Emperor Assassinated: Tang Dynasty Crumbles
Zhu Quanzhong, a former rebel who had risen to become the most powerful warlord in northern China, murdered the last Tang emperor Zhaozong on September 22, 904, eliminating the final obstacle to his seizure of the throne. Zhu forced the imperial court to relocate from Chang'an to Luoyang, executed the emperor's closest advisors, and installed Zhaozong's teenage son as a puppet before deposing him in 907 and founding the Later Liang dynasty. The Tang dynasty, which had ruled China since 618 and presided over one of the greatest cultural flowerings in Chinese history, including the golden age of poetry and the expansion of the Silk Road, was finished. China fragmented into the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, a century of division and warfare.
September 22, 904
1122 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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