Works Cited

Info

"Tang Dynasty."travelchinaguide. 2005. travelchinaguide. 21 April 2013.                                                        <http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/tang/#>

   

"Tang Dynasty."thinkquest. 2002. thinkquest. 23 April 2013.                                                                   >         <http://library.thinkquest.org/12255/library/dynasty/tang.html>

Department of Asian Art. "Tang Dynasty (618–906)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan                      Museum of Art, 2000–. 24 April 2013 <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tang/hd_tang.htm>

Pictures  

 "Classic Imperial China."ceramicstudies 2012. westminsteruniversity. 21April 2013 <http://www.ceramicstudies.me.uk/histx112%20PART%201.html> 

 

opininal

The Tang Dynasty Is The Golden Age Of China 

By: The Masked Time Traveler

          The Tang Dynasty is the golden age of China. It is were art and literature truly have taken off. With the major religions including Taoism and Confucianism, many people are beginning to incorporate art into their daily lives. Some very famous artists and poets seem to be appearing. These include Wang Wei, Wu Daozi, and Yan Liben. Not only are these people great artist, they often wrote scrolls and poems. Many very famous poems, including the Thirteen Emperors Scroll, were written and published all around China. Another reason why the Tang Dynasty is indefinitely the golden age of China is the military achievements. The army of the Tang Dynasty is very well experienced, and constantly busy with invaders. The empire is being attacked from the west by Tibet, to the east by Korea, and the north by Vietnam. The army will be able to hold them off for a long time, and the people seem to be able to prosper under a Taoist ruler. This is why the Tang Dynasty was the Golden Age of all of China.

Interview

Danny: Hello everyone, today I'm with the very prestigious emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong. It's great to be here with you Xuan

Xuanzong: Yes it is isn't it.

Danny: Um yes, anyway i am going to ask you a series of questions today, and i would appreciate it if you could answer them. First question, how long did you serve your empire as emperor?

Xuanzong: I gratefully served my wonderful empire for just a mere 43 years. This time was the golden age of our modern known country, China. During this time, there were three major religions. The first, Taoism, is my very own. This being the most gracious was followed by Confucianism. Then came the terror of Buddhism. This outside religion polluted our people with thoughts of death and not life. I made the philosophical decision to attempt to abolish this terrible religion. I destroyed all of their temples and shrines and melted all of their expensive things to make hard currency. I have been planning this since almost the day I was born in 685 A.D. and I, being the ideological genius I am, know I am going to die in 762A.D.

Danny: Well you truly are an amazing emperor aren't you. The next question I would like to ask, involves the acquisitions of you fleeing your empire. Is this true? 

Xuanzong: Well in a way. Those filthy separatists gave me no choice. It all started when I decided to send troops away. I sent them all over Asia conquering and protecting our great empire. That was my mistake. I was left with an empire unguarded from the inside. A group of lowlife separatists took me down from the inside. I had no other escape but to flee.

Danny: Understood. Next question, what was your family like?

Xuanzong: Actually, I had a wife and many sons. My wife died tragically, and I slipped into a depressed state of mind. I needed someone in my life. That was when my son introduced me to his wife. She was beautiful. I knew she was going to be mine. I forced her to become a Taoist nun, and once she had nearly been forgotten, I took her into my palace and made her my senior ranking concubine. She ended up having so much power, that she caused the downfall of my empire!

Danny: Oh how tragic! You must be dumbstruck. Okay almost done here emperor. I must ask, what is with the eyewitness accounts telling me you forced your own son Li Yang to commit suicide?

Xuanzong: Yes i did but trust me it was for a good reason. My son was put in his governmental position with one specific job. That job was to head protection. He did not come through with this job, so therefore i was forced to demote him and took drastic action as his punishment. So yes, there was a reason to my sons death.

Danny: I truly thank you for your time here today, but may i ask one more question? Ok, why did you begin to put non-Han generals in the Tang armies?

Xuanzong: I did this because i was talked into it. Li Linfu managed to talk me into buying the scheme. Li said that non-Han generals would be more loyal to me. I thought about it for a long while, and then decided Li must be right. I put them in the position, and it all fell apart. All the generals took their brigades out to the borders of the empire, which gave a clear path to any inside invaders.
Danny: You know X-man, I really appreciate you coming. You gave me a great understanding of the tang. Thank you.
Xuanzong: Your very welcome.



Tang picture collage

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The Tour Of The Tang From Your House

Figure 1: This horse shows a lot of typical art in the Tang. Art in the Tang flourished because of the invention of glaze. This art was very important to the Tang because it helped to sell more on the Silk Road, greater increasing their profits.

 

 --> Figure 4: 1: This Taoist symbol is very important also because it is the second of the 2 major religions

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 Figure 3 1: This Buddhist statue is important because Buddhism is one of the major religions of the Tang Dynasty

Figure 2 1: This plate is a good example of metalworkings of people in the Tang. It allowed for much more trading on the Silk Road, which created many more profits.

 

--> Figure 5: 1: This map shows the geography of China. It includes how the Tang is in China Proper and how they have many smaller, but known hostile countries around them.

Map of The Tang Dunasty

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Map of The Tang Dynasty

        This is a map of the land owned by china during the Tang Dynasty. As you can see, most of the land owned during the Tang was what is known as China Proper. It is the low-lying, very fertile area where most of China’s population and food come from. Although most of the land is in China Proper, there is one stretch of land in the unforgiving land known as Outer China. The Tang Kingdom is surrounded by many smaller kingdoms, but had a large threat from the Tibetan Empire. They launched many malicious attacks on the Tangs due to a refused marriage proposal. This is the Geography of the Tang Dynasty for all you faithful readers out there.

Buddhism Persecuted

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Buddhism Persecuted
By:The Masked Blogger

             In the Tang Empire, A.D.845, Buddhism was being persecuted as ordered by the Emperor. Thousands of Buddhists were killed, almost five thousand monasteries were destroyed, and forty thousand temples and shrines were burned. The cause of this all is the interlacing religion that somewhat oppose each other. These two religions are Buddhism and Confucianism. Many Tang guards were under Confucian discipline, and felt Buddhism to be a disruptive force in China. These guards were able to persuade the Taoist emperor into persecuting unfairly. Another main reason why Buddhism was prosecuted was because of money. Back then, as well as now, people donated money, land, and other objects to Buddhist monks and nuns in hopes of gaining spiritual balance and being sent into the afterlife on good terms. Thus, monks and nuns had a lot of money to spend to renovate temples and shrines and have large celebrations. These temples were destroyed, and the rubble was used for selling and trading. All of the metal objects in the temples were plundered, bagged, and were melted down and stamped to be used as hard currency. After the plundering, monks and other high ranked Buddhist are going to be forced to return to lives of regular taxpayers in a Confucius society.

           The final reason for the persecution of Buddhists in this age is an opinion of the emperors. The emperor believed that this outside religion was a burden to China and a religion that was disrupting his peace. He believed prosecuting and destroying their religion was philosophical and ideological. He thought this would make people happy and allow him to have peace. Well you’ve heard it here, Buddhism is falling, and there is a projected rate at which they will rise again and again be persecuted at about 900A.D. I thank you for your time and consideration.