nouns or gerunds and non-predicate verb phrases can be used as subjects.

In the past, participles generally appeared in the passive voice and the perfect tense, which could not constitute the subject component alone. Generally speaking, they had to be transformed into non-predicates with the help of predicate verbs.

Being cheated by his friends makes him angry. This made him angry

having cheated his friends makes him nervous

after cheating his friends.