Schafer's "The Glory Tang Days" is written in very romantic language, describing the eighth century China as the most beautiful and magical time. In fact, as he mentioned, his references are taken mostly from Su O's writings. And Su O was describing the time almost a century before his own. And there is a tendency to romanticize the past. It feels like Schafer did the same thing, as his writing reads like a beautiful fairytale. Anyway, there is no way to find out what "actually" was happening during those times, as there is no such thing as more objective or less objective reality. But Schafer's interpretation depicts his fascination and admiration of the story (time and place) he describes. In 'reality' we don't know what actually was happening in China during Tang dynasty. But it feels like Schafer was describing his own inner beautiful world rather than whatever he attempted to describe.
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