Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Who was the first ruler of the Tang dynasty?
Emperor Gaozu of Tang (7 April 566 – 25 June 635), born Li Yuan, courtesy name Shude, was the founder of the Tang Dynasty of China, and the first emperor of this dynasty from 618 to 626. Under the Sui dynasty, Li Yuan was the governor in the area of modern-day Shanxi, and was based in Taiyuan.
The Tang dynasty Imperial family claimed to be paternally descended from Laozi (whose personal name was Li Dan or Li Er), the Han dynasty General Li Guang, Qin General Li Xin and Western Liang ruler Li Gao. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage (隴西李氏). The Tang Emperors had Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tang's Xianbei mother Duchess Dugu. Ancient Han ancestry was asserted by the Tang and Sui Emperors.
The northeastern Chinese aristocracy during the Sui-Tang period was of pure Han blood, while they looked down upon the northwestern aristocracy which was of mixed Han and Xianbei blood. The hybrid mixed blood Chinese and Northwestern (Guanlong) 關隴集團 aristocracy was where the Sui dynasty Emperors and Tang dynasty Emperors originated from. It came from their Xianbei mothers. Dugu Tang Sui Guanlong Sui. China was reunited by them. The Northeastern aristocracy supported Wu Zetian while the Northwestern aristocracy opposed her. The northwestern aristocracy was countered by the northeastern aristocracy who were supported by the Sui Yangdi Emperor. There was not necessarily unity on political positions within both the northeastern and northwestern aristocracies.
January of 632, Queen Seondeok, became the first queen of Silla. As a ruler, Queen Seondeok's primary concern was the livelihood of her people. Right after she was crowned, she appeased her people by letting them know of her policies as a new ruler. She sent royal inspectors in every part of Silla in order to oversee the care and needs of the widows, widowers, orphans, poor and elderly, who had no family to support them. During that same year, she sent a diplomat to pay tribute to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty of China, to let them know about Silla's new ruler. However, Emperor Taizong of Tang refused to acknowledge her as a ruler because she was a woman.
The Li family belonged to the northwest military aristocracy prevalent during the Sui dynasty and claimed to be paternally descended from the Daoist founder, Laozi (whose personal name was Li Dan or Li Er) the Han dynasty General Li Guang and Western Liang ruler Li Gao. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage (; ), which includes the Tang poet Li Bai. The Tang Emperors also had Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tang's Xianbei mother, Duchess Dugu.
Although killing two brothers and deposing his father contradicted the Confucian value of filial piety, Taizong showed himself to be a capable leader who listened to the advice of the wisest members of his council. In 628, Emperor Taizong held a Buddhist memorial service for the casualties of war, and in 629 he had Buddhist monasteries erected at the sites of major battles so that monks could pray for the fallen on both sides of the fight. This was during the Tang campaign against the Eastern Turks, a Turkic Khaganate that was destroyed after the capture of its ruler, Illig Qaghan by the famed Tang military officer Li Jing (571–649); who later became a Chancellor of the Tang dynasty. With this victory, the Turks accepted Taizong as their khagan, a title rendered as Tian Kehan in addition to his rule as emperor of China under the traditional title "Son of Heaven".
Posthumous names are the conventional way of referring to rulers from the Zhou dynasty to the Sui dynasty. In the Zhou dynasty the posthumous name was usually only one character, such as "Wen" (cultured) or "Wu" (martial). However, as time went on rulers began to add more and more characters to the posthumous names of their ancestors. By the time of the first emperor of Tang the length had grown to 7 characters, which was taxing to pronounce or write. Therefore, emperors from Tang on are commonly referred to by either their temple name (Tang through Yuan dynasties) or era name (Ming and Qing dynasties), both of which are always just two characters long and therefore easy to remember and use.
The Tang campaigns against Karasahr were two military campaigns sent by Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty against the Tarim Basin kingdom of Karasahr, a vassal of the Western Turkic Khaganate. The city-state, which later became part of Xinjiang), may have been known to its inhabitants by the Tocharian name "Agni", which was rendered "Yanqi" in Chinese sources. The first campaign in 644 was led by the Tang commander Guo Xiaoke, protector-general of the Anxi Protectorate in western China, who defeated the oasis state and a Western Turkic army and installed a Tang loyalist as ruler. The second campaign in 648, which was part of the campaign against Karasahr's neighboring state of Kucha, was led by a Turkic general of the Tang Dynasty, Ashina She'er, who defeated and conquered Karasahr.
In China, the Sui dynasty was replaced by the Tang dynasty, which set up its military bases from Korea to Central Asia, and was next to the Umayyad's later. China began to reach its height. Silla allied itself with the Tang Dynasty, subjugating Baekje and defeating Goguryeo to unite the Korean Peninsula under one ruler. 
In the early 10th century, the Tang Dynasty began to fall into chaos and could not hold its authority in the remote protectorate Tĩnh Hải quân (now northern Vietnam) when the Chinese Jiedushi Tsang Kun with his soldiers had to abandon the region in 880. Profiting from the situation, Khúc Thừa Dụ became the leader of the indigenous revolt against Tang control and eventually succeeded in taking over the country. Since the Chinese officials had to flee northwards, Khúc Thừa Dụ claimed the position Jiedushi of Tĩnh Hải quân which marked the beginning of the independence of Vietnam. While Vietnam still nominally belonged to the Tang Dynasty, it was now autonomous with a native ruler who could decide matters without any interference from China. As the Tang Dynasty did not have any more strength to start a military campaign in Tĩnh Hải quân, the Tang emperor had to accept the autonomy of that region by giving Khúc Thừa Dụ the title chancellor ("đồng bình chương sự"), together with his position Jiedushi, in the first month of 906. This appointment was recorded in Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian", and it was the first time Khúc Thừa Dụ was mentioned in Chinese historical records.
Turkic generals led many of the Tang Dynasty military campaigns that expanded the dynasty's territorial reach into Central Asia. In total, ten Turks were able to reach the highest military position of general. Ashina She'er, formerly the ruler of Beshbaliq and Kharakhoja between 630 and 635 and a member of the Ashina clan, was recruited as a Tang general in 635. He fought as a commander in a successful campaign against Karakhoja in 640. She'er was chosen as the general for the military expedition against Karasahr. The Tang loyalist that had been installed as ruler after the first invasion of Karasahr in 644 by Chinese general Guo Xiaoke was deposed by his cousin in a revolt. The usurper was executed after the rebellion was suppressed, and Tang governance returned to the oasis state. She'er continued onward to the nearby kingdom of Kucha, a state that had supported Karasahr during its war against the Tang.
Murong Fuyun (慕容伏允) (597–635), formal title Busabo Khan (步薩鉢可汗), was a ruler of the Xianbei state Tuyuhun. He first became ruler when his brother Murong Shifu was assassinated in 597, and became one of the longest-ruling monarchs in Tuyuhun history. During his reign, he had major conflicts with China's Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, and in 635, during a Tang invasion, he was assassinated due to the people's resentment of his hostile attitude toward Emperor Taizong of Tang that led to the invasion.
During the first part of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960), Shanxi supplied rulers of three of the Five Dynasties, as well as being the only one of the Ten Kingdoms located in northern China. Shanxi was initially home to the "jiedushi" (commander) of Hedong, Li Cunxu, who overthrew the first of the Five Dynasties, Later Liang (907–923) to establish the second, Later Tang (923–936). Another "jiedushi" of Hedong, Shi Jingtang, overthrew Later Tang to establish the third of the Five Dynasties, Later Jin, and yet another "jiedushi" of Hedong, Liu Zhiyuan, established the fourth of the Five Dynasties (Later Han) after the Khitans destroyed Later Jin, the third. Finally, when the fifth of the Five Dynasties (Later Zhou) emerged, the "jiedushi" of Hedong at the time, Liu Chong, rebelled and established an independent state called Northern Han, one of the Ten Kingdoms, in what is now northern and central Shanxi.
The Tang dynasty was another golden age, beginning in the ruins of the Sui. By 630, the Tang had conquered the powerful Gokturk Khagnate, preventing threats to China's borders for more than a century. A series of strong and efficient rulers, beginning with the founder and including a woman, expanded the Tang Empire to the point that it rivalled the later Yuan, Ming and Qing. The Tang was a period of rapid economic growth and prosperity, seeing the beginnings of woodblock printing. Tang rulers issued large amounts of currency to facilitate trade and distributed land under the equal-field system. The population recovered to and then surpassed Han levels, reaching an estimated 80 million. Although the state weakened after the disastrous An Shi Rebellion, and withdrew from managing the economy in the 9th century, this withdrawal encouraged economic growth and helped China's economy to develop into the mercantile economy of the Song and Ming Dynasties.
The temple was formerly known as the Xingjiao Temple () built by Xu Wen during Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. In the first year of the Southern Tang Dynasty (937), Li Jing (The 2nd ruler of Southern Tang) spent the summer at this place and modified the name of the temple to "Stone Cooling Bodhimaṇḍa ()".
In earlier times, only rulers had temple names, such as Taihao (太昊). Temple names were assigned sporadically from the Shang dynasty and regularly from the Tang dynasty. Some Han emperors had their temple names permanently removed by their descendants in 190 AD. Temple names are the usual way to refer to emperors from the Tang dynasty up to the Ming dynasty. For the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty (from 1368 AD), era names are often used instead.
The Tang Dynasty (618–907) originated in Taiyuan. During the Tang Dynasty and after, present day Shanxi was called "Hédōng" (), or "east of the (Yellow) river". Empress Wu Zetian, China's only female ruler, was born in Shanxi in 624.
The empire of the Tang Dynasty (June 18, 618 – June 1, 907), successor of the Sui Dynasty, was a cosmopolitan hegemon that ruled one of China's most expansive empires. Raids by the nomadic Khitans and Turks challenged Tang rule, and Tang rulers responded by pursuing strategies of divide and conquer, proxy warfare, tributes, and marriages.
After the official fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, some members of its ruling house of Li managed to find refuge in the south of China, where their descendants founded the Southern Tang dynasty in the year 937. This dynasty continued many of the traditions of the former great Tang dynasty, including poetry, until its official fall in 975, when its ruler, Li Yu, was taken into captivity. Importantly for the history of poetry, Li survived another three years as a prisoner of the Song dynasty, and during this time composed some of his best known works. Thus, including this "afterglow of the T'ang dynasty", the final date for the Tang Poetry era can be considered to be at the death of Li Yu, in 978.
Tian Huaijian (田懷諫) (b. 802) was a general of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, who, in his childhood, briefly served as the ruler of Weibo Circuit (魏博, headquartered in modern Handan, Hebei), which had been held by his family for generations. The soldiers soon overthrew him and replaced him with his distant relative Tian Xing, and he was delivered to the Tang capital Chang'an.
Li was the imperial surname of the Tang dynasty, founded by Li Yuan in 618 AD. One of the most prosperous and influential dynasties in Chinese history, Tang was ruled by 20 emperors surnamed Li. The Tang dynasty imperial family belonged to the northwest military aristocracy prevalent during the Sui dynasty and claimed to be paternally descended from Laozi, the Qin general Li Xin, the Han dynasty general Li Guang, and Western Liang ruler Li Gao.
Empress Zhong (鍾氏; given name unknown) (died 965), posthumously named Empress Guangmu (光穆皇后), was an empress consort and empress dowager of imperial China's short-lived Southern Tang Dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. She was married to Li Jing (né Xu Jingtong, Emperor Yuanzong), the second ruler of Southern Tang and gave birth to Li Yu, the third ruler.
The English language version states that this movie is set in the "Tang dynasty" in the year 928. The Chinese version doesn't specify a time period. The film's published screenplay indicates it is set during Later Shu of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Neither the Tang dynasty (618–907) nor Later Shu (934–965) existed in the year 928, although another state named "Tang" — known as Later Tang in history — was, as well as other Chinese states Wu, Chu, Min, Southern Han, Jingnan and Wuyue, in addition to the Khitan-ruled Liao dynasty (known as just Khitan in 928). However, Later Tang rulers were known as "Emperor" (皇帝) and never "King" (大王), and of all the states mentioned above, only Chu, Wuyue, Min and Jingnan rulers could be called "King" by their subjects in 928.
The Tang dynasty (; ) or the Tang Empire was an imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilization, and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture. Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty. The Tang capital at Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) was the most populous city in the world in its day.
Some historians consider Wu to have begun in 902, when Yang Xingmi was named Prince of Wu by the Tang dynasty. All three rulers of Wu after 907 (when the Tang dynasty collapsed) were Yang Xingmi's sons. The first ruler Yang Wo was murdered by Xu Wen and Zhang Hao, and his two brothers after him were effectively puppets dominated by Xu Wen at first, and later Xu Wen's adopted son Xu Zhigao (Li Bian) who in 937 usurped power to establish Southern Tang. Yang Pu, the last ruler, was the only one to claim the title of emperor; the other rulers were kings or princes.
The transition from Sui to Tang refers to the transition period between the end of the Sui Dynasty and the start of the Tang Dynasty, when the former dynasty's territories were carved into a handful of short-lived states by its officials, generals, and agrarian rebel leaders, and the process of elimination and annexation that followed which ultimately culminated in the consolidation of the Tang dynasty by the former Sui general Li Yuan. The transition started roughly around the year of 613 when Emperor Yang of Sui launched his first of three failed campaigns against Goguryeo, leading to a number of desertions in the army and the start of agrarian revolt against the Sui, and ended in 628, when Emperor Gaozu's son Li Shimin annexed the agrarian rebel ruler Liang Shidu's state of Liang, thereby once again unifying most of China under a single power. 