The reign of Liu Heng was immortalized as the very “pinnacle of Wen and Jing.” During his reign, taxes upon peasants were only 3 percent and would be often exempted when bad harvests occurred. Liu Heng’s policies created a strong country and a prosperous nation. After that period of national prosperity, there was said to be so much money in the warehouse that some gold hadn’t even been taken out and used before the strings that secured the bags had rotted away.
In the seventh and the eighth century, China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) entered into an age of peace and prosperity and for the first time led the world. The merits attributed to the second emperor Li Shimin who ascended the throne in 626 AD were many and various. He adopted a set of “Quietude” and “Wu Wei” policies popular with the common people. A famous Silver Age in history was created.
Li once said:“Managing the country is like planting a tree.
Branches and leaves will grow freely only when the root is secure. When the emperor is free, the common people will also live and work in peace and contentment.” The most notable adherent of Taoism during the Tang Dynasty was the emperor, Li Longji (also known as Tang Xuanzong) who came to power in 712 AD. Before his succession, the Tang Empire had come close to collapse and ruin, because of the policies pursued by Li’s grandmother Wu Zetian—an empress who had greedily grasped power.
After Li Longji mounted the throne, he deliberately promoted Taoism in the administering of state affairs and enabled the dynasty to recover rapidly after decades of civil strife. Li Longji, the fifth emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was also the first emperor in Chinese history to personally annotate the Tao Te Ching. The country entered an unprecedented era of power and splendor during his reign. Taoism contributed towards a new era of development after Li Longji. Modern scholar Yan Lingfeng has calculated that since the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), there have been over 1,600 kinds of writings about Lao Tzu, while in recent years, various annotated versions of TaoTeChing still emerge every year: ample testimony to the persistent relevance of this work.
The famous CarvedTranslationoftheTaoTeChing was carved by Pan Youquan, an 80 year old man. Pan used to teach world history in a middle school. He has a wide range of hobbies. Of them, painting, calligraphy and seal cutting are his especial passions, an essential part of his life for five to six decades. After retirement, his overriding passion is to promote Lao Tzu to the world.
When Pan was 60, he tried to carve two small seals on the day of Lao Tzu’s birthday. A flash of inspiration struck: considering that he was a countryman of Lao Tzu and loved carving so much why not carve the entire original text of the Tao Te Ching. People could appreciate his craftsmanship and simultaneously, learn more about the great Sage and his teachings. When Pan started the carving he was in his 60s. It was a monumental undertaking to carve all 5,000 characters of the Tao Te Ching on stones of varying shapes and sizes.
After he had finished carving, the result was not very satisfactory to Pan, so he just smoothed the stone and started carving again. Eventually, Pan realized his great dream, namely turning Tao Te Chinginto over 700 stone seals of various sizes, on the eve of Lao Tzu’s birthday anniversary in 1993 after six years’ of remarkable effort. Eight times Pan was not happy with the final product. Eight times he began again. The carving in the end used up some 2,000 stones.