CHINESE  HISTORY:  SECOND  PERIOD  ii

generations  have  vied  with  one  another  in  heaping  obloquy
on  the  name  of  the  Empress  Wu  Hou.
During  her  reign  occurred  an  invasion  of  a  Tartar  tribe,
the  Khitan,  who  lived  in  the  north  of  Shensi.  This  was  a
precursor  of  expeditions  that  were  to  become  more  and
more  frequent  as  time  passed  on.
After  the  retirement  of  the  Empress  Wu  Hou,  the  Tang
Dynasty  began  to  decline,  the  succeeding  Emperors  being,
for  the  most  part,  weak  in  character,  and  the  peace  of  the
Empire  being,  in  consequence,  frequently  disturbed  by
internal  rebellions.
The  Tang  Dynasty  lasted  altogether  for  289  years,  and,  as
many  celebrated  historians  and  poets  lived  during  that  period,
may  be  regarded  as  the  Augustan  Age  of  Chinese  literature.
Among  the  noteworthy  events  that  took  place  while  it
held  sway  over  China,  may  be  mentioned  the  further  conquest ­
  of  Korea  in  a.d.  667.
The  King  of  Korea  was  forced  to  become  a  vassal  of
China,  and  his  territory  was  divided  up  into  five  provinces,
Chinese  and  native  officials  being  appointed  to  rule  over
them  conjointly.  Korea  remained  a  vassal  state  of  China
until  the  recent  China-Japan  war  in  1894.
The  Nestorian  missionaries  from  Persia  carried  on  their
propaganda  in  China  during  this  period.  They  seem  to
have  met  at  first  with  success,  and  to  have  been  regarded
with  considerable  favor.  By  imperial  sanction  a  tablet
recording  the  tenets  of  their  Church  was  erected  near  the
city  of  Sianfu.
As  an  evidence  that  the  Chinese  have  always  regarded
the  Tang  Dynasty  with  feelings  of  pride  is  the  fact  that  one
°f  the  names  by  which  they  call  themselves,  especially  in
the  South,  is  “  the  men  of  Tang.”
After  the  Tang  Dynasty,  we  come  to  what  in  Chinese
history  is  called
The  Epoch  of  the  Five  Dynasties  (a.d.  907-960)
Five  brief  dynasties,  the  Later  Liang,  the  Later  Tang,
the  Later  Tsin,  the  Later  Han,  and  the  Later  Chow,  followed