Don't let Yang Guifei take the fall again. The Tang Dynasty prospered and died because of the sudden change of climate. Really?
When it comes to the rise and fall of Li Tang, people always habitually blame these "man-made disasters" for Li Longji's lack of enterprising spirit, Yang Yuhuan's femme fatale and An Lushan's wolf ambition, but it is difficult to link the decline of the Tang Dynasty with "natural disasters".
Every time I read about history, almost all China people can't help sighing about the national fortune of the Tang Dynasty, but who can expect that the "butterfly effect" caused by an early snowfall will make this unparalleled empire never recover?
Just like the strong wind in spring, at night, Chang 'an put on silver armor.
In 74 1 year and1year, when Chang' an woke up from a dream, heavy snow had covered the whole capital. The first snow this year came earlier than usual.
"Snow is a good sign for a year", surnamed tang is as calm as ever. In addition to wondering what kind of poems should be used to describe the beautiful scenery of "thousands of miles frozen, Wan Li snowing", my heart is full of joy and pride to be a Datang person.
The weather is really much colder than in previous years. Tang Xuanzong in Daming Palace is still immersed in the great achievements of the first half of his life.
Thinking that the history books would describe the glory of Kaiyuan Shi Sheng to later generations, he couldn't help asking Yang Guifei to warm a glass of wine and drink it off with the snowflakes outside the palace. He didn't know that the early arrival of the heavy snow meant that the winter of the Tang Dynasty was coming.
Inevitable historical periodic law
The advance of snow period is a remarkable feature of the transition from warm and humid climate to cold and dry climate. When the most chaotic, miserable and darkest period occurred in China, the corresponding climate was cold and dry. Farther away are the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The closest thing to the Tang Dynasty was the end of Sui Dynasty, when Yang Guang attacked Xiongnu and conquered Korea, and thousands of soldiers froze to death. Even in modern times when textile manufacturing was developed, Napoleon of France and Hitler of Germany were defeated by Russian winter. What's more, it was the Emperor Yang Di thousands of years ago.
The Central Plains has been harassed by nomadic people in the north. The climate is cold and dry, and the temperature drops. Nomads born with grass can no longer find pastures, and grasslands can't feed the living. Nomads have to ride horses, bend their bows and swords and become robbers.
Once a sideline, it became the only way for people on horseback to survive. The failure of the expedition, the intrusion of barbarians, and a series of wrong actions of the emperor at home made Li Yuan finally win the world of the Yang family.
Shortly after the establishment of Datang, the temperature warmed up. The warm and humid climate has brought nomadic people back to the grassland. Because of the warm and humid climate, farmers have a better harvest. As the temperature line moves northward, plants like Meizhu, which are afraid of cold and like warm, can be seen everywhere in Chang 'an with higher latitude and colder climate.
"When riding a princess in the world of mortals laughs, no one knows it is litchi." Yang Guifei can even eat fresh litchi just shipped from nearby Sichuan. Instead of pinning your appetite on South Guangdong, which has inconvenient transportation.
Unfortunately, the heavy snow on September 29th in Kaiyuan marked the end of the warm and humid climate that brought the Tang Dynasty a century of prosperity, followed by the cold and dry climate in troubled times.
Natural disasters can lead to man-made disasters, and mortals can never conquer nature.
The Yellow River is called the "mother river" of the Chinese nation. However, this great river, which gave birth to Chinese civilization, will become a gluttonous dynasty once it overflows.
There is more dry and cold temperature and precipitation, so the flood frequency of the Yellow River doubles. The flood made the people of the Tang Dynasty who concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River homeless and flooded the crops, which is the hope of farmers in the coming year.
The most terrible thing is the plague that the flood receded, and the plague raged, and the black and white impermanence that came to claim life knocked on the door from door to door. Famine followed, and people devoured each other and became hell.
According to the past, the Tang Dynasty was fully capable of coping with disasters through the autocratic power possessed by feudal dynasties. However, the horses of the northern nomads have already stepped over the Great Wall.
They have nothing to be afraid of, because Tang Jun is a great force all over the world, and has beaten them out of the water countless times. But now they have a backbone, An Lushan.
Ge Quansheng and other climatologists believe that the three towns under the jurisdiction of An Lushan (Pinglu, Fanyang and Hedong) are extremely sensitive to climate change because they are located in the ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry in China.
During the Tianbao period, the dry and wet rates in Pinglu, Fanyang, Hedong and other places were obviously high, and frequent droughts led to the continuous deterioration of people's living environment, which may make An Lushan openly resist the imperial court on the pretext that the central government failed to provide disaster relief. It can be seen that many beauties have misunderstood in troubled times since ancient times, so Yang Guifei took the blame for thousands of years.
Internal troubles and foreign invasion ruined Datang. In order to quell the chaos, the central court had to turn to our local envoys. In order to let them send troops to resist the rebels, the emperor compromised, and this time he had to decentralize and expand the generals stationed in various places. The expansion of power laid a curse for the warlords in the late Tang Dynasty.
Yesterday's days can't be kept, and today's days are hard to spend.
The Anshi Rebellion was finally put down. When Guo Ziyi recovered Chang 'an, it was already "nervous". But the temperature is still falling, and the snow line is pushing your luck like a nomad going south.
According to historical records, from 765 to 769 AD, Chang 'an was covered with ice and snow, and it was frozen in winter. Du Fu, who was living in Changsha at that time, was also very happy to think that it would not snow this year. He never imagined that when the north wind came, it would be "the north wind blows osmanthus water and there is a heavy snowy night."
Disasters spread everywhere, and displaced unemployed people joined the army one after another, just for a meal. But "the landlord has no surplus grain", and the withered treasury is really unable to pay for the sudden expansion of the army.
Soldiers began to rebel, and every rebellion sounded the alarm for the fragile Tang court. The country is devastated, and money is needed everywhere, but where is the money when business is stagnant and land is abandoned?
In order to cope with the pressure from the top, local officials can only search for people's money everywhere, but as soon as the money is collected, it will nine times out of ten go into the pockets of corrupt officials.
The most bitter thing is the farmers, who have been unable to open the pot and have to pay heavy taxes, which simply makes people live! So peasant uprisings, large and small, broke out one after another.
The interaction between cold and wet climate and cold and dry climate, in addition to frequent floods, droughts and locust disasters should also arise. The state treasury is empty, local officials report the disaster, and the people are in a desperate situation.
Objection is death, and no objection is death. Might as well object. The peasant uprisings led by Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao made the Tang Dynasty precarious.
On the second day of leap December, 906, Luoyang City was shocked by electricity, and then it was raining and snowing. This is a sign of catastrophe. In 907, it was originally the Ministry of Huang Chao, and later it fell to Zhu Wen in the Tang Dynasty, forcing Tang Aidi to meditate. From the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty, which made a living by sewing, came to an end.
No one would have thought of the snow in Kaiyuan's last year. But in the dark, everything has been arranged, and the fate is hard to violate. Climate change, the black hand behind the destruction of Li Jiangshan, lurks again, waiting patiently for the next victim.
"Purple Tongzhi Sword" records the history of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline, which makes us deeply touched. While we have a more comprehensive understanding of history, we also feel the injustice suffered by beauty since ancient times. What we need is a global view cultivated by reading history and a scientific method to see the world from a macro and natural perspective.
Therefore, I recommend this good book-Purple Tongzhi Sword. Without branches and leaves, rational analysis. As a history lover, it is very cost-effective to start with this set, because this set is currently doing activities, and you can click on the link above to buy it, which can be said to be value for money.