The An Lushan Rebellion

755–763 CE — East Asia, Tang China

Today: Tang China (capital Chang'an, modern Xi'an)

At the height of the brilliant Tang dynasty — China's cosmopolitan golden age of poetry and trade — an over-mighty frontier general named An Lushan turned his armies on the capital, igniting a civil war that broke the dynasty's power for good. The chaos and census collapse that followed were so vast that some counts rank it among the deadliest events in all of history.

Worth knowing: By one reading of the census, the An Lushan rebellion and its aftermath cost tens of millions of lives — a toll that, as a share of the world's population then, would dwarf even the World Wars.

Pattern: Demographic shock & recovery — A sudden collapse in population (plague, famine, mass violence) creates labor scarcity that reorders economy and society.

Entry 99 of 240 in Precedent, a walk through the whole human story in order.