ShortHand: Cannibals & Concubines - The Siege of Suiyang
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Ancient China, 757 AD. As an epic civil war raged between the loyalist Tangs and rebel Yan dynasties, the city of Suiyang was under siege for nine brutal months: and food was running out. So what did fearless Tang warlord Zhang Xun and his merry men do?
Well, they all started eating each other, obviously.
In a gruesome tale beginning with the sacrifice of the general’s unlucky concubine, we explore how human endurance was pushed to its darkest limits - and why in modern-day China, Zhang Xun is actually considered a bit of a hero.
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Sources:
Cannibalistic Siege: Siege of Suiyang (Animated History)
https://medievalreporter.com/cannibalism-an-lushan-revolt/
https://dbpedia.org/page/Siege_of_Suiyang
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/medieval/5-bloodiest-devastating-sieges-tend_neglect.html
China’s Cosmopolitan Empire (History of Imperial China): The Tang Dynasty: 3 by Mark Edward Lewis
(ISBN: 9780674064010)
China’s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty by Charles Benn
(ISBN: 9780195176650)
Mulan (1998) - Disney
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/taoism/
https://www.chinaholiday.com/scenic-of-shangqiu/shangqiu-zhang-xun-temple-shangqiu/