Why did Tubo, who had fallen in love with the Tang Dynasty, disappeared after the fall of the Tang Dynasty?

文/鱼尾

Tubo was a power that flourished in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from the 7th to the 9th century AD. Tubo has accurate historical records and it is also the beginning of the prosperity of Tubo, which is the Songtsen Gampuzamp period. The demise of Tubo was in the last Zamprandama period.

In its heyday, the Tubo territory included the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Northwest Sichuan Plateau, Northwest Yunnan Plateau, Hexi Corridor, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia Alxa Region, Southern Xinjiang and Eastern Central Asia, Afghanistan Corridor, Kashmir, the southern slope of the Himalayas to the north bank of the Ganges, can be described as vast and flourishing for a while. Moreover, Tubo is also a mixed empire of plateau agriculture and nomadism, and its economic strength cannot be underestimated. Historically, the Tang Dynasty and Tubo had had many wars, and Tubo had wiped out tens of thousands of Tang troops in several wars, such as the Battle of Dafeichuan. Tubo once conquered Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, after the Anshi Rebellion, and expanded its power to Shaanxi.

How did such a powerful empire collapse and disappear? In a word, the intensification of various social contradictions led to the decline and collapse of Tubo. Moreover, the time of the decline and fall of Tubo roughly coincides with the time of the decline and fall of the Tang Dynasty. This is why? Next, I will briefly sort out the reasons for the decline and fall of Tubo.

The struggle between traditional Bon sect forces and emerging Buddhist forces

Before Tubo, a splendid ancient Xiangxiong civilization was formed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The ancient Xiangxiong civilization was influenced by the Indian civilization and merged with its own plateau primitive witchcraft beliefs to form a new religion, the Bon religion.

Later, a tribe called Tubo that originated in the Lhasa River area in Shannan gradually became stronger and established a royal rule combined with Bon monks and nobles. Around the same time as the rise of the Tang Dynasty in the early seventh century, Tubo unified the entire Tibetan Plateau under the leadership of Zamp Songtsen Gampo, and encroached on Qinghai in western Sichuan.

After a brief conflict between the Tubo and Tang dynasties, they soon had a preliminary understanding of each other. As a result, the two countries shook hands temporarily to make peace. Emperor Taizong married Princess Wencheng, a daughter of the clan, to Songtsan Gambo. Princess Wencheng's entry into Tibet brought a large amount of Central Plains canon culture, including Han Buddhist culture. Later in the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty shook hands and made peace after the war with Tubo, and sent Princess Jincheng, the daughter of the clan, to Tibet, and married the Tubo Zanpu Chidezu with Zhudan. The two visits of the princesses of the Tang Dynasty brought a lot of Chinese Buddhist culture to Tubo. Buddhism absorbed the traditional Bon religion on the plateau and gradually formed a new Tibetan Buddhism.

At that time, Tubo Zampo was dissatisfied with the restriction of power by the powerful Bon nobles, and was eager to find new political forces to balance. At this time, looking around, Zampo discovered a new Tibetan Buddhist power. Thus, in a single click between Zampo and Tibetan Buddhist noble monks, the royal power was combined with the new religious power. The Bon nobility power was suppressed. With the help of Tibetan Buddhism, Zanpu aggressively suppressed and purged the Bon religion and consolidated the kingship.

The Bon nobles were unwilling to transfer power, and launched a long-term political struggle with Tibetan Buddhist nobles and Zampo. Several Zemps were killed by Bon nobles. The last Tubo Zamplangdama was killed by Buddhist forces. After that, the two sons of Langdama fought for throne, and Tubo officially split.

The political struggle between Bon religion and Tibetan Buddhism in the name of religion has accompanied the entire history of Tubo. The long-term fighting between the two sides consumed a large amount of Tubo's national power and caused serious class contradictions in Tubo. This is a major reason for the decline of Tubo.

Tubo imitated the Tang dynasty to establish the Jiedu envoy system, which led to the fact that the tail could not be lost.

At that time, the Tang dynasty was the center of Eastern civilization, and neighboring tribal countries learned from the Tang dynasty's political and economic system. Tubo is no exception. At that time, Tubo dispatched a large number of nobles to serve as local officials in Qinghai and Hexi. They are all local powerful factions of Tubo.

Among the many local power factions in Tubo, the more famous one is the monk and maidservant. The melee between the two of them was an important part of the melee in the northeastern towns of the late Tubo period.

AD 8In 43 years, the general of Longxi of Tubo led 200,000 troops to attack Shanzhou (now Ledu, Qinghai) guard maidservant Shang Maimai on fear of fever, and opened the prelude to the melee in northeast Tubo. For more than two decades, the Jiedu envoys in Longyou and Hexi areas of Tubo were involved in a melee. This long-term turmoil came to an end until the lunatic fever was killed by the maidservant Tuoba Huaiguang in 866. During

, the Tubo frontier also led troops to invade Lhasa several times, control Zanpu, and control the government. In addition, these sides will fight for power, and have repeatedly invoked Tang and Uighur forces to support themselves.

The long-term melee in the later period tore apart Tubo. In the end, Tubo completely collapsed under the chaos of the two sons of Langdama fighting for position and the side will attack each other.

The long-term class and ethnic oppression has caused the Tubo frontiers to be severely distracted.

After the rise of Tubo, it rushed out of the plateau and conquered many non-Tubo areas such as Longyou and Western Regions in Hexi. Many ethnic groups such as Han, Uighur and Turkic people live in these places.

However, the Tubo nobles showed no sympathy to them and oppressed them arbitrarily. As a result, these places were not only unbearable by the lower levels of Tubo, but also the upper classes of local ethnic groups were dissatisfied with the rule of Tubo.

In the year 869, the artisan Wei Kuojieleden from the Kham district (Qinghai) of Tubo raised troops in the Kham district. He marched to the capital Lhasa and swept the Uzang (Tibet) region. At the same time, in the Tubo headquarters, a group of slaves who had been oppressed by the Tubo aristocracy for a long time also launched a great uprising, which severely hit the upper class of Tubo and the forces of Bon religion and Tibetan Buddhism. In the late Tubo period, there were many slave uprisings in various places.

In 848 AD, Zhang Yichao, a survivor of the Tang Dynasty in Shazhou in the Hexi Corridor of Tubo, launched an uprising of the Han and Uighurs, and soon occupied the ten states of Sha, Gua, Gan, and Sulan, and separated Tubo ruled and established the Hexi Zhang regime. In 851, Zhang Yichao sent his younger brother to the Tang court. Tang Xuanzong was overjoyed and named him an envoy to the Guiyi Army. He also sent his envoy to congratulate him. At that time, the survivors of the Tang Dynasty in Hexi saw the arrival of the heavenly envoys, cheered and rushed to tell. Some people cried with joy and shouted: "I can see the Han family again before I die."

From the uprising of these slaves and border people, we can see how severe the class and ethnic oppression of Tubo is.

After the death of the last Zanpulangdama, the two sons fought for the seat

This last point is also a direct cause, that is, after the death of the last Tubo Zanpulangdama, his two sons fought for the seat, which led to Tubo There is no longer a solid leadership core. Since then, Tubo has never been unified.

In 842, Langdama was assassinated by Tibetan Buddhist forces. His two sons, Yun Dan, who was adopted by the eldest princess, and Ou Song, who was born to the little princess, disagree with each other and compete for the Zanpu throne. The Tubo royal family split into two branches and attacked and killed successively.

The descendants of Yundan occupy Lhasa and form the royal line of Lhasa. The descendants of Ou Song occupy Ali, Yaze, and Qinghai, forming the Ali, Yaze, and Yalongjua families. The line of King Yalongjua later split into the line of King Tsongkha. Among them, the Qingtang Tubo tribe who later dominated Qinghai belonged to the family of Tsongka.

Therefore, the vacancy of Tubo's last throne was also a major cause of the collapse of Tubo.

The cold climate at the end of the eighth century and the beginning of the ninth century led to a decline in productivity on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

At the end of the eighth century and the beginning of the ninth century, as the climate in China turned colder, the temperature showed a downward trend. Affected by this, agricultural production that depends on weather factors has been greatly affected.

With the reduction in crop production, all the empires at that time experienced famines to varying degrees. The impact of the famine, coupled with the exploitation of the ruling group, led to serious class contradictions and contradictions within the ruling class in many places. At the same time, the Mobei area is also experiencing a serious survival crisis. Under pressure, the Mobei people also began to move south and west, migrating everywhere.

At this time, the once glorious Tang Empire, the Tubo Empire, and the Abbasid Empire of the Arab Empire all declined and split.

Specifically speaking, Tubo. At that time, with the massive reduction in crop production on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,Various survival resources are no longer enough to support this plateau empire with a population of 20 million. All kinds of contradictions were highlighted, and turmoil began to become frequent. In the end, under the influence of various factors, Tubo collapsed. Today, the total population of the Qinghai-Tibet area cannot reach the population of Tubo when it was at its peak.

Tubo emerged in the seventh century and collapsed in the ninth century. The Tang Dynasty established the country in 618 and collapsed in 907. It can be said that the brothers of the Tang Dynasty and Tubo who came together can be called living together and die together. However, the difference is that the Central Plains was later reborn from the ashes and gradually settled down, forming the Song-Liao and Song-Jin two countries that oppose north and south. In the Qinghai-Tibet region, after the collapse of Tubo, there has never been a regional unified political power, only a unified form of Tibetan Buddhism religion. Until the rise of Mongolia, in 1247 AD, the Mongolian Liang King Kuoduan met with the leader of Tibetan Buddhism Sakya Pandita in Liangzhou and made the Liangzhou Covenant. The entire divided Tibet belonged to Mongolia and later merged into the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty placed the Qinghai-Tibet area under the jurisdiction of the Xuanzhengyuan, strengthening the relationship between Qinghai-Tibet and the mainland. Since then, Tibet has become an inseparable part of China.