On the basis of the anti-correlation of their palaeoclimatic proxy for the strength of the East Asian winter monsoon from Lake Huguang Maar, China, with stalagmite records of the strength of the summer monsoon, Yancheva et al. claim that the strengths of the summer and winter monsoons are anti-correlated on a decadal timescale. They argue that the summer rainfall deficit during ad 700-900 that they infer from their evidence of a stronger winter monsoon, in conjunction with a Tanros battle, led to the collapse of the Tang dynasty (ad 618-907). Using historical climate records, we show here that most cold winters during ad 700-900 were associated with relatively wet summers, indicating that the strengths of the winter and summer monsoons were not negatively correlated during this period.