Chapter 12
Government Setup: The Tang dynasty was first run by the emperor Tang Taizong he was a great ruler and brought the empire to success in it’s early days ranging from 626 649. was the next to take power. She ruled from behind the scenes for a while, until 660 when she declared herself empress being the first to ever do so in china. Along with these strong rulers the Tang had a strong central bureaucracy. Through this bureaucracy you could enter by taking a test or if you were very high class you could just automatically be given a position.Ironically even though the empress was female, only males could apply for positions. While this system was both sexist and classist it still run rather well. Most of the people who held office were quite competent. This was all true until their decline in 907.
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Rise to power: They went to conquer much of north and west china. In a short time they even had Korea conquered.The land previously mentioned was not just any land, it was land along the silk road. The silk road was a large trading mechanism of roads used primarily for silk. The Tang however, traded more than just silk. The empire grew from this resulting in a long standing empire 618 to 907.
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Decline: While the government set up worked wonderfully and the military was doing a great job conquering the Tang dynasty fell in 907. This was a result of a few different things. The first dilemma that lead to their decline was the army conquered too much land. Like what happened in many other empires the military spread itself too thin. The amount of land they conquered was just too much to handle. This made the taxes skyrocket. The people were not very happy with that. So the government was left with a large group of people ready to rebel and no one to stop them. The rebellions ultimately lead to their fall.