During the Tang dynasty, East meets West. The Tang would endure for one thousand years. The great capital of Xian reflected an openness to new cultural influences.
The monk Xuangang brought the wisdom of India to China that was part of a golden age. There was a balance between authoritarian rule and the humanistic side of the culture. The great pathway of exchange was the Silk Road.
Luoyang is a delightful old city. Outside its limits lies the commemoration of the Buddha in a colossal form on a cliff. The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths. There was personal conscience and compassion. At the monastery of the White Horse, the manuscripts that Xuangang brought back were translated.
In the year 600 AD, the Mandate of Heaven had passed to the Tang. An emblem of the age is Xuangang. Curious about the Buddha age 26, he traveled to India. His sixteen-year adventure became the stuff of fairy tales and the stories that came to be portrayed in shadow puppetry.
When Xuangang returned, he came to the Tang capital and began his monumental translation project at the behest of the emperor, Taizong, who may be the closest to the Confucian ideal of the virtuous ruler. The project is comparable to the Arabic translations of ancient Greek treatises. He also had an insatiable appetite for learning. He oversaw the change from a feudal society to a bureaucratic state. When Xuangang died in 626, he left the legacy of adding to the three great teachings of China: Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.
The Tang was also a great age of ships and maritime travel. Yangzhou was the great commercial center of the Tang south. The Grand Canal connected north and south. With sophisticated international trading, this is the beginning of the modern.
The South becomes the Chinese maritime Silk Road, fanning out to the West. Thanks to the ships, tea becomes the most popular beverage in the world. In 638, the Emperor's proclamation of the Nestorian Steele announces the coming of Christianity to China. Li Bai, a great poet, writes of the fighting in the West.
Now, the Tang empire becomes overstretched in the West. There approaches the end of the dream of a greater, more expansive China. An Lushan was the bogeyman. His rebellion marked the gathering storm. The emperor's beloved concubine Lady Yang is strung up on a tree. Eight years of horror unfold.
The ninth century is a time of famines and rebellion. The Mandate of Heaven has spoken. 907 marks the last Tang emperor's abdication. But a new age of greatness will arrive after the Tang has laid the foundation of a new, international civilization.
The monk Xuangang brought the wisdom of India to China that was part of a golden age. There was a balance between authoritarian rule and the humanistic side of the culture. The great pathway of exchange was the Silk Road.
Luoyang is a delightful old city. Outside its limits lies the commemoration of the Buddha in a colossal form on a cliff. The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths. There was personal conscience and compassion. At the monastery of the White Horse, the manuscripts that Xuangang brought back were translated.
In the year 600 AD, the Mandate of Heaven had passed to the Tang. An emblem of the age is Xuangang. Curious about the Buddha age 26, he traveled to India. His sixteen-year adventure became the stuff of fairy tales and the stories that came to be portrayed in shadow puppetry.
When Xuangang returned, he came to the Tang capital and began his monumental translation project at the behest of the emperor, Taizong, who may be the closest to the Confucian ideal of the virtuous ruler. The project is comparable to the Arabic translations of ancient Greek treatises. He also had an insatiable appetite for learning. He oversaw the change from a feudal society to a bureaucratic state. When Xuangang died in 626, he left the legacy of adding to the three great teachings of China: Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.
The Tang was also a great age of ships and maritime travel. Yangzhou was the great commercial center of the Tang south. The Grand Canal connected north and south. With sophisticated international trading, this is the beginning of the modern.
The South becomes the Chinese maritime Silk Road, fanning out to the West. Thanks to the ships, tea becomes the most popular beverage in the world. In 638, the Emperor's proclamation of the Nestorian Steele announces the coming of Christianity to China. Li Bai, a great poet, writes of the fighting in the West.
Now, the Tang empire becomes overstretched in the West. There approaches the end of the dream of a greater, more expansive China. An Lushan was the bogeyman. His rebellion marked the gathering storm. The emperor's beloved concubine Lady Yang is strung up on a tree. Eight years of horror unfold.
The ninth century is a time of famines and rebellion. The Mandate of Heaven has spoken. 907 marks the last Tang emperor's abdication. But a new age of greatness will arrive after the Tang has laid the foundation of a new, international civilization.
