The Relationship between Historical Development and Climate Change in Tang Dynasty

The relationship between the history of Tang Dynasty and climate change;

1, from the middle of the 6th century to the beginning of the 8th century, that is, from the Sui Dynasty (58 1 ~ 6 18) to the prosperous Tang Dynasty (6 18 ~ 755), is the fourth warm period of climate change in the historical era of China. Compared with Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the climate in this period was obviously warmer, extreme weather phenomena were reduced, the climate was relatively humid, and the combination of water and heat was improved, which was beneficial to the development of agricultural economy. Relying on favorable climatic conditions, in the early Tang Dynasty, the economy developed rapidly, the population grew rapidly, the grain was harvested year after year, and the people's living standards were greatly improved, and there were prosperous scenes such as "the rule of Zhenguan" and "the prosperity of China". In addition, the climate warming in this period is beneficial to the development of the farming ethnic group (Han nationality), but not to the nomadic ethnic groups (Turkic, Uighur, Tiele, Qidan and other nomadic ethnic groups in the northern part of the Mongolian Plateau), which leads to the northward shift of the boundary between the farming area and the animal husbandry area. The Tang Dynasty gained the strategic advantage over the nomadic people in the north, won numerous battles, rapidly expanded its territory, and established an unprecedented empire in the history of China.

2. From the middle of the 8th century to the middle of10th century, that is, the middle and late Tang Dynasty (755-907), the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (894-979) was the fourth cold period in China's historical era. During this period, the climate obviously turned cold, extreme weather phenomena occurred frequently, the climate was dry and natural disasters occurred frequently, which was very unfavorable to agricultural production. Climate change has led to three major consequences: First, the agricultural production in northern China declined during this period, and the frequent occurrence of natural disasters intensified social unrest and class contradictions, resulting in frequent wars, ethnic divisions, serious damage to the north and a sharp drop in population. After the "An Shi Rebellion" (755 ~ 763), the central government of the Tang Dynasty gradually lost control of most parts of the country and gradually declined and perished. Second, the cold climate in the north is not conducive to agricultural production, so a large number of people are forced to move south to Jiangnan, Bashu, Jinghu (now Hunan and Hubei) and Lingnan (now Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan Island) where water and heat conditions are relatively good. On the one hand, it led to the economic recession in the north, on the other hand, it promoted the development of the south, accelerated the shift of economic center of gravity to the south, and made the south economy surpass the north in the late Tang Dynasty; Third, the cold and dry climate is beneficial to nomadic people, not to farming people, and makes nomadic people such as Tubo, Uighur, Turkic and Qidan develop rapidly. The Han people (mainly the Tang regime) were more and more at a disadvantage in the struggle, which led to the sharp shrinkage of the territory of the Tang Dynasty and eventually to extinction.