Tang power had ebbed by the middle of the eighth century CE.

Domestic economic instability and military defeat in 751 by Arabs at Talas, in Central Asia, had marked the beginning of five centuries of steady military decline for the Chinese empire.

Misrule, court intrigues, economic exploitation, and popular rebellions weaken the empire, making it possible for northern invaders to terminate the dynasty in 907.

The next half-century see the fragmentation of China into five northern dynasties and ten southern kingdoms, but in 960 a new power, Song (960-1279), reunifies most of China Proper.