January 28, 2021 19:30 Last Update: 19:35
Reading history freely, every life experience. I have recently read about the “dancing horse” story of the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, and it is very emotional.
When Emperor Taizong of the Tang ruled, and the Tang Dynasty entered its heyday, there was the “rule of Zhenguan”, and then experienced the “rule of Yonghui” by Emperor Gaozong of Tang, the “rule of Zhenguan” by Wu Zetian, and then the “rule of Kaiyuan” in the early days of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty’s national power greatly increased, the rule of the people and martial arts flourished, and there was an unprecedented prosperity. At that time, envoys from Western countries came to Chang’an. When I visited the murals in Dunhuang, I saw the lifelike visitors from the West and I could feel the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.
However, because of the more than 120 years of peace and prosperity, from the imperial court to the military and civilians, they did not know of the military disasters and were indulged in Yile, and the “Anshi Rebellion” occurred one after another. An Lushan, the initiator of the “Anshi Rebellion”, is a Hu general. At that time, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty set up a total of 9 jundu envoys and 1 economic envoy to guard the frontier to prevent foreign enemies from invading. An Lushan was one of Pinglu, Fan Yang and Hedong Jiedu. He had more than 180,000 troops, while the central force at that time was only 130,000. The Tang Dynasty was in a military pattern that emphasized externally and internally.
In the 14th year of Emperor Xuanzong’s Tianbao of the Tang Dynasty, Anlu Mountain, together with foreign tribes such as the Turks, claimed to have 200,000 soldiers and horses, and riots. Since the Tang Dynasty has been in the normal state for a long time, the slanderer is in power, Anlu Mountain has joined forces, and the lookout for the Hedong area collapsed. An Lushan army broke through the capital Chang’an, and Tang Xuanzong fled to Maweipo (now Xingping, Shaanxi). When I was a child, there was a book of “Three Hundred Tang Poems” in my family. I specially selected long Tang poems to read. The most impressive was Bai Juyi’s “Eternal Regret”. “The Song of Everlasting Sorrow”: “The Emperor of Han pays great attention to color and thought, and Yu Yu can’t ask for it for many years…” I recite it well. When I read “In the mud under the Maweipo, there is no place where Yuyan Kong died.” At a young age, I also knew that the emperor had fled. Under the pressure of soldiers, a generation of confidantes and noble concubines were hanged to death.
Tang dance horse pottery figurines.
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The capital fell and the bustling was broken. The beautiful days of Chang’an are gone forever. During the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang tamed more than 400 horses for non-military use in the imperial palace as “dancing horses,” mainly for entertainment. These dancing horses will dance to the drum music after being trained by professional horses. Training horses to dance, the prosperous scene at the time of the Tang Dynasty, can be thought of more than half. However, these dancing horses were left in the imperial palace after the Anlushan army captured Chang’an, and they fell into the hands of Tian Chengsi, who was under Anlushan. Tian Chengsi didn’t know that these horses were trained dancing horses, so he kept them together with ordinary horses in the stalls.
One day, Tian Chengsi rewarded the soldiers who had returned from the war and played dance music. When the horses heard the music, they danced gracefully. When the soldiers saw the horses dancing, they thought the horses were evil, so they picked up whips and beat them. But Wu Ma thought that he was beaten because of his poor dancing, so he became more able to dance. Unknown Tian Chengsi thought that the horses were demon horses, so he ordered the tribe to beat the dance horses to death. tragic. Now, we can still see the magnificent state of the Tang Dynasty imperial horse dance performance on the gilt-gilt horse-bracket cup silver pot in the Shaanxi History Museum.
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The dancing horse on a silver pot with a gilt dance horse head.
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This tragic story about dancing horses reminds me of two things. 1. The proud son of heaven in the flourishing age is worthless in the chaos of war. Before and after the return, Hong Kong was heading for a prosperous age. The young people in Hong Kong were born and grew up in the heyday, and the prosperity they saw in Hong Kong was deemed inevitable. Just as in the time of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, after 129 years of heyday, there is no idea what the war is about. Radical young people in Hong Kong are incited by others, arguing that they “solicit speculation,” hoping to “detonate,” and want to overthrow the Chinese regime. Political conspirators propagate to young people that after the fall of the mainland’s political power, a democratic ideal country will come.
If young people are willing to read history and look at current international events, not talking about the distant ones, just looking at the near ones, they will know that this is not the case at all. From the fall of the “Eastern European Iron Curtain” in 1989 to the “Arab Spring” in 2011, a prosperous and powerful emerging country has never been cultivated. Instead, many countries have been plagued by military disasters. Take the North African country Libya as an example. Because it is rich in oil, it was originally a rich country in North Africa. Gaddafi, the former leader who was once anti-American, made peace with the United States in his later years and promised not to develop nuclear weapons. As a result, the United States changed its face and launched a color revolution in Libya in 2011. Over the years, Libya is still trapped in a never-ending civil war. The warlords are divided and the promised democracy and freedom have not come. The whole country is torn apart and the people are displaced.
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In wars, people will become worthless. If there is a war in Hong Kong, and young people in Hong Kong talk about democracy and freedom to the warlords, not just like a dancing horse dancing to Tian Chengsi, can they escape the fate of being beaten to death? “Looking for speculation” is not so beautifully sung by conspirators.
2. An Lushan enjoys prosperity without contentment, extremely stupid. An Lushan turned out to be a big side general of the Tang Dynasty, and one side was powerful. The power at the time could be said to be under one person and over ten thousand people. However, he was not satisfied with the status quo. He rioted. He called himself “Emperor Dayan” in Luoyang, but in the end he could not escape the fate of being defeated and killed.
The story of An Lushan teaches us that Hong Kong’s current situation is already very good, and the freedom index ranks third in the world. If Hong Kong people forcefully fight for the last inch of democracy and freedom and regard the central government as an enemy, they will surely lose themselves. The Tang Dynasty’s history from rule to chaos gives us a great vigilance, and happiness is not inevitable. Social stability requires everyone to work hard to maintain.
Lu Yongxiong
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