A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

When the canopy opened, the scene was a pitch-black night sky.

There were no palaces, no beacon fires, no ruins, only pure darkness.

Then, a beam of light rose from the ground and exploded in the night sky.

Golden, red, and silver specks of light scattered outwards, like millions of shooting stars moving in reverse simultaneously.

Fireworks lit up the Lantern Festival night in Chang'an.

Colorful lanterns hung on both sides of Zhuque Avenue, lotus lanterns floated on Qujiang Pool, Hu women played the pipa at the entrance of a tavern, and camel caravans stopped by the roadside and looked up at the sky.

The crowd was bustling, with children's laughter, vendors' cries, and the clinking of glasses all mixed together.

Fireworks burst forth one after another, growing denser and brighter until, at their peak, the entire night sky was illuminated as if it were daytime.

Then, the last firework exploded in the night sky, and the light slowly fell.

Halfway down, the light spot turned into sparks.

The sparks fell on the city walls of Luoyang, on the walls of Chang'an, and on the military tents of Fanyang.

Flames ignited simultaneously in these places, spreading rapidly and turning into a sea of ​​fire.

The laughter of the crowd turned into screams, the colorful lanterns were trampled out, the lotus lanterns overturned in Qujiang Pool, the pipa strings broke, and the camel bells fell to the ground.

The entire night sky was bathed in a dark red glow from the firelight, and no more fireworks were lit.

"The Tang Dynasty was like a firework display." A voice, seemingly wanting to say something more, came from off-screen. "When it rose, everyone looked up to see it."

When it exploded, everyone was amazed.

When it went out, no one believed it was over.

Then everyone looked down and saw that the ground was already engulfed in flames.

(Fireworks did not exist in the Tang Dynasty; this is a work of fiction.)

The image of someone with unspoken words appears in the lower left corner, their expression more composed than usual.

"Hello everyone, I am Yu Yan Bu Zhi. In this episode, we will talk about the An Lushan Rebellion, which took place in 755, the fourteenth year of the Tianbao era."

It caused the Tang Dynasty to lose two-thirds of its population, half of its economy, its vast border defenses, and its open and inclusive cultural confidence.

From then on, Chinese civilization fell from its peak and never returned to the heights of being a nation with all nations paying tribute.

Moreover, the An Lushan Rebellion was not merely a rebellion; it was a historical watershed moment marking the decline of the entire Chinese nation from its golden age.

By understanding it, we can truly understand the trajectory of Chinese history over the next thousand years.

In the Taiji Hall, Li Shimin put down the memorial in his hand.

He had waited so many days for this moment.

When Tianmu mentioned the words "An Lushan Rebellion" during his lecture on "Bring in the Wine," he immediately became alert and deployed institutional defenses overnight.

But Tianmu never went into detail: who started the rebellion? How long did it last? Did his descendants manage to stop it?

Today, the sky finally revealed the full picture of this rebellion, and his gaze was fixed on that screen of light.

However, this situation, which was comparable to the fall of a nation, was far worse than he had imagined.

Li Shimin's hands trembled slightly inside his sleeves.

With two-thirds of the population, how many people did his Tang Dynasty have in total? He couldn't figure it out for a moment.

He turned his head and looked at Fang Xuanling.

Fang Xuanling's face was as white as paper.

Wei Zheng held his official tablet, his knuckles turning white.

No one speaks.

The hall was so quiet that only the flickering candlelight could be heard.

In the autumn of the third year of the Tianbao era (744 AD), in Liang Garden, Songzhou.

Li Bai, Gao Shi, and Du Fu were sitting on an abandoned earthen platform.

Although it is said to be abandoned, Liang Garden has long been deserted. The rabbit garden of King Xiao of Liang in the Han Dynasty is now just a few sections of ruins, overgrown weeds, and a crooked old locust tree.

The three had traveled all the way from Luoyang to this place and were drinking together when dawn broke.

Li Bai dropped his wine cup and stared in astonishment at the sky.

"The An Lushan Rebellion? 755 AD? The fourteenth year of the Tianbao era?"

"Eleven more years..." Du Fu's voice drifted away, unable to believe that a chaotic world was waiting not far behind them.

Gao Shi lowered his voice: "An Lushan, is he the military governor of Fanyang? I saw his military camp in Youzhou. It stretched for dozens of miles, and his warhorses were even stronger than those of the imperial court. At that time, I felt that this man was bound to run into trouble sooner or later."

The sound from the sky continued to come.

"When discussing the An Lushan Rebellion, we cannot avoid mentioning one person: not An Lushan and Shi Siming, who launched the rebellion, but a poet, Du Fu, who is known as the 'Poet Sage' by later generations."

The image shows a middle-aged man with a thin face and graying temples sitting by the window, holding a calligraphy brush in his hand.

Many people know that Du Fu's poems are called "poetic history".

Why is it called "Poetic History"? Because his poems weren't just something he came up with while sitting in his study, but rather based on his real experiences.

Official history will tell you that in a certain year and month, Luoyang fell, Chang'an was recovered, a certain general died in battle, and a certain place was recovered and then fell again.

But official history won't tell you what it felt like for an old woman to be arrested by officials in the middle of the night.

I won't tell you what it feels like for a soldier who miraculously escapes from the battlefield and returns home to find that all his family members are gone.

I won't tell you what it feels like for a scholar to hear birdsong and see flowers blooming in the ruins of spring, yet feel even more heartbroken.

Du Fu's poems will tell you these things.

He was the most authentic on-site recorder of the An Lushan Rebellion.

Next, we will follow in Du Fu's footsteps to look back at the ordinary people crushed by the chaos of a thousand years ago, and the Tang Dynasty that collapsed due to the An Lushan Rebellion.

"However, it would be a gross underestimation of Du Fu if we only regard him as a recorder of suffering."

Du Fu's greatness lies in the fact that he not only recorded suffering, but also analyzed the causes of suffering.

Long before the An Lushan Rebellion broke out, he had already discovered the decadent atmosphere beneath the prosperous era in the borders, fields, and streets of the empire.

These are not records of war, but they are more telling than records of war; the An Lushan Rebellion did not happen out of thin air.

The empire had been ailing for a long time before the drums of war sounded at Yuyang.

In today's episode, we'll start with three poems by Du Fu: "The Ballad of the War Chariots," "Leaving the Frontier Afterwards," and "A Five-Hundred-Word Poem Written on the Way from the Capital to Fengxian County."

Let's examine what fatal hidden dangers had already emerged in the Tang Empire before the outbreak of the An Lushan Rebellion.

Du Fu suddenly stood up.

The poet saint failed the imperial examination in Luoyang, drank wine with Li Bai in Liangyuan, and even had to think for a long time before writing the line "I have always recited the Ode to Oranges, but who will ask me for water shield soup?"

Tianmu said he was the Sage of Poetry.

He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Li Bai also stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Sage, Zimei must have the heart of a benevolent person."

Gao Shi also stood up, leaning on Li Bai beside him, and said, "Poet Immortal, Poet Sage, you two have both made your mark on history."

Du Fu gazed at the sky: "But in this chaotic world..." Is it really useful?