c relations were
maintained with India. The Indian Emperor Harsha sent an envoy in 641
and two Chinese missions were despatched in return. The second, led by
Wang Hsuan-Ts'e,[646] did not arrive until after the death of Harsha
when a usurper had seized the throne. Wang Hsuan-Ts'e collected a
small army in Tibet, dethroned the usurper and brought him as a
prisoner to China.

The latter half of the seventh century is dominated by the figure of
the Dowager Empress Wu, the prototype of the celebrated lady who took
charge of China's fate in our own day and, like her, superhuman in
decision and unscrupulousness, yet capable of inspiring loyalty. She
was a concubine of the Emperor Tai Tsung and when he died in 649 lived
for a short time as a Buddhist nun. The eventful life of Wu Hou, who
was at least successful in maintaining order at home and on the
frontiers, belongs to the history of China rather than of Buddhism.
She was not an ornament of the faith nor an example of its principles,
but, mindful of the protection it had once afforded her, she gave it
her patronage even to the extent of making a bonze named Huai I[647]
the minister of her mature passions when she was nearly seventy
years old. A magnificent temple, at which 10,000 men worked daily, was
built for him, but the Empress was warned that he was collecting a
body of vigorous monks nominally for its service, but really for
political objects. She ordered these persons to be banished. Huai I
was angry and burnt the temple. The Empress at first merely ordered it
to be rebuilt, but finding that Huai I was growing disrespectful, she
had him assassinated.

We hear that the Mahamegha-sutra[648] was presented to her and
circulated among the people with her approval. About 690 she assumed
divine honours and accommodated these pretensions to Buddhism by
allowing herself to be styled Maitreya or Kuan-yin. After her death at
the age of 80, there does not appear to have been any religious
change, for two monks were appointed to high office and orders were
issued that Buddhist and Taoist temples should be built in every
Department. But the earlier part of the reign of Hsuan Tsung[649]
marks a temporary reaction. It was represented to him that rich
families wasted their substance on religious edifices and that the
inmates were well-to-do persons desirous of escaping the burdens of
public service. He accordingly forbade the building of monasteries,
making of images and copying o