In Depth Study on Why the Tang Dynasty Collapsed

Introduction

The Tang Dynasty was one of the most prosperous Chinese dynasties.

During the Tang Dynasty, China became one of the most powerful societies in the world. So what could’ve made this great dynasty collapse?

Analysis of Frameworks

There are many theories about why the Tang Dynasty collapsed. These theories can be put under the headings of: climate change, internal conflict, incompetent or corrupt leaders and response to problems. Only two of the above reasons fit under the “five point framework” that Jared Diamond talks about in his book Collapse because his framework focuses mainly on environmental damage which wasn’t a factor in the collapse of the Tang Dynasty.

The framework designed by Joseph Tainter fits in quite well with two of the three models explained in his framework partially applying to the Tang Dynasty. These are “The Dinosaur” and the “House of Cards”. “The Dinosaur” is pretty similar to “Response to Problems” in Jared Diamond’s framework in that if the society does nothing to change its ways which are harming the society, then it’s response to problems is nothing. The “House of Cards” is applied to the Tang because after the Emperors, there were also many other powerful groups/people such as the court, eunuchs and “Jie Du Shi”.

However, both of the above frameworks don’t talk about some other critical factors of the collapse like rebellions and corruption. Therefore, I have adapted Jared Diamonds framework by putting “internal conflict” as a major point of collapse because it was one of the biggest reasons why not only the Tang but many other Chinese dynasties collapsed. Also, I have included “incompetent or corrupt leaders” as a separate factor because it doesn’t really fit under “response to problems” because the problem is being caused by the only people that have much power to stop these things happening. Also, I haven’t included “friendly trade partners” as a factor in the Tang collapse because the Tang had many quite good and well established relations with foreign powers.

Climate Change Theory

The relatively new German theory is that a combination of a large number of weather extremes brought down the Tang Dynasty (and the Mayans). According to researchers in Germany, records show that around the time that the Tang Dynasty went into decline, there was a drought caused by weaker summer monsoon rains and strong winter monsoons. They believe that the only explanation for these climate trends was a shift in the position of a band of low-pressure belts known as the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) that surround the Earth. They discovered that warm temperatures in the Northern hemisphere indicated a northward shift in the position of the ITCZ.