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Thanks again, and all right, on with the show. Hello and welcome to the history of China. Episode 133, the coup at Chen Bridge.

Since the fall of the Great Tang Dynasty in 907, the more than half century that followed has been chaotic and

unpredictable at all levels, social, military, and political. States have risen and

fallen in the course of mere years and the rulers often sitting for far less than even that.

As the historian Oyang Shio put it in the introduction of the new history of the Five

dynasties all the way back in 1073.

Quote, emperors were enthroned like clerks,

and states were replaced like inns,

end quote.

This constant chaos did seem to be building

towards some kind of a climax by the second half of the 950s.

...