摘要
IT was in the year 453 that the monk Tan Yao hurried to Pingcheng （present-day Datong in Shanxi Province） through the barren Loess Plateau of northern Shanxi. He had been summoned by the newly enthroned Emperor Wencheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty （386-534）. Seven years previously he had run for his life along the same route,
IT was in the year 453 that the monk Tan Yao hurried to Pingcheng (present-day Datong in Shanxi Province) through the barren Loess Plateau of
