Another striking picture of the T’ang dynasty is presented by the career of an emperor who is usually spoken of as Ming Huang, and who, after distinguishing himself at several critical junctures, mounted the throne in 712, in succession to his father, who had abdicated in his favour.  He began with economy, closing the silk factories and forbidding the palace ladies to wear jewels or embroideries, considerable quantities of which were actually burnt.  He was a warm patron of literature, and schools were established in every village.  Fond of music, he founded a college for training youth of both sexes in this art.  His love of war and his growing extravagance led to increased taxation, with the usual consequences in China—­discontent and rebellion.  He surrounded himself by a brilliant court, welcoming men of genius in literature and art; at first for their talents alone, but finally for their readiness to participate in scenes of revelry and dissipation provided for the amusement of a favourite concubine, the ever-famous Yang Kuei-fei (pronounced Kway-fay).  Eunuchs were appointed to official posts, and the grossest forms of religious superstition were encouraged.  Women ceased to veil themselves, as of old.  At length, in 755, a serious rebellion broke out, and a year later the emperor, now an old man of seventy-one, fled before the storm.  He had not proceeded far before his soldiery revolted and demanded vengeance upon the whole family of the favourite, several unworthy members of which had been raised to high positions and loaded with honours.  The wretched emperor was forced to order the head eunuch to strangle his idolized concubine, while the rest of her family perished at the hands of the troops.  He subsequently abdicated in favour of his son, and spent the last six years of his life in seclusion.

This tragic story has been exquisitely told in verse by one of China’s foremost poets, who was born only a few years later.  He divides his poem into eight parts, dealing with the ennui of the monarch until he discovers beauty, the revelry of the pair together, followed by the horrors of flight, to end in the misery of exile without her, the return when the emperor passes again by the fatal spot, home where everything reminds him of her, and finally spirit-land.  This last is a figment of the poet’s imagination.  He pictures the disconsolate emperor sending a magician to discover Yang Kuei-fei’s whereabouts in the next world, and to bear to her a message of uninterrupted love.  The magician, after a long search, finds her in one of the Isles of the Blest, and fulfils his commission accordingly.