In this epoch Buddhism helped to create the first beginnings of large-scale capitalism.  In connection with the growing foreign trade, the monasteries grew in importance as repositories of capital; the temples bought more and more land, became more and more wealthy, and so gained increasing influence over economic affairs.  They accumulated large quantities of metal, which they stored in the form of bronze figures of Buddha, and with these stocks they exercised controlling influence over the money market.  There is a constant succession of records of the total weight of the bronze figures, as an indication of the money value they represented.  It is interesting to observe that temples and monasteries acquired also shops and had rental income from them.  They further operated many mills, as did the owners of private estates (now called “chuang”) and thus controlled the price of flour, and polished rice.

The cultural influence of Buddhism found expression in new and improved translations of countless texts, and in the passage of pilgrims along the caravan routes, helped by the merchants, as far as western Asia and India, like the famous Hsuean-tsang.  Translations were made not only from Indian or other languages into Chinese, but also, for instance, from Chinese into the Uighur and other Turkish tongues, and into Tibetan, Korean, and Japanese.

The attitude of the Turks can only be understood when we realize that the background of events during the time of empress Wu was formed by the activities of groups of the eastern Chinese gentry.  The northern Turks, who since 630 had been under Chinese overlordship, had fought many wars of liberation against the Chinese; and through the conquest of neighbouring Turks they had gradually become once more, in the decade-and-a-half after the death of Kao Tsung, a great Turkish realm.  In 698 the Turkish khan, at the height of his power, demanded a Chinese prince for his daughter—­not, as had been usual in the past, a princess for his son.  His intention, no doubt, was to conquer China with the prince’s aid, to remove the empress Wu, and to restore the T’ang dynasty—­but under Turkish overlordship!  Thus, when the empress Wu sent a member of her own family, the khan rejected him and demanded the restoration of the deposed T’ang emperor.  To enforce this demand, he embarked on a great campaign against China.  In this the Turks must have been able to rely on the support of a strong group inside China, for before the Turkish attack became dangerous the empress Wu recalled the deposed emperor, at first as “heir to the throne”; thus she yielded to the khan’s principal demand.