He was succeeded by his son Emperor Daizong, who was eventually able to kill Li Fuguo, but the tradition of eunuchs in power had started.

His mother Consort Yang Guipin (posthumously Empress Yuanxian) was from the imperial clan of the preceding Sui dynasty.

Her great-grandfather Yang Shida (楊士達) was a high -level official during Sui and had been given the title Prince of Zheng (鄭王).

Li Siqian, whose mother Consort Zhao was then Emperor Xuanzong's favorite concubine, was created crown prince.

Li Sisheng, although his mother alive, was raised by Emperor Xuanzong's wife Empress Wang, who was herself sonless.

In 724, due to the machinations of Consort Wu, who had by then become Emperor Xuanzong's favorite concubine, Empress Wang was deposed, and she died shortly after.

[7] In 729, when there was a Khitan and Kumo Xi incursion, Li Jun was put in titular command of the army sent to repel the Khitan and the Xi, with Emperor Xuanzong's second cousin Li Hui (李褘) the Prince of Xin'an in actual command of the army.

Wei and Huangfu were arrested and interrogated by Yang, Wang Hong (王鉷), and Ji Wen (吉溫), but Emperor Xuanzong, who did not want the case to further explode into a major incident although he believed Li Linfu's accusations, demoted Wei and Huangfu out of the capital and, for the time being, stopped the investigation.

The general Wang Zhongsi, who was raised with Li Heng inside the palace because his father Wang Haibin (王海賓) had died in battle in service to the empire, was accused of interfering with the campaign of another general, Dong Yan'guang (董延光), against Tibetan Empire.

At the intercession of another general, Geshu Han, however, Wang was spared from death, and Li Heng was not implicated.

In late 755, with Yang Guozhong repeatedly trying to provoke An into a rebellion, An finally did, from his base at Fanyang (范陽, in modern Beijing).

The following day, July 15, the imperial guards accompanying the emperor, angry at Yang Guozhong, rose at Mawei Station (馬嵬, in modern Baoji, Shaanxi) and killed him and forced Emperor Xuanzong to kill Consort Yang as well.

However, an immediate attempt to do so, commanded by the chancellor Fang Guan, was defeated by the Yan forces near Chang'an with heavy losses.

Meanwhile, around the same time, Emperor Suzong's brother Li Lin the Prince of Yong tried to mount a challenge against him, seeking to effectively secede with the region south of the Yangtze River, but was quickly defeated and killed by forces loyal to Emperor Suzong.

Emperor Suzong, finding it difficult to recapture Chang'an just with his own troops, then entered into an alliance with Huige's Bayanchur Khan Yaoluoge Moyanchuo, where Huige forces arrived at Emperor Suzong's then-headquarters at Fengxiang (鳳翔, in modern Baoji) to join the elite Tang forces recalled from the Anxi Circuit and the Western Regions (Xiyu).

(Emperor Suzong did so by promising that the Huige forces would be permitted to pillage the Chang'an region once it was recaptured.)

Emperor Suzong chose not to do so and decided to attack Chang'an first, with Li Chu in command of the joint forces.

The forces recaptured Chang'an in fall 757, allowing Emperor Suzong to rebuild his administration in the capital.

[13] An Qingxu fled to Yecheng and took up position there, but most Yan territory resubmitted to Tang, and war appeared to be poised to end.

To cement the alliance with Huige, Emperor Suzong also gave his daughter Princess Ningguo in marriage to Yaoluoge Moyanchuo.

[15] A massacre of foreign Arab and Persian Muslim merchants by former Yan rebel general Tian Shengong happened during the An Lushan rebellion in the Yangzhou massacre (760),[16][17] In 758, however, one of the major Yan generals who had submitted to Tang, Shi Siming, claiming that there had been a plot by Emperor Suzong and the Tang general Li Guangbi, to have his subordinate Wu Cheng'en (烏承恩) assassinate him, re-rebelled and advanced south.

However, his further attempts to advance against Chang'an was blocked by Li Guangbi, and the Yan and Tang forces went into a stalemate.

Meanwhile, Emperor Xuanzong settled into a routine at Xingqing Palace, with Chen Xuanli (陳玄禮) and Gao Lishi attending to him.

Also often attending to him were his sister Li Chiying (李持盈) the Princess Yuzhen, the lady-in-waiting Ru Xianyuan (如仙媛), and the eunuchs Wang Cheng'en (王承恩) and Wei Yue (魏悅).

The imperial musicians often played for him, and he often climbed up Changqing Tower (長慶樓) to receive well wishes from the populace.

He also often held feasts for generals and people from Jiannan, with Li Chiying and Ru serving as hostesses.

It was said that with Emperor Suzong resting at Changsheng Hall (長生殿), the soldiers dragged Empress Zhang and the attending ladies in waiting and eunuchs away from his presence.