Tang Empire: China's Golden Age That Was Broken By The Rebellion

Thirteen hundred years ago, the largest city on Earth wasn't in Europe or the Middle East. It was Chang'an, the capital of Tang dynasty China, a city of around a million people, and the center of the richest and most open empire of its age. At its height it was ruled by a woman: the only woman in two thousand years of Chinese history to take the throne as emperor in her own name. And then, within a single lifetime, it came apart. What followed is one of the great rise-and-fall stories in Chinese history. A prince killed his own brothers at a palace gate and became one of China's most respected emperors. A former concubine named Wu Zetian climbed all the way to the throne and crowned herself emperor. Poets like Li Bai and Du Fu, still memorized today, wrote in a capital that drew travelers from across Asia. Then an aging emperor, devoted to his favorite, Yang Guifei, and trusting a frontier general named An Lushan, watched the golden age collapse into one of the deadliest wars in history, a rebellion that wiped tens of millions of people from the empire's census. The Tang survived but never fully recovered, and finally broke into warring states. Even so, Chinese communities around the world still call themselves the people of Tang. Some of what the Tang left behind, above all the true toll of its great rebellion, is fiercely debated; where the numbers are uncertain, we say so. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The largest city on Earth 01:15 The rise of an empire 03:06 The only woman who ruled 05:36 The fall 08:32 What remains Ancient Empires Archive brings the lost civilizations and forgotten empires of the world back to life, one story at a time. 🔔 Subscribe for a new lost empire every week. Visuals are artistic painterly illustrations (color-graded), stylized historical interpretation, not photographic records. #history #ancienthistory #historydocumentary #ancientcivilizations #lostempires #AncientHistory #TangDynasty #China #WuZetian #SilkRoad #AnLushan #LostCivilizations #HistoryDocumentary #ChineseHistory #libai