Born Then755–763
Life during the An Lushan Rebellion
Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.
What it meant for ordinary people
In 755 the frontier general An Lushan rebelled against the Tang emperor and took both capitals. Eight years of war wrecked the north China plain. Tang survived, but the census fell from about 53 million to under 17 million, and the balance of population began to shift south.
Deaths: registered households fell by about two thirds; true deaths are unknown and likely in the millions.
How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.
Around the same time
- Recurrences of the first plague pandemic 558–750
- Early Muslim conquests 632–750
- Indian Ocean slave trade 700–1799
- An Lushan Rebellion 755–763