The An Lushan Rebellion

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the An Lushan Rebellion, a major uprising against the imperial rule of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. In 755 AD a senior general, An Lushan, orchestrated a plot against Emperor Xuanzong, taking the regime’s capital city before declaring a rival dynasty in northern China. The rebellion lasted eight years but was eventually put down by Tang forces. Although the dynasty’s authority was restored, it never regained the prosperity of previous generations. The An Lushan Rebellion displaced millions of people and killed many more. It changed the relationship between the Chinese state and neighbouring powers; but it also left a rich cultural legacy in the poetry memorialising this seismic event.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Frances Wood 10 episodes
  Lead Curator of Chinese at the British Library
• Naomi Standen 3 episodes
  Professor of Medieval History at the University of Birmingham
• Hilde de Weerdt 6 episodes
  Fellow and Lecturer in Chinese History at Pembroke College, Oxford

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Programme ID: b01by8ms

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01by8ms

Auto-category: 951 (China)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello, in the 8th century AD, the largest and most powerful city in the world was Chang'an in eastern China.