Ep. 27 | The Tang Dynasty - Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (Part 3)
In today’s final installment covering the history of the great Tang Dynasty, we look at its agonizing decline until 907 when it is pushed aside and another period of disunity sets in. Five Dynasties reign in the north, all short-lived and not spectacular by any means. In the south, after the Tang falls you have a total of ten kingdoms that exist independently.
While not the most interesting period in Chinese history, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period acted as a kind of buffer between the two greatest dynasties in China’s long history: the Tang and Song.
From Dorgon to Daoguang things were pretty tame in the Qing. But once Empress Dowager Cixi grabs hold of the reigns of power, she allows her eunuchs, most notably An Dehai and Li Lianying, to do their worst.