The new powerful leader who emerged from that struggle starting in 618 was Li Shimin. Some of the more notable accomplishments of Li Shimin involved restoring stable government, developing technological advances, and by utilizing the "free labor and military service of millions of peasants" he helped bring in enormous tax revenues to the point that the government was "more affluent than it had ever been." Meantime during the time that the Tang dynasty was emerging as the power source, Buddhism helped to stimulate closer contact with other countries and cultures. According to Ping Yao, writing in the peer-reviewed journal Nan Nu, Chinese Buddhism became "instrumental in the development of mothers' identity and in the conceptualization of ideal maternal virtues" (Yao, 2008, p. 57). By examining the epitaphs that are left from the Tang dynasty, Ping Yao has determined that children whose mothers were strong Buddhists mostly complied with their mothers' desire "to leave the household life or to be cremated rather than be buried." Children of Buddhist mothers in the Tang dynasty were also...

Why is this interesting? First of all, it should be pointed out that prior to the Tang dynasty, it was criminal to have a family member created; and the Tang dynasty kept that policy except in cases where the family was "simply fulfilling the dying wish of a parent" (Yao, 59). But moreover, it shows that even though Confucianism was the basic foundation of Tang China, Buddhism was flourishing at the same time. Indeed, the Tang has been called the "golden age" of Chinese Buddhism. Yao explains that the "mingling between Buddhism and Confucianism resulted not only in mutual accommodation and transformation, but also interactions" that ultimately helped to change the Tang society (Yao, 60).
Works Cited

The Cosmopolitan Empires of Sui and Tang China: The Rise of the Sui Dynasty / The Tang

Builds an Empire / The Growth of Chinese Culture / The Tang Dynasty Declines.

Yao, Ping. "Good Karmic Connections: Buddhist Mothers…