You know the feeling. There's mention of something you only have a dim idea of, which sends you to wikipedia. An hour or two later and you are 5 layers deep in a part of the world, history or ideas you'd never heard of. 

So it was for me today. Here are my 5 new wikipedia links:

1. An Lushan Rebellion An year long rebellion against the Tang that led to the largest proportional loss of life in history.
2. Tang Dynasty The dynasty most often considered to be the most cosmopolitan, rivaling the height of the Roman Empire in grandeur and influence.
3. The Battle of Talas A  between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate along with their ally the Tibetan Empire and the Chinese Tang Dynasty, then under Emperor Xuanzong, in July 751 C.E. Perhaps the origin of paper's move to the West.
4. Nanzhao A distinct people in what is now Southern China.
5. Man'yōgana The old Japanese use of Chinese characters to phonetically write their our language.