<P> Short story fiction and tales were also popular during the Tang, one of the more famous ones being Yingying's Biography by Yuan Zhen (779--831), which was widely circulated in his own time and by the Yuan dynasty (1279--1368) became the basis for plays in Chinese opera . Timothy C. Wong places this story within the wider context of Tang love tales, which often share the plot designs of quick passion, inescapable societal pressure leading to the abandonment of romance, followed by a period of melancholy . Wong states that this scheme lacks the undying vows and total self - commitment to love found in Western romances such as Romeo and Juliet, but that underlying traditional Chinese values of inseparableness of self from one's environment (including human society) served to create the necessary fictional device of romantic tension . </P> <P> There were large encyclopedias published in the Tang . The Yiwen Leiju encyclopedia was compiled in 624 by the chief editor Ouyang Xun (557--641) as well as Linghu Defen (582--666) and Chen Shuda (d . 635). The encyclopedia Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era was fully compiled in 729 by Gautama Siddha (fl . 8th century), an ethnic Indian astronomer, astrologer, and scholar born in the capital Chang'an . </P> <P> Chinese geographers such as Jia Dan wrote accurate descriptions of places far abroad . In his work written between 785 and 805, he described the sea route going into the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and that the medieval Iranians (whom he called the people of Luo - He - Yi) had erected' ornamental pillars' in the sea that acted as lighthouse beacons for ships that might go astray . Confirming Jia's reports about lighthouses in the Persian Gulf, Arabic writers a century after Jia wrote of the same structures, writers such as al - Mas'udi and al - Muqaddasi . The Tang dynasty Chinese diplomat Wang Xuance traveled to Magadha (modern northeastern India) during the 7th century . Afterwards he wrote the book Zhang Tianzhu Guotu (Illustrated Accounts of Central India), which included a wealth of geographical information . </P> <P> Many histories of previous dynasties were compiled between 636 and 659 by court officials during and shortly after the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang . These included the Book of Liang, Book of Chen, Book of Northern Qi, Book of Zhou, Book of Sui, Book of Jin, History of Northern Dynasties and the History of Southern Dynasties . Although not included in the official Twenty - Four Histories, the Tongdian and Tang Huiyao were nonetheless valuable written historical works of the Tang period . The Shitong written by Liu Zhiji in 710 was a meta - history, as it covered the history of Chinese historiography in past centuries until his time . The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, compiled by Bianji, recounted the journey of Xuanzang, the Tang era's most renowned Buddhist monk . </P>

How did the government of the tang dynasty in china influence the development of japanese government