Page 137 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

14$ Tumulus and processional way of
That China enjoyed a hundred years of peace and prosperity at tomb of Kao-uung (died 68 j) and Wu
Tic->'icn (died 705), Ch*icn-hsicn,
home and enormous prestige abroad was due not only to the
Shensi.
achievement of Li Shih-min but also to two outstanding person-
alities who succeeded him. Kao-tsung, who ascended the throne
in 649, was a weak and benevolent man, dominated by his concu-
bine, Wu Tse-t'ien, who after his death in 683 had the shocking ef-
frontery to declare herself "emperor." But such was the ability of
this cruel and pious woman (her Buddhist patronage is immortal-
ised in some of the finest sculpture at T'ien-lung-shan), that Con-
fucian ministers loyally served her until her forced abdication in
705 at the age of eighty-two brought to an end two decades of sta-
bility and peace. Seven years later the throne passed to the man
who, as Hsuan-tsung (Ming Huang, 713-756), was to preside
over the most brilliant court in Chinese history, a period compa-
rable to the Gupta in the reign of King Harsha or to Florence under
Lorenzo de' Medici. Like T'ai-tsung, he cherished and upheld the
Confucian order, and in 754 he founded the Imperial Academy of
Letters (Han-lin Yuan), which, asjoscph Nccdham has observed,
is older by nearly a thousand years than any existing European
academy. All the talent and wealth of the country that was not
given to the construction and adornment of Buddhist temples
seemed to be concentrated on his court, his palaces, his favourite
scholars, poets, and painters, his schools of drama and music, his
orchestras (two of which came from central Asia), and, finally, on
his mistress, the lovely Yang Kuei-fei. Through her influence, An
Lu-shan, a general of Mongol or Tungus origin, had become a fa-
vourite with Ming Huang. Suddenly, in 755, he revolted, and the