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Buddhism, although resisted by the Confucianists and Taouists, gained ground. A bone of Buddha was brought into China with great pomp and ceremony. Early in the reign of the T'angs, Mohammedanism first appeared in China. The practice of cramping women's feet is said by some to have originated at this time. In the early part of this era, China was prosperous.
Under a strong but dissolute ruler immediately preceding, China had once more become a united empire, undivided against itself; and although wars and rebellions were not wanting to disturb the even tenor of its way, the general picture presented to us under the new dynasty of the T'angs is one of national peace, prosperity, and progress.
Now, though these two people were poor, they were very happy, for the young man loved his mother dearly, and the old woman thought there was no one like her son in all the world. Their friends, however, felt sorry for them and said, "What a pity we have no grasshoppers here, so that the T'angs could have some food from heaven!"
EVENTS IN THIS PERIOD. Under the T'angs, the empire was united, peaceful, and prosperous. One of the most remarkable occurrences was the usurpation and successful reign of a woman, the Empress Wu. Her policy was wise, and her generals were victorious. Under this dynasty, there were productions in poetry of an excellence never surpassed in China.
Between the Hans and the new epoch beginning with the T'angs, diplomatic intercourse was begun with Japan; Christianity was introduced by the Nestorians; a new impulse was given to the spread of Buddhism; the first traces of the art of printing are found; and the Yang-tse and the Yellow Rivers were connected by a canal.
We might here spy out into that time, which will lie beyond the scope of these lecture; and see the glory of the T'angs begin in China in 618; Corea's one historic age of splendor, in art and also in military prowess, at its highest point about 680; the era of Shotoku Daishi, saint, sage, prince and protagonist of civilization in Japan, from about 580 to 620; the rise of Siam, and of Tibet, into strength and culture and Buddhism, in the first half of the seventh century; then, looking westward, the wonderful career of Mohammed in Arabia, who gave the impetus that rescued civilization first in West Asia and then, when in the thirteenth century a new European manvantara was ready to open, in Europe also: rescued civilization first in West Asia and then, when in the thirteenth century a new European manvantara was ready to open, in Europe also; an impetus which worked on the intellectual-cultural plane until it had brought things to the point where H. P. Blavatsky might come to give things a huge twist towards the spiritual, and where Katherine Tingley might accomplish that which all the ages had been expecting, and the whole creation groaning and travailing to see.
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