740s: Wine consumption is celebrated as a means for poets to reach spiritual understanding.

Today: Excessive alcohol consumption is frequently associated with liver problems, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, traffic fatalities, and mental illness.

740s: A poet in China becomes famous by becoming a member of the emperor's royal court.

Today: Few Americans can name America's current Poet Laureate, Louise Glück.

740s: China is an international center for culture: people from all over the Asian Peninsula travel there for trade and experience the greatest artistic and philosophical minds in the world. Meanwhile, Europe is mired in a period so empty of cultural achievement that it is remembered as the Dark Ages.

Today: China's culture is hidden by a totalitarian government that represses political and artistic freedom in an attempt to manage a population of over a billion people.

740s: The moon is...