Tang Xuan Zong, Part II

Lo replied: “Your Majesty has the duty to rule the country. It would deprive your subjects of their happiness, if your Majesty should give up that duty in order just to learn how to disappear into thin air.”

The answer enraged the emperor, who wanted to have the Taoist master killed. Thereupon, Lo disappeared into a pillar of the imperial palace, continuing to chide the emperor for his dereliction of duty. The emperor then had the pillar axed down. But Lo transfered himself into an inkstone. The inkstone was shattered to pieces, but Lo was able to escape unscathed.

Xuan Zong had to give up his attempt to destroy Lo Gongyuan, who had tried to warn of an impending disaster. As the emperor paid little attention to government, a rebellion broke out against him. He fell largely under the control of his imperial concubine Yang Guei-fei (楊貴妃). She had been the wife of one of his sons, but in 738 she was taken by the emperor into his harem. She encouraged her infatuated imperial master, now in his fifties, to a life of extravagance and gaiety.

The rebellion — which proved the final undoing of Xuan Zong — was led by An Lushan (安祿山), an able fellow of non-Chinese stock who had first acquired distinction in the Chinese service by aiding in repressing some of the raids of the Khitan, and had risen high in the emperor’s favor and that of his imperial concubine.

In 755, An Lu-shan unfurled the standard of revolt in the Northeast, and was soon master of most of the territory north of the Yellow River, proclaiming himself emperor.

Xuan Zong fled his imperial capital of Zhangan together with his concubine to Szechwan. On the way, the imperial troops either themselves put to death or obtained the execution of the concubine and some of her family.

While in Szechwan, Xuan Zong dreamed of Lo Gongyuan. In his dream, Lo presented the emperor with a gentian root, which is known as dang gui (當歸) in Chinese, its literal meaning being “about to return.”

Shortly thereafter, Xuan Zong learned that the rebellion was being suppressed and he was able to return to Zhangan. Now in his seventies and thoroughly discredited, the emperor had to abdicate in favor of one of his sons. He returned to the capital and lived in seclusion until 762, long enough to see the rebellion crushed. An Lushan was killed by his own son in 757, and the murderer in his turn perished at the hands of another rebel of non-Chinese stock, Shi Siming.

Aided by contingents from Central Asia, including some Arabs, the Tang forces retook Zhangan in 757. Shi proclaimed himself emperor, but within a few years was undone by his own eldest son, and shortly afterward the latter was overthrown and put to death by the Tang forces.

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