Zhu Chao accompanied me to watch short videos

In his later years, An Lushan became even fatter, weighing more than 300 kilograms. But when he danced the Huxuan dance in front of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, his movements were as fast as a whirlwind.

Such efforts also led to An Lushan being appointed as the governor of Hedong at the age of 49, and from then on he was in charge of the elite Tang troops in three places. His eldest son also married the daughter of the crown prince.

But despite this, An Lushan's ambitions were not satisfied. With a large number of elite troops under his control, An Lushan began to build Xiongwu City in the north of Fanyang County in the name of defense against invasion to store weapons and food.

Not only did he personally serve as the military governor of Pinglu, Fanyang and Hedong, he also sent many people to lurk in Chang'an as intelligence personnel. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang agreed to all his requests.

An Lushan had repeatedly told Emperor Xuanzong that he would definitely rebel, so Emperor Xuanzong sent people to investigate secretly, but they were bribed by An Lushan with a large sum of money. From then on, Emperor Xuanzong trusted An Lushan even more.

In 755 AD, the 53-year-old An Lushan started a rebellion in Fanyang, claiming to be following the will of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and leading his troops to attack the traitor Yang Guozhong. He led a total of cavalry and infantry from various ethnic groups, marched in the middle of the night, ate alone, and advanced miles a day.

Because the people of the Tang Dynasty had lived in peace for too long, the An Lushan Rebellion broke out in Qingdao, and the court was in turmoil. The palace guards were composed of street vendors, and they had to open the royal warehouses and take out silk and satin to recruit soldiers.

On the other hand, An Lushan issued strict orders and had a group of soldiers who were willing to fight to the death. Every one of them was worth a hundred. They quickly occupied the city of Luoyang, the eastern capital.

Seeing this magnificent palace, An Lushan could no longer suppress his ambition to become emperor. He ordered seven old monks and Taoist priests in Luoyang to persuade him to ascend the throne, proclaimed himself the Xiongwu Emperor, named the country Dayan, and made Luoyang the capital.

But An Lushan had only been emperor for a few days. Due to his obesity, he had boils all year round. After he started the rebellion, his vision gradually became blurred and he became completely blind. When he left the Khitan tribe, there was a young man named Li Zhuer who followed him and served him. An Lushan also favored Li Zhuer very much.

But he did not expect that he was killed by Li Zhuer at the age of 55, and the Anshi Rebellion eventually caused the Tang Dynasty to decline.

[Why did the great poet Du Fu live in poverty all his life? Understand Du Fu in one breath Du Fu, the great poet, Tang Dynasty history]

Du Fu, who was revered as the "Poet Saint", lived in poverty and gave up his dream of an official position for his idol. Du Fu wrote 15 poems for Li Bai, all of which can be summed up in one sentence: "Li Bai, I miss you."

However, Li Bai once wrote a poem, "I love Master Meng, whose elegance is known all over the world." So what is the story between these two leaders of the poetry world who are 11 years apart? Why are their treatments so different?

In this video, let us take a look at the sadness hidden behind Du Fu's poems in chronological order.

Du Fu was born in Gong County. His ancestor was the famous Du Zhou during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. His mother was from a very prestigious local family. But when Du Fu was young, his mother Cui died of illness.

When Du Fu was young, his family was well-off, so he lived a carefree life and had the opportunity to be influenced by various cultural arts, which also had a great influence on his later poetry creation.

Du Fu was able to compose poetry at the age of 7. Although he was as naughty as other children of his age, Du Fu was always able to incorporate every bit of life into his poetry.

At the age of 19, Du Fu traveled to Linfen in the Western Hills, and a year later he came to Wuyue. This lasted for several years until he returned to his hometown to participate in the township examination at the age of 23. Unfortunately, Du Fu did not make the list when he went to Luoyang to take the imperial examination.

At that time, Du Fu's father was a military officer in Yanzhou, so Du Fu went to Yanzhou to visit his relatives and took the opportunity to travel to the Qi-Zhao Plain for the second time. Du Fu lived a carefree life in the Western Zhao area for four or five years, and left behind some of the earliest poems that have survived to this day.

"Climbing the Tower of Yanzhou", "Painting the Eagle", "Fang Bingcao's Hu Horse" and "Looking at the Mountain" are all works from this period. Through Du Fu's poems, we can see that at this time Du Fu was still a passionate young man who "will climb to the top of the mountain and look down on all the mountains".

At the age of 33, Du Fu met Li Bai in Luoyang, who was released by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty with a gift of gold. This was the first encounter between the immortal poet and the sage poet. Looking back at the most representative meeting in Chinese history, it can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period, when Laozi met Confucius.

In this way, after meeting the poet Gao Shi with a friend, Du Fu, a leading figure in the Tang Dynasty poetry world who was 21 years younger than him, came to Jinan, Shandong. This was the third wandering in his life and should be the most unforgettable one in Du Fu's life.

A year later, Du Fu and Li Bai met again in Qi and Lu. In addition to drinking and writing poetry, they also discussed the way to make elixirs and seek immortality. Under Li Bai's guidance, Du Fu visited the hermit Fan Yeren in the north of Yanzhou City. After exchanging poems, the two never met again.

When Du Fu was 36 years old, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty announced that all candidates were welcome to come to Chang'an to take the exam, and Du Fu also took part in the exam. However, due to the farce of "no talent left in the wild" staged by the chief examiner Li Linfu, all the candidates who took the exam were rejected.

Since the imperial examination was not feasible, Du Fu had to turn to the door of the rich and powerful to realize his political ideals, but to no avail. He lived in Chang'an for 10 years, running around to offer poems, frustrated, frustrated in his official career, and lived a poor life.

At the age of 40, Du Fu presented "The Great Etiquette" when Emperor Xuanzong was about to hold three major ceremonies to worship the Taiqing Palace, the Taimiao and the heaven and earth, and was appreciated by Emperor Xuanzong. However, when waiting for the assignment, Du Fu was not given an official position again because Li Linfu was the person in charge. Four years later, Du Fu was granted a small official position as the lieutenant of Hexi County.

However, Du Fu was unwilling to "bear the position of a vassal for the sake of his life", so the court changed his position to military officer. Du Fu had no choice but to accept this useless position in order to make a living.

But when the 44-year-old Du Fu just returned home, his youngest son had starved to death. Du Fu wrote his feelings and experiences during his 10 years in Chang'an into the famous "500-word Poems on the Way from Beijing to Fengxian County".

After the An-Shi Rebellion broke out, Tongguan was lost and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fled westward in a hurry. At this time, Du Fu had moved his family to Western Shaanxi. When his father heard that Emperor Suzong of Tang had ascended the throne, he went north alone to Lingwu. Unfortunately, he was captured by the rebels on the way and escorted to Chang'an.

Du Fu was not imprisoned because of his relationship. Although he suffered misfortune personally, Du Fu was always worried about the country and the people. He kept an eye on the development of the current situation. During this period, he wrote "Requesting for a Map of the Cruel Situation for Guo Shang of Huazhou", "Sending Away My Feelings", and "Seven Poems Written While Living in Tonggu County in the Qianyuan Period", actively offering advice on suppressing the Anshi Rebellion.

How did Bao Lu reduce the burden on the people? When the troops to suppress the rebels passed through Huazhou, he also wrote "Two Poems on Watching the Anxi Soldiers Passing by and Waiting for Orders in Guanzhong" to express his strong patriotic enthusiasm.

In 757 AD, Guo Ziyi's army arrived in the north of Chang'an. Du Fu risked his life to escape from Chang'an through the Jinguang Gate in the west of the city, passed through the two opposing armies and came to Jibao in western Shaanxi to join Emperor Suzong of Tang. He was granted the title of Zuo Shiyi by Emperor Suzong, so Du Fu was also called Du Shiyi.

But the good times did not last long. Du Fu soon angered Emperor Suzong of Tang for rescuing the house manager and was demoted to Huazhou, where he was responsible for sacrificial rituals and other trivial matters. After arriving in Huazhou, the 46-year-old Du Fu was very depressed and relied on going to the Zhengxian Pavilion by the stream to relieve his worries.

Du Fu expressed his regret and indignation about his career failure, the fickleness of the world, and frequent wars in poems such as "Inscription on the Pavilion of Zheng County", "Bitter Heat in Early Autumn", "Three Officials", and "Three Farewells". After Chang'an was recovered, Du Fu returned to Chang'an and continued to serve as Zuo Shiyi. Although he was loyal to his duties, he was eventually implicated in the housing management case and was demoted to Huazhou Sigong Canjun.

A year later, Du Fu left Huazhou to visit his relatives in Luoyang. In that year, the battle of Yecheng between the Tang army and the An Lushan rebels broke out, and the Tang army was defeated. On his way back to Huazhou from Luoyang, Du Fu saw the endless disasters brought to the people by the war and the patriotic behavior of the people who endured humiliation and joined the army to fight. He was deeply moved and wrote the immortal epics "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells".

When he was 48, there was a severe drought in Huazhou and Guanzhong. Du Fu wrote "Summer Day" and "Summer Night Lament" to lament the suffering of the country and the people. Du Fu was so distressed by the corrupt politics that he gave up his post as a military officer in Huazhou and continued to travel to Tianshui, GS Province. After several twists and turns, he finally arrived in Ducheng.

With the help of Yin Wu and others, he built a thatched cottage on the bank of Huanhua Creek in the west of the city, which was called Du Fu Thatched Cottage or Huanhua Thatched Cottage. After that, Du Fu ended his wandering life.

Living under someone else's roof, his ideal life was still very hard. He used some details of his life to express his hardship. The most famous line of his poem is: "I wish I had thousands of mansions to shelter all the poor people in the world and make them happy."

After Yan Wu's death, the 54-year-old Du Fu left Ducheng and came to Fengjie via Leshan, Yibin, and Qingzhong. Thanks to the care of Kuizhou Governor Bai Maolin, Du Fu was able to stay there temporarily.

He managed 100 hectares of public land for his family, rented some farmland, bought 40 mu of orchard, hired several farmers, and participated in some labor with his family. In less than two years, he wrote more than 430 poems, accounting for 30% of his existing works. The line "Boundless fallen leaves rustle down, the endless Yangtze River rolls in" in "Climbing the Heights" has become a masterpiece of all time.

In 768 AD, the 57-year-old Du Fu was homesick and took a boat out of the gorge, first to Jiangling and then to Angong, and then drifted to Yueyang in the winter. At the foot of Yueyang Tower, he climbed up the Yueyang Tower he had longed for, and looked out from the pavilion, facing the vast and boundless Dongting Lake. Thinking of his wandering in his later years and the many disasters in the country, he was filled with emotion and wrote "Climbing Yueyang Tower".

Due to the difficult life, Du Fu could not return north, but was forced to travel south, such as from Yueyang to Shachang, from Shachang to Hengyang, and finally back to Changsha. Two years later, due to the flood in Leiyang, Du Fu fled to Hengyang again. He originally planned to seek refuge with his uncle, but when Du Fu arrived in Leiyang, the river flooded and he had to stop at Fangtian.

After 15 days without food, Du Fu wanted to return to the north, but he died on a boat from Tanzhou to Yueyang at the age of . If Du Fu knew that he and Li Bai would be called "Li Du" by later generations, it would surely make up for his lifelong hurt heart.

——"Du Fu: Li Bai, I love you. Li Bai: Not as good as the love Wang Lun gave me"

——"After all, Wang Lun is the top brother on the list. He gets a one-stop service for food, drink and entertainment, and even gives money for his trip when he leaves."

——"The poet is truly miserable, but it is precisely because of his difficult life experience that he was able to write such immortal quatrains."

——"I originally thought that Li Bai was miserable because he was frustrated and unsuccessful, but when I compared him with Lao Du, his life was like a god's life."

[Yang Guozhong, one of the ten great sinners in history, Tang Dynasty history]

He was an expert in playing power games, and he rose to prominence through nepotism. He transformed himself from a rogue into a prime minister, and single-handedly brought down the Tang Dynasty.

If later generations feel sadness and sympathy for the story of Yang Yuhuan and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, then they can only feel disgust and hatred towards Yang Guifei's brother Yang Guozhong.

If there was no Yang Guozhong, there would probably be no An-Shi Rebellion. Is this really the case? Should Yang Guozhong bear the main responsibility for the An-Shi Rebellion?

In this video, let us walk into Yang Guozhong’s life.

Yang Guozhong's original name was Yang Zhao. He was a scoundrel from Sichuan who often drank and gambled. All his relatives despised him.

But Yang Guozhong was very good at studying, which enabled him to successfully cling to a powerful family in the future.

In addition, Yang Guozhong had another trump card, which was a distant cousin who was very distantly related but had a very prominent status - Yang Yuhuan, the imperial concubine of the time.

The internal strife in the court also gave Yang Guozhong a good opportunity to get close to the Yang family. Because the then Prime Minister Li Linfu was at odds with the court officials, the officials who wanted to check and balance Li Linfu urgently needed to rely on the popular Yang Guifei, but they had no way to do so.

At this time, the tall Yang Guozhong appeared in the officials' field of vision. The eloquent Yang Guozhong was sent to Chang'an to pay tribute and establish a relationship with the Yang family. No one could have imagined that a rogue would rise to the pinnacle of power.

At this time, Yang Yuhuan's brothers and sisters were all new nobles of the dynasty, and countless people wanted to give gifts to curry favor with them. Although Yang Guozhong was a distant relative, the blood relationship was so distant that it was almost five generations apart.

How could he make friends with the Yang family under such circumstances? It must be said that Yang Guozhong had some talent in this regard. He distributed all the tributes that the Jiedushi paid to the court to Yang Yuhuan's three sisters. Among them, the third sister was the most favored by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, so Yang Guozhong tried his best to please her and make her happy.

In this way, Yang Guozhong was introduced to Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, and thus entered the power center of the Tang Dynasty, and could enter and leave the palace at will. Yang Guozhong knew that to gain a foothold in the court, nepotism alone was far from enough, so he also tried his best to curry favor with Prime Minister Li Linfu, and even helped Li Linfu to get rid of the unjust imprisonment of Crown Prince Li Heng.

In fact, Yang Guozhong was not just a person who was opportunistic and scheming. He got into the casino in his early years and was very good at calculations. When he helped Emperor Xuanzong of Tang to calculate the accounts, he was always accurate to the minute. Emperor Xuanzong was very happy and made him the chief financial officer.

In less than a year, Yang Guozhong held 15 official positions and became a real important official in the court. The name Yang Guozhong was given to him by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang at this time. However, Yang Guozhong was not loyal to the country, but only wanted to make money and abuse power, which eventually brought great disaster to the Tang Dynasty.