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The Tang Dynasty ( June 18, 618 – June 1, 907) was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire. The dynasty was interrupted briefly by the Second Zhou Dynasty (October 8, 690 – March 3, 705) when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, becoming the first and only Chinese empress regnant, ruling in her own right.<br/><br/> A fixed group of figures was generally positioned just outside the burial chamber in Tang tombs. This generally consisted of two guardians, two earth spirits and two officials. Tomb figures were always colourfully painted. Gilding was applied only to the most expensive examples.
Empress Xu (1362 - July 1407), formally Empress Ren Xiao Wen, birth name Xu Yihua), was the third empress of the Ming Dynasty from 1402 to 1407. Her husband was the Yongle Emperor. She was well educated, compiling bibliographies of virtuous women, an activity connected with court politics.<br/><br/> Empress Xu is also the first person credited with transcribing a Buddhist sutra from a dream revelation. The work is entitled 'The sutra of great merit of the foremost rarity spoken by the Buddha which the Renxiao empress of the great Ming received in a dream'). In her introduction to the sutra, the empress wrote that one night after meditating and burning incense, Guanyin appeared to her as if in a dream, and took her to a holy realm where the sutra was revealed to her in order to save her from disaster. After reading the sutra three times, she was able to memorize it and recall it perfectly upon awakening and writing it down. The sutra conveys conventional Mahayana philosophies, and the mantras for chanting were typical of Tibetan Buddhist practices.