In the few centuries from roughly 750 to 350 BCE, the other great cultural edifices that structure our world were also being formed. In China, Confucius and Lao-Tzu left their legacy. In India, ancient Vedic traditions were crystallizing, while the Buddha offered revolutionary new ways of thinking about one's life. In Israel, Hebrew prophets were compiling the Old Testament. Philosopher Karl Jaspers was so struck by these contemporaneous breakthroughs that he called this period the Axial Age:
