Posted on 07/15/2023 4:15:36 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 756, the imperial consort Yang Guifei was expediently executed during the An Lushan Rebellion.
The Tang dynasty Emperor Xuanzong, whose beloved concubine Yang was, undertook this cruel extremity only in great duress. Initially married to one of the emperor’s sons, Yang so enamored the emperor that he usurped the prince’s place and got the kid a different wife. In the c. 800 classic poem “Song of Everlasting Sorrow” the poet Bai Juyi mused on the smitten sovereign rushing headlong into waiting tragedy.
The emperor neglected the world from that moment, Lavished his time on her in endless enjoyment. She was his springtime mistress, and his midnight tyrant. Though there were three thousand ladies all of great beauty,a All his gifts were devoted to one person.
Indeed, over the 740s Yang’s relations rose at court on the strength of her hold over the emperor, causing no few resentments among courtiers now obliged to flatter them. She’s been cast as a femme fatale, a siren whose chords called the emperor to capsize his own ship of state.
The general An Lushan was the rock of his ruin. Though An Lushan’s revolt would one day claim Yang’s life, he was a great favorite of hers and eventually adopted as Yang’s son; it was whispered that the imperial gifts showered on this commander might reflect favor with the concubine quite surpassing the bounds of propriety.
The most important favor was command of all northern China’s garrisons, with 150,000-plus troops....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Chinese rebellions/ revolutions are spectacular- An Lushan was a major one- but Yellow Turban (especially given the era) had incredible casualties- and for sheer weirdness all around Taiping Rebellion tops everything. A rich and sanguinary history.
Isn’t this the basis for the Japanese celebration of Tanabata every July 7?
“On that Seventh night, of the Herdboy and the Weaver,
In the silent Palace we declared our dream was
To fly together in the sky, two birds on the same wing,
To grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree.”
An Lushan belongs on any list of history’s five or ten worst assholes. The Tang dynasty was an absolute high point of human civilization on earth and An Lushan wrecked it.
A cautionary tale in accepting barbarians/ immigrants as one of your own.
i always thought her to be the best and most natural...lucy was scripted...diller was...meh....but they all gave us some laughs
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