The Tang Dynasty was a time of great prosperity in China. By some estimates, the size of the population increased to 300 million people. The empire expanded its physical boundaries, too, stretching south to Vietnam and west into the Stans. Tang rule lasted from 617 to 907, a time known to Europe as the Dark Ages. In China, Buddhism was flourishing and local religions were widely tolerated. Life was good.

Xuanzong was Emperor of China during the middle of the Tang Dynasty. He was a spiritual man. He believed in the immortality of the soul, and he believed that he could communicate with angels and ghosts. He practiced a popular form of Taoism that required him to take psychedelic drugs in order to see and hear the spirits on a different plane. He believed that while he was under the influence, these spirits were giving him instructions for mixing more potent cocktails, so that he could get even closer to them.

The Emperor who governed 300 million people was high as a kite every single day.

Emperor Xuanzong had a favorite advisor, a military general named An Lushan. An Lushan was an interesting figure himself. He had a mixed background. He was half Sogdian and half Turkic. This was not an unusual mix, considering that China was pushing into the areas that are now Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. China’s big cities were cosmopolitan places where people from all over Eurasia lived together.

An Lushan’s background set him apart from the Emperor’s Confucian counselors. They became jealous of him, and they plotted his downfall.

A rumor circulated the imperial court that An Lushan was having an affair with Yang Guifei, the Emperor’s favorite concubine. Emperor Xuanzong trusted his friend and his concubine, so he ignored the story at first. But as the talk grew louder, it began to embarrass him.

An Lushan was at his post in the eastern provinces when he received word that the Emperor wanted to see him. The general knew he had enemies, and he knew the Emperor suffered from (drug induced) paranoia. He rode to the capital with his armies in tow. The An Lushan Rebellion had begun.

The rebellion came very close to succeeding. They fought for eight years, from 755 to 763. The Emperor fled the capital. His troops threatened mutiny, and he was forced to turn over poor Yang Guifei. She was strangled to death and abandoned on the side of a road. A Chinese Desdemona.

And like Othello, Xuanzong didn’t survive until the end of the play. He died of natural causes while the rebellion continued. An Lushan also died, and his son fought on with the new Emperor for a few more years.

The Tang eventually won the war, but they paid a price. They made deals with local aristocrats, buying loyalty for the right to collect revenue from certain parts of the empire. The Tang Dynasty became poorer, and never regained its early glory.

And that is the story of Emperor Xuanzong, who tripped not wisely, but too well.