Originally known as chan, it began during the Tang Dynasty, which ran from 618 to 907 AD and is regarded as the golden age of Imperial China, especially culturally, including poetry with 2,200 poets of note whose work have been preserved in an 18th century anthology of 49,000 poems. Chan was a merger between Buddhism and Taoism. When Buddhists were persecuted towards the end of the Tang Dynasty it moved to Japan where it became known as Zen.