A short history of Buddhism become identical with action, and, as P’ang-yun put it, “spiritlike understanding and divine fuctioning lies in carrying water and chopping wood”. To conclude with a saying of Hai-yun: “To eat all day yet not to swallow a grain of rice; to walk all day yet not tread an inch of ground; to have no distinction during that time between object and subject, and to be inseparable from things all day long, yet not be deluded by them, this is to be the man who is at ease in himself.” Ch’an is a very profound doctrine indeed. Although the cultural background and social conditions of the China of the T’ang differed in almost every way from those of the India of the Buddha Sakyamuni, rarely have Buddhists at any time come as near to the spirit of their Founder as the great masters of the Ch’an school. So far about the intellectual developments of the period. Outwardly also under the T’ang the Buddhist Church attained a position of greater brilliance, wealth and power than it has probably experienced at any other time during its long history. This success was, however, bought at a heavy price. The prosperity of the monasteries threatened to ruin the economy of the country. The vast monastic establishments were economically unproductive, and had to be maintained by the lay community, i.e. by the Imperial Court, by aristocratic families or by villages; the expensive architectural enterprises deflected huge numbers of the rural population from work in the fields, and finally the metallic reserves of the country were drained away, being used to cast images and other ritual objects. This process led to the great persecution of 845. The Government confiscated the property of the monasteries, forced the monks and nuns to return to secular life, and seized the works of art in order to use the metal for more secular purposes. Thạch Đầu Hy Thiên (石頭希遷) và sau đó là Đan Hà Thiên Nhiên (丹霞天然).
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