ABSTRACT
Back of the invention of printing lies the use of paper, which is the most certain and the most complete of China's inventions. The period of the T'ang dynasty was one of the most glorious in the history of China. The early T'ang emperors of the century or more before Charlemagne did in China much the same work that Charlemagne did in Europe in restoring the old Empire on a new basis and bringing to an end the long era of chaos and disorder. The early T'ang emperors of the century or more before Charlemagne did in China much the same work that Charlemagne did in Europe in restoring the old Empire on a new basis and bringing to an end the long era of chaos and disorder. But the chaos of China's Dark Ages had never been so complete as that of Europe, and classical civilization was first restored, then surpassed, far more quickly than in the Western world.
