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China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200–750 AD
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Fall of an Empire
The Coming of the Xianbei and Other Nomads
The Silk Road
North and South: late 5th–late 6th century
Reunification: late 6th–8th century
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View a map of archaeological sites in China.

These six bricks have been selected from a large number found in a tomb in southwestern Henan. Four of the bricks provide a vivid picture of the lives of a large class of people in the fifth and sixth centuries. Known as buqu, this class served landowners, leaders of large clans, and military lords in various capacities: as soldier (figure a), in military bands (figure b), as grooms (figure c), and as bearers on ceremonial occasions (figure d).

Two bricks point to other aspects of the culture of the time. Filial piety, promoted under the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220) as a cardinal Confucian virtue, continued to be preached throughout China for several centuries after the fall of Han. One brick (figure e) illustrates a case of the practice of this virtue. The story, dating back to the first century B.C., tells of Guo Ju, the son of a rich man, who gave all his inheritance to his two brothers and undertook to look after his mother. After some time, a son was born to Guo Ju, but, thinking he could not afford to feed another mouth, he resolved to bury the newborn. As he began to dig the burial pit, he discovered a pot of gold, together with an iron plaque inscribed "For Guo Ju, the filially pious son." The brick illustrates the moment that the pot of gold is unearthed, with which Guo Ju was then able to support the entire family. Another brick (figure f) shows a traditional Daoist scene of an immortal using a mouth organ to call a phoenix.

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