Question: What "sport" involving animals dates all the way back to the Tang Dynasty and continued to the beginning of the 19th century?

Passages:
Keeping crickets as pets emerged in China in early antiquity.  Initially, crickets were kept for their "songs" (stridulation).  In the early 12th century the Chinese people began holding cricket fights.  Throughout the Imperial era the Chinese also kept pet cicadas and grasshoppers, but crickets were the favorites in the Forbidden City and with the commoners alike.  The art of selecting and breeding the finest fighting crickets was perfected during the Qing dynasty and remained a monopoly of the imperial court until the beginning of the 19th century. Ji (蓟/薊 Jì), Jicheng or the City of Ji (蓟城/薊城 Jìchéng) was an ancient city in northern China, which has become the longest continuously inhabited section of modern Beijing.  Historical mention of Ji dates to the founding of the Zhou Dynasty in about 1045 BC.  Archaeological finds in southwestern Beijing where Ji was believed to be located date to the Spring and Autumn period (771-476 BC).  The City of Ji served as the capital of the ancient states of Ji and Yan until the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC.  Thereafter, the city was a prefectural capital for Youzhou through the Han Dynasty, Three Kingdoms, Western Jin Dynasty, Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Dynasties, and Sui Dynasty.  With the creation of a Jizhou (蓟州) during the Tang Dynasty in what is now Tianjin Municipality, the City of Ji took on the name Youzhou.  Youzhou was one of the Sixteen Prefectures ceded to the Khitans during the Five Dynasties.  The city then became the southern capital of the Liao Dynasty and then main capital of the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234).  In the 13th Century, Kublai Khan built a new capital city for the Yuan Dynasty adjacent to Ji to the north.  The old city of Ji became a suburb to Dadu.  In the Ming Dynasty, the old and new cities were merged by Beijing's Ming-era city wall. The Silla–Tang War occurred in the 7th century between the Korean Silla Kingdom and its newly conquered vassals Goguryeo and Baekje (commonly referred to as Unified Silla), and the Chinese Tang dynasty that began in the geopolitical context immediately following the conquest of Goguryeo and Baekje by Silla and Tang Dynasty. Shōchi-in (正智院 ) and Hōju-in (宝寿院 ) own Japanese manuscripts of parts of the Wenguan Cilin (文館詞林 , Bunkan shirin , lit.  "Forest of officials' poems and prose") , a Tang Dynasty imperial poetry collection.  Other manuscripts of this work had been lost in China as early as 9th century.  The treasure from Shōchi-in amounts to twelve scrolls from the Tang Dynasty and Heian period, 677–823; the one from Hōju-in consists of a single scroll. Ecology is a new science and considered as an important branch of biological science, having only become prominent during the second half of the 20th century.  Ecological thought is derivative of established currents in philosophy, particularly from ethics and politics.  Its history stems all the way back to the 4th century.  One of the first ecologists whose writings survive may have been Aristotle or perhaps his student, Theophrastus, both of whom had interest in many species of animals and plants.  Theophrastus described interrelationships between animals and their environment as early as the 4th century BC.  Ecology developed substantially in the 18th and 19th century.  It began with Carl Linnaeus and his work with the economy of nature.  Soon after came Alexander von Humboldt and his work with botanical geography.  Alfred Russel Wallace and Karl Möbius then contributed with the notion of biocoenosis.  Eugenius Warming’s work with ecological plant geography led to the founding of ecology as a discipline.  Charles Darwin’s work also contributed to the science of ecology, and Darwin is often attributed with progressing the discipline more than anyone else in its young history.  Ecological thought expanded even more in the early 20th century.  Major contributions included: Eduard Suess’ and Vladimir Vernadsky’s work with the biosphere, Arthur Tansley’s ecosystem, Charles Elton's "Animal Ecology", and Henry Cowles ecological succession.  Ecology influenced the social sciences and humanities.  Human ecology began in the early 20th century and it recognized humans as an ecological factor.  Later James Lovelock advanced views on earth as a macro-organism with the Gaia hypothesis.  Conservation stemmed from the science of ecology.  Important figures and movements include Shelford and the ESA, National Environmental Policy act, George Perkins Marsh, Theodore Roosevelt, Stephen A. Forbes, and post-Dust Bowl conservation.  Later in the 20th century world governments collaborated on man’s effects on the biosphere and Earth’s environment. Gunpowder is the first physical explosive and propellant.  Before its invention, many incendiary and burning devices had been used, including Greek fire.  The invention of gunpowder is usually attributed to experimentation in Chinese alchemy by Taoists in the pursuit of immortality, and is popularly listed as one of the "Four Great Inventions" of China.  It was invented during the late Tang dynasty (9th century) but the earliest record of a written formula appeared in the Song dynasty (11th century).  Knowledge of gunpowder spread rapidly throughout the Old World possibly as a result of the Mongol conquests during the 13th century, with the earliest written formula for it outside of China contained within the Opus Majus, a 1267 treatise by the English friar Roger Bacon.  It was employed in warfare to some effect from at least the 12th century in weapons such as fire arrows, bombs, and the fire lance before the appearance of the gun.  While the fire lance was eventually supplanted by the gun, other gunpowder weapons such as rockets continued to see use in China, Korea, India, and eventually Europe.  Bombs too never ceased to develop and continued to progress into the modern day as grenades, mines, and other explosive implements.  Gunpowder has also been used for non-military purposes such as fireworks for entertainment, or in explosives for mining and tunneling. Cricket fighting is a blood sport involving the fighting of male crickets.  Unlike most blood sports such as bullfighting and cockfighting, cricket fighting rarely causes injuries to the animals.  It is a popular pastime in China and dates back more than 1,000 years to the Tang Dynasty.  However, the sport has been losing its popularity in China. Gautama Siddha, (fl.  8th century) astronomer, astrologer and compiler of Indian descent, known for leading the compilation of the "Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era" during the Tang Dynasty.  He was born in Chang'an, and his family was originally from India, according to a tomb stele uncovered in 1977 in Xi'an.  The Gautama family had probably settled in China over many generations, and might have been present in China prior even to the foundation of the Tang Dynasty.  He was most notable for his translation of Navagraha calendar into Chinese.  He also introduced Indian numerals with zero (〇) in 718 in China as a replacement of counting rods. The Tang dynasty in Inner Asia was the expansion of the Tang dynasty's realm in the Inner Asia in the 7th and, to a lesser degree, the 8th century AD, in the Tarim Basin, across the Gobi Desert and into Middle Asia.  Wars were fought against the Gokturk Empires and Xueyantuo, but also against the states of the Tarim basin.  This expansion was not steady; for example, the Tang did lose control of the Tarim basin temporarily to the Tibetans in the 680s, and their expansion north of the Gobi was thwarted in 682.  Emperor Taizong's military success was, in part, a consequence of changes he initiated in the Chinese army, including improved weaponry.  The emperor placed a new emphasis on cavalry, which was very important because his non-Chinese opponents used the horse effectively in warfare. Shanhua Temple () is a Buddhist temple located in Datong, Shanxi Province, China.  The temple was first founded during the early 8th century of the Tang Dynasty, but its earliest surviving building dates from the 11th century.  The temple was heavily repaired over the years, and today three original halls and two recently rebuilt pavilions survive.  The largest, and earliest hall, dating from the 11th-century Liao Dynasty, is the Mahavira Hall and is one of the largest of its kind in China.  Also historically significant are the Main Gate and Sansheng Hall, both dating from 12th century during the Jin dynasty.

Supporting sentences:
 In the early 12th century the Chinese people began holding cricket fights.  The art of selecting and breeding the finest fighting crickets was perfected during the Qing dynasty and remained a monopoly of the imperial court until the beginning of the 19th century. Cricket fighting is a blood sport involving the fighting of male crickets.  It is a popular pastime in China and dates back more than 1,000 years to the Tang Dynasty.