A high official of the Sui empire seizes power and establishes one of China's greatest dynasties, the T'ang

At Dunhuang, an oasis on the Silk Road, as many as 500 caves are decorated with Buddhist murals

The discovery of the technique of porcelain, the most delicate of all forms of pottery, is made in China

Three of China's most famous poets - Wang Wei, Li Po and Tu Fu - are contemporaries during the T'ang dynasty

Japanese tradition gives this as the year in which the game of I-go, known in the west as go, is introduced from China

T'ang potters make vigorous and brightly coloured figures, of horses, camels or human attendants, to accompany the dead in the grave

Nestorian beliefs become the orthodoxy of the Christian community in Persia, spreading from there to India and China

Chia Tan produces an ambitious map for the emperor, some 30 by 33 feet in size, showing the entire T'ang empire

On the orders of the T'ang emperor, 4000 Buddhist monasteries are destroyed in China and 250,000 monks and nuns are forced into secular life

The world's first known printed book, a Diamond Sutra, is commissioned by a Buddhist monk in honour of his parents

The Diamand Sutra has as a frontispiece a printed woodcut depicting an enthroned Buddha

Playing cards are in use in T'ang dynasty China.

The leader of a peasant uprising captures and kills the Chinese emperor, bringing to an end the T'ang dynasty

Paper money is developed in China, becoming later one of the aspects of Chinese life which most impresses Marco Polo

A Chinese engineer, Chiao Wei-yo, is credited with devising the principle of the two-level pound lock for canals

A warlord, Zhao Kuangyin, establishes a new Chinese dynasty - the Song

The Khitan, a tribe from eastern Mongolia, fortify Beijing and make it their capital city

A Chinese manual on warfare includes the earliest known description of gunpowder

The concept of movable type for printing is pioneered in China, using fired clay, but it proves impractical

The earliest surviving reference to the principle of the compass occurs in a Chinese manuscript

Astronomers in China and Japan observe the explosion of the supernova which is still visible as the Crab Nebula

Su Sung, a Buddhist monk, develops in China the principle of the escapement in his tower clock worked by a water wheel

Chinese potters in the Song dynasty develop the wares known as celadons, with thick transparent green glazes

Zen Buddhism reaches Japan from China and appeals greatly to the new samurai class

The Chinese develop a feature of great significance in the history of seafaring - a sternpost rudder which is an integral part of the ship