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In a sense, the reasons for the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, from superficial to deep, can be divided into three levels of reasons.
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was faint in his later years
The most obvious reason is that Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fainted in his later years, favored the noble concubine Yang Yuhuan, reused the traitor Yang Guozhong, and trusted the Hu general An Lushan, which led to political corruption in the country, the people were not happy, and the contradictions between Wen Chen and military generals intensified, which eventually led to the Anshi Rebellion.
According to the reasons at this level, the reason for the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion was mainly caused by Tang Xuanzong's mediocrity in his later years and the use of traitors, so Li Longji was the biggest person responsible. Of course, what it implied was that if Tang Xuanzong could continue to exert himself and reuse his wise ministers, the Anshi Rebellion could be completely avoided.
Power struggle
A little deeper analysis, the reason for the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion was actually caused by the power struggle between the Tang Emperor and the Crown Prince. Why do you say that? As we all know, since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the emperor and the prince have almost always been a battle between you and me.
Initially, Li Yuan wanted to prevent the crown prince Li Jiancheng from losing control after his strength increased, especially after Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, fell to Li Jiancheng, which made Li Yuan feel indescribably afraid, because at this time, Li Jiancheng had gradually gained the strength to seize power. Therefore, Li Yuan began to support Li Shimin, the king of Qin, to fight against him, so that they could balance each other, and finally the Xuanwu Gate change broke out.
Later, after Li Shimin became emperor, he saw that the crown prince Li Chenggan was getting older and stronger, but he was dying of old age, so he was worried that the crown prince would seize power in advance, so he began to support Li Tai, the king of Wei, to fight against him. As a result, the crown prince was forced to rebel, and in the end, both the crown prince and the Wei king Li Tai were deposed, and Li Shimin had to make the weakest Li Zhi crown prince.
It is true that the weak Li Zhi as the crown prince will not pose a threat to the old emperor Li Shimin, but the problem is that Li Zhi is too weak, and eventually Wu Zetian successfully changed the dynasty, if it were not for Wu Zetian's son surnamed Li, the Tang Dynasty would have died in the third dynasty. As for Li Longji's father Tang Ruizong, he was also forced to abdicate early by Li Longji, who was the crown prince.
After Li Longji became emperor, especially after the Kaiyuan era, the aging Li Longji could not help but worry that the crown prince would be ready to move, so Li Longji's first prince was quickly killed. Next, if Li Longji continues to make his son with strong ability the crown prince, he will make himself insecure; If the weak son becomes the prince, he is afraid that Wu Zetian's incident will repeat itself.
In this context, Li Longji began to layout, on the one hand, in order for the long-term continuation of the Tang River, Li Longji still chose his son with strong ability to be the prince; On the other hand, he needs to have a force to restrain the prince, but the problem is that the pattern of Li Yuan and Li Shimin restraining the prince by supporting a prince in the past has proved to be a failure, so Li Longji used the military forces represented by An Lushan to restrain the prince.
As a result, Tang Xuanzong gave An Lushan more and more power, and as An Lushan's power became more and more powerful, anyone who tried to challenge Tang Xuanzong's power would have a shadow that was difficult to remove. Because even if they had the opportunity to retire early by Tang Xuanzong through a coup d'état, when An Lushan entered King Qin of Jing under the banner of defending imperial power, what would they resist?
At that time, the Tang had three major military regions in the Guanzhong region, because these three military regions were close to the capital, and in order to ensure that the prince could successfully ascend the throne in the future, these three military regions were all led by the prince. At the same time, there were also three major military regions in the Kanto region, and Tang Xuanzong entrusted them all to An Lushan to be in charge, so that the two sides could check and balance each other, and no one dared to act rashly.
In a sense, Tang Xuanzong's reuse of An Lushan is a deformed version of Li Yuan and Li Shimin's equal emphasis on prince and prince. Especially when An Lushan recognized Yang Guifei as his godmother, Tang Xuanzong reused An Lushan, which was more meaningful to the pattern of princes and princes.
Of course, everyone knows the final result, because An Lushan's role is to check and balance the prince, that is, to compete with the prince and fight against each other. Once Li Longji dies and the prince ascends the throne, An Lushan's role will definitely not end well, so in the end he can only choose to rebel, which also led to the Anshi Rebellion.
According to the reasons at this level, the reason for the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion was mainly caused by the power struggle between Tang Xuanzong and the prince, so Li Longji was still the biggest person responsible. Of course, it implied that if Tang Xuanzong could voluntarily give up power, the Anshi Rebellion could also be avoided to some extent.
The wealthy aristocracy was weakened
Finally, a deeper analysis, the reason for the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion was actually because of the development of productive forces, which led to the forced demise of the wealthy aristocracy, which caused the crisis caused by the loss of control of the military forces.
To put it simply, in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, on the one hand, due to the limited level of economic development and the development of transportation media, on the other hand, the lack of a unified central dynasty, led to the wealthy aristocracy in various regions taking the opportunity to become bigger, forming the legendary local tyrants and gatekeepers, and most of the people at the bottom could only rely on these wealthy nobles to survive.
As a result, these wealthy aristocrats have gradually become independent kingdoms with certain military and political wealth, and in this context, the legendary aristocratic politics has been formed, that is, the country's army and officials, but also members or private soldiers of various wealthy nobles.
In other words, the generals of the army are usually inextricably linked to various wealthy families, and they are usually only agents of the major wealthy families.
In this context, as long as the imperial power can obtain the support of wealthy families, it can easily control the generals. Of course, if the imperial power cannot obtain the support of the wealthy family, he is usually only threatened by the wealthy family, and will not be threatened by the army general, because without the army general led by the wealthy family, there is usually no great power.
However, with the development of productive forces and the establishment of a unified central dynasty, the vast number of people at the bottom no longer need to rely on the wealthy aristocracy to survive, and the wealthy aristocracy naturally cannot form a powerful private army. At the same time, with the development of the imperial examination system, a large number of disciples of the Hanmen began to emerge to divide the military power of the wealthy aristocracy, so the influence of the wealthy family became weaker and weaker, and finally was forced to disintegrate.
To put it simply, in the Two Han Dynasty, because of the division of kings, local armies were firmly controlled by royal kings or foreign members, and in the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties, because of the rise of wealthy aristocrats, these local armies were firmly controlled by major wealthy aristocrats. But in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the class of wealthy aristocrats was disintegrated, so the armies of various places had to be managed by the emperor directly sent by the past officials.
However, the problem was that due to the limited level of transportation and media development at that time, the decrees of the central government could not be transmitted to local areas, especially remote areas, in a timely manner. As a result, the officials sent by the emperor to manage the local army, because of the lack of supervision and dependence, either became puppets of the military or directly integrated with the interests of the soldiers and became the spokespersons of the local army.
In this context, the military power finally entered the political arena, becoming a new social crisis after the royal family, foreign relatives and wealthy aristocrats. As for the Anshi Rebellion, it is just a product of the times in this context. It is precisely because of this that after the Anshi Rebellion was calmed, the crisis of the Great Tang Empire did not end because of this, but it was a division of domains and towns that lasted for more than 150 years; This was followed by a warlord chaos that lasted for more than a hundred years (five generations and ten countries).
In the Northern Song Dynasty, with the continuous development of productive forces, the transportation medium at that time finally rose to a new level, and in this context, the decrees of the central government could finally be conveyed to the local government in time. In this way, the officials sent by the emperor to manage the local army could be supervised by the central government at any time and could get the help of the central government at any time, so the civilian system was finally established, and the military intervention and separation officially became history, which also had Zhao Kuangyin's right to release the army with a cup of wine.
The author: In this sense, the fundamental reason for the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion is the third reason, which is caused by the trend of the times, and no one is powerless to change, even if there is no Anshi Rebellion, the Tang will cause the soldiers to rebel for some other reason. As for the second reason above, it was just the fuse that ignited the Anshi Rebellion. As for the first reason, it is just a phenomenon it presents.
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