s excesses in display and debauch.
He is reported to have hastened his accession to the throne by
the murder of his father. A peaceful end to such a reign would
have been out of keeping with the course of human events. Li Yuen,
one of his generals, rose against him, and he was assassinated
in Nanking.

By wisdom and courage Li Yuen succeeded in setting up a new dynasty
which he called _T'ang_ (618 A. D.): After a long period of
unrest, it brought to the distracted provinces an era of unwonted
prosperity; it held the field for nearly three hundred years, and
surpassed all its predecessors in splendour.

[Page 119]
CHAPTER XXII

THE T'ANG DYNASTY, 618-907 A. D.
(20 Emperors)

_An Augustan Age--A Pair of Poets--The Coming of Christianity--The
Empress Wu--System of Examinations_

I have seen a river plunge into a chasm and disappear. After a
subterranean course of many miles it rose to the surface fuller,
stronger than before. No man saw from whence it drew its increment
of force, but the fact was undeniable. This is just what took place
in China at this epoch.

It is comforting to know that during those centuries of turmoil the
Chinese were not wholly engrossed with war and rapine. The T'ang
dynasty is conspicuously the Augustan Age. Literature reappears
in a more perfect form than under the preceding reigns. The prose
writers of that period are to the present day studied as models
of composition, which cannot be affirmed of the writers of any
earlier epoch. Poetry, too, shone forth with dazzling splendour.
A galaxy of poets made their appearance, among whom two particular
stars were Tufu and Lipai, the Dryden and Pope of Chinese literature.

The following specimen from Lipai who is deemed the highest poetical
genius in the annals of China, may
[Page 120]
show, even in its Western dress, something of his peculiar talent:

ON DRINKING ALONE BY MOONLIGHT[*]

Here are flowers and here is wine,
But where's a friend with me to join
Hand in hand and heart to heart
In one full cup before we part?

Rather than to drink alone,
I'll make bold to ask the moon
To condescend to lend her face
The hour and the scene to grace.

Lo, she answers, and she brings
My shadow on her silver wings;
That makes three, and we shall be.
I ween, a merry company

The modest moon declines the cup,
But shadow promptly takes it up,
And when I dance my shadow fleet
Keeps measure with my flyin