Background. The prosperity of China during the Tang dynasty (618-907) may be partially attributed to the development of the Silk Road and other land and water routes to the West as early as the Han period (206 B.C.E. - 220 C.E.). By 649 China controlled Kucha and Khotan in Central Asia and was beginning to conquer Korea (then known as Great Silla). By that time the Chinese had also established relations with Japan, as well as Funan and Champa in Southeast Asia. Between 629 and 645 the great Chinese theologian Xuanzang traveled in India and then brought home the texts of Mahayana Buddhism as well as Buddhist culture. By the middle of the eighth century, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeanism, Nestorian Christianity, and Islam had all arrived in China from the Near East and were established in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty. Prince Shotoku...