Gauzo's belief in Daoism

             Emperor Gauzo was a big believer in Daoism and he announced that he wanted to make it a major philosophies in his culture, but the people of this dynasty did not want too. Many people in his dynasty did believe in Daoism but they did not want to make it as important as Gauzo did.

Daoism was equality between good and bad and made Gauzo rule less harshly. It something good happened something bad was required to happen, but the people of the Tang Dynasty did not want to in force that as much as Gauzo did. This religion of Dao was opposites, life and death or dark and light. No matter what they did good something bad was awaiting and the same with if they did something bad and good thing would be the next thing.

The people of Tang all believed in Confucianism so they thought that Gauzo should make that more important that Daoism so they people would revoke against him. Having had Confucianism around for so long it was time for something new and different so the people do not start to say Gauzo isn’t changing anything and he isn’t doing anything. If the majority of people in his dynasty believed in Confucianism more, why would Gauzo encourage Daoism when he had a chance of some of the population leaving and make him step down from the throne. The people of the Tang Dynasty have a right to believe in what they want and have the freedom of making that choice, not always having to fallow their leaders belief.

Interview with Emperor Gaozu

Reporter- Good afternoon Emperor Gaozu, thank you for joining me today, how was your trip here?
Gaozu- Thank you for having me, my trip here was okay could of been better, but lets get started!

Reporter- As you were ruling your empire did you believe in Confucianism, Taoism or Legalism?  
Gaozu- In my empire we believed in Confucianism and Taoism. My family claimed to collapse from the family of Laozi. They believed that everything should be equal, and we inherited it from them. When Taoism first came to our empire and we encouraged people to believe in it the agreed with it but some didnt. So overall we accepted Taoism to embody everyone and to consider the bad and good. Now Confucianism is something we all believe in and have a strong trust with, and has been in this dynasty for centuries and will stay until the last emperor. We were inspired by the Han Dynasty to create Confucianism in our dynasty.

Reporter- Do you think Empress Wu was a good emperor?
Gauzo- When it comes to judging other rulers I do not know fully what there intention was as ruler or what they wanted to do, but I do know that Wu ruled with a lot of demands and I also know that she lied to her people. After he husband died she made her second son emperor but she used him because he knew that whatever she told him to do he would. For years this went on and it was pretty much her ruling just with the safety of her son protecting her. In my vision of Empress Wu she controlled with power but the capability of lying to her people. So their for I do not think she was one of the better emperors.

Reporter- If you could go back what would you do differently in your dynasty?
Gaozu- If I could go back there would be one thing that I would change. That one thing would be not to think so much about myself and more for my people. What I mean by this is I made them all change there religion and go to temple all because I believed in Taoism and some of them did but others didn't and those who didn't I pretty much forced them to or they had to pay a consequence. I would change this because looking back now I wouldn't be as harsh and I would let them get more of a say in what they wanted to believe in and not demand them as I did. Ruling a dynasty shouldn't be all about you and you want you need to let your people join in and i wish i had done that.

Reporter- What was your hardest task as being a ruler?
Gaozu- The hardest task for me way trying to bring my dynasty together. I say this because the dynasty was so big and their would be fights happening within the dynasty, their was also the whole situation with the religion changing and my people would think I would be sending out a bad message.. I'm only one person and it was very difficult for me to be and certain places at once, so I would have people deliver my messages but within the traveling and the people the messages went through the message would usually come out wrong in the end unless I wrote it out. With the religion changing, people would change. There would be brawls between Taoist and Confucianism's and it would just make everyone grow more apart from one another. That was probably the hardest thing I wen through within my time of ruling.  

Inventions of the Tang Dynasty

   Gunpowder was invented in China during the Tang dynasty. This was important invention because the people of this dynasty because when they mixed together charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter it would make gunpowder and with the gunpowder they were able to make magnificent fireworks for celebrations. During the Tang dynasty gunpowder was used as a grenade in battles against other dynasties and the emperor Gauzo's enemies. The grenades would protect the solders and help them defeat the apposing army to their benefit.
   Gunpowder was created by Huo Yao and first used as fireworks and grenades. Prior to the invention, people would often use it for hunting on hot days and when the vegetables were scarce. They would pack the gun powder into a piece of paper and when they saw and animal from in range they would throw it and even if the grenade didnt reach the animal it would still make and explosion and kill the animal.Since grenades were invented in the Tang dynasty the people were able to save food prior to the grenades for killings and they were also able to use the fur from the animals as clothing. Fireworks were as a sign of a celebration but also beauty. It was a sign of beauty because when the fireworks went off they would have fascinating colors in them and the colors would light up the sky.
   Gunpowder has really changed peoples lives in many ways. For example the grenades would help for food, but they would also help the emperor for land ruling because if they won the battles they gained land all thanks to the gunpowder killing the other army. So the gunpowder would broaden the dynasty land. Fireworks changed the peoples lives because before they only had lights and flag for celebration but now they have the fireworks to fire into the sky to make the celebrations bigger and better. As a result of the gunpowder in the society today it is now used for the same reasons but many more.

Map of the Tang Dynasty

      In the map shown above is the orange area is representing the Tang Dynasty. The black dotted line embodies the border of China. As it shows the Tang Dynasty took up a large portion of China, from almost the whole eastern coast to spreading across to further north western China. The green line that starts at the eastern coast is the Grand Canal one of the greatest canals in China. Due to the measurement scale in the key this canal was approximately 1000km. The Grand Canal would lead all the way in the to the dynasties capital Chang'an.

Front page news article or Empress Wu

            The only women in Chinese history to rule the throne, Empress Wu. It was between 618-906 AD when there was time for relative freedom for women. She was born into a wealthy family and was known for her intelligence and beauty. It was when she was in the court of Emperor Tia Tsungs when Kao Tsungs and Wu fell for one another. They eventually married, but it wasn't till Emperor Tia had passed that Kao had to make changes. He announced that Wu would be replacing Empress Wang. Therefore Wu was now the head Empress.

            Five years after there marriage Kao suffered from a stroke and died within days, so then Wu took everything into her own hands and made her second son ruler because she knew he would do anything she told him to. She made a secret police force that was ordered to demolish anyone that was in her way. Wu made remarkable changes to what people would think of women, she made scholars write biographies of famous women, she also gave her relatives a high political post. The people of the Tang Dynasty did like the way her son was ruling because he made everything equal for every one rich or poor.

            In 690 her son had stepped down from the throne and let Wu take over. As she was ruling she made many changes to the dynasty. She made the army smaller, anyone who wanted to be in the government had to take a exam first and who ever was picked she needed to be able to trust. Even though her government ruling was very precise she treated everyone equally just liker her son did. She would lower the taxes fro the poor and strengthened public works. Before when her son was in power the dynasty believed in Confucianism and Taoism, but when she was ruling she still treated everyone fairly but she believed in Buddhism and not Taoism. Wu would have her construction people come and build temples to respect what she believed in. The people of the Tang Dynasty did not like changing what their religion was at first, but as the years went on they slowly started too. Many years went on as Wu in the throne but in 705 she was forced to give up the throne to her third son, not long after he took control Wu died at the age of eighty.

Religion and calture of the Tang Dynasty

In the Tang dynasty Taoism was a big philosophies. Gauzo built a temple for Louzi and where he was born, so the people could worship Louzi and Taoism more. It was important because it encouraged the people to believe in Taoism and respect Louzi. Before the temple was made some people didn't even know who Louzi was and that's one of the reasons why Gauzo wanted to build the temple. Nature had punishments for the people that were bad and people who were good were rewarded with no punishments.Its important because if the people were not punished they would keep doing what they did and not learn the lesson of why it was bad. When it came to Taoism in the Tang Dynasty it was taken very seriously with all the emperors so as the new emperors kept rising they wanted to keep the religion the same and worship it as the others did.

Bibliography!

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