Opinion/Editorial: Emperor Xuanzong's Obsession with Yang Guifei

In 690 B.C.E, during the tang dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong came into power. Xuanzong was consiered one of the greatest emperors of the Tang dynasty. He was named "Brilliant Emperor". Xuanzong was a great emperor, he fought to expand land and change trading traditions of China to the western countries. During his reign, Xuanzong became obsessed with a concubine named Yang Guifei. Yang Guifei was pampered by the emperor. She abused his affection to get her family and friends into high ranked political positions. She got her cousin, Yang Gouzhang, to be Chief Minister of The Secretariat. In her new life, Yang Guifei became fond of a soldier who was fat and gross, but he had prevailed in battle many times for the emperors army. His name was An Lushan. The emperor was grateful for his victories so he allowed Yang Guifei to adopt this man as her son. Yang Gouzhang was afraid that her cousins new affection for this man would place his job security in jeopardy. So, he decided to battle An Lushan. This went on for a while until An Lushan decided he had had enough and assembled an army of 150,000 men and march into Luoyang. An Lushan and his army caused death and destruction to China. Xuanzong saw that An Lushan was headed straight for Chang'an, he panicked. During the night the emperor fled the palace with Yang Gouzhang and Yang Guifei. The emperor was stopped by Tibetan guards and the guards killed Yang Gouzhang on the spot. The guards would not let Yang Guifei to pass through with Xuanzong.In order to get out alive the emperor was forced to order the execution of his beloved concubine. An Lushan never found Xuanzong but shortly after, the emperor abdictated and gave the throne to his son.
Xuanzong should not have treated a concubine like royalty. Doing so caused death and destruction to china. If Xuanzong had treated Yang Guifei like a regular concubine and not a he would treat his wife, then he would have ruled longer than 43 years, China's city of Luoyang would not have been destroyed and the lives of Chinese citizens would not have been lost. Reasons why this statement is correct are that Yang Guifei appointed her cousin Chief Minister of the Secretariat and he was not fit for the position. He had little knowledge on politics. His not having enough knowledge could have led to him making decisions that would hurt China. Another is that the battle between An Lushan and Yang Gouzhang went on too long and An Lushan decided to get an army of 150,000 men and march into one of China's greatest cities and killing Chinese citizens and destroying their homes. The last reason is that when the Emperor fled with Yang Gouzhang and Yang Guifei, they were stopped by Tibetan guards and then they killed Yang Gouzhang on the spot and the emperor ordered Yang Guifei's execution. The concubine that Xunzong obssesed over ended up being strangled in a small hut in Tibet. This also ended Xuanzong's reign as emperor.
One might argue that Xuanzong was not fit to be an emperor and if he had not made that mistake then China would not have moved on as fast. It could be argued that An Lushan was the hero of that time because he forced Emperor Xuanzong to flee. That is wrong because Xuanzong, along with Tang Taizong and Empress Wu, was one of the greatest emperors of the Tang dynasty until he became obsessed with Yang Guifei and made bad choices. If Xuanzong had not become obsessed with Yang Guifei then he would not have been responsible for death and destruction to China and he may have ruled longer than 43 years.