of Wu Zetian before moving into the wider world of Tang China: conflict with the Tibetan Empire, the politics of Emperor Xuanzong's Kaiyuan era, the rise of Yang Guifei, Tang expansion into Central Asia, and the Battle of Talas against the Abbasid Caliphate.Then comes the crisis that tears through the empire. An Lushan, Yang Guozhong, Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi, Shi Siming, Chang'an, Luoyang, and the An Lushan Rebellion become part of a struggle in which battlefield decisions and palace politics are never far apart. As emperors lose control, generals gain armies, rebels build rival regimes, and eunuchs acquire growing influence over the imperial succession.Written for general readers, this volume tells complicated Tang history as a human story-through ambitions, mistakes, rivalries, strange turns of fortune, military choices, and the political logic behind them.For readers curious about Wu Zetian, the Tang Dynasty, the Silk Road world, the Battle of Talas, or the An Lushan Rebellion, this is a large and difficult age made approachable without taking the history out of it.

In 1125, the Jurchen destroyed the Khitan Liao Empire. Only a generation earlier, they had been scattered northeastern tribes living under Liao dominance. How did they become the rulers of the Great Jin dynasty?The Jin Dynasty: A History of China - Part One follows that transformation from the early Jurchen world of the Mohe, Bohai, tribal alliances, and frontier politics to the rise of the Wanyan clan and Wanyan Aguda, the struggle against the Liao, and the Jin confrontation with the Northern Song. Along the way appear Emperor Tianzuo of Liao, Song emperors Huizong and Qinzong, Jin Taizong, Emperor Xizong, Wanyan Zonghan, and the formidable Wanyan Liang, Prince of Hailing.The story moves from forests and tribal councils to imperial courts, from the Meng'an-Mouke military system to battles, succession struggles, political purges, bureaucratic reform, and the growing sinicization of the Jurchen state. It also follows a major change in China's political geography as Jin power shifts from Shangjing in the northeast toward Yanjing-later Zhongdu, in present-day Beijing.Written as accessible narrative history, this volume explains complicated institutions and political rivalries through the people making the decisions. The result is the story of how a frontier people built an empire-and how building that empire changed the people who created it.