Tang dynasty
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The Tang dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point of Chinese civilisation and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture, and its territory, won through the military campaigns of its early rulers, surpassed that of the Han dynasty. The House of Li founded the dynasty after exploiting a period of Sui decline and precipitating its final collapse, inaugurating progress and stability in the first half of its rule. The dynasty was formally interrupted from 690 to 705, when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaimed the Wu Zhou dynasty and became the only legitimate Chinese female emperor. The An Lushan rebellion (755–763) brought devastation and the decline of central authority in the dynasty's second half. The Tang maintained a civil-service system, recruiting scholar-officials through standardised examinations and recommendations; the rise of regional military governors, the jiedushi, during the 9th century undermined this order. The dynasty and central government declined in the later 9th century; agrarian rebellions caused mass population loss and displacement, poverty and further dysfunction, ending the dynasty in 907. Its capital at Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) was the world's most populous city for much of its existence, and its population may have reached some 80 million. The Tang raised large armies to contend with nomadic powers for control of Inner Asia and the Silk Road, received tribute from far-flung states, and exerted a powerful cultural influence over East Asia. It is traditionally considered the greatest age of Chinese poetry, the era of Li Bai and Du Fu.