Page 136 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

Han
Dynasty
Ch'ang-an

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West Market
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Map 9 Ch'ang-an in the Tang ii i
Dynajty.
India and Southeast Asia, merchants from central Asia and Ara-
bia, Turks, Mongols, and Japanese, many of whom are humor-
ously caricatured in the pottery figurines from T'ang graves.
Moreover, they brought with them their own faiths, which flour-
ished in an atmosphere of rare religious tolerance and curiosity.
T'ai-tsung himself, though personally inclined toward Taoism, at
the same time for reasons of state supported the Confucians and
strengthened the administrative system. This astonishing man
also treated the Buddhists with respect—notably that great trav-
eller and theologian Hsuan-tsang, who had left China in defiance
of an imperial order in 629, and after incredible hardships and de-
lays had reached India, where he acquired a reputation as a scholar
and metaphysician. In 645 he returned to Ch'ang-an, bringing
with him the texts of the idealistic Vijhanavadin School of the Ma-
hayana. The emperor came out to meet him, and his entry into the
capital was a public triumph. Never before had Buddhism stood
so high in Chinese history; but it was not the only foreign religion
on Chinese soil. There were also Zoroastrian temples, Mani-
chaean and Nestorian Christian churches in the capital and, from
the mid-eighth century onward, Moslem mosques; and the art of
this period is as full of imported motifs as were the streets of
Ch'ang-an with foreigners.
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