The perception of Buddhism varied greatly from the collapse of the Han Dynasty to the formation of the Tang Dynasty in China. At the same time, the perception towards Christianity in the Roman Empire was undergoing similar changes. Emperors saw the religion as a threat, lower classmen saw it as a path to salvation, while scholars, as a whole, were indecisive.
Those in power perceived Buddhism as a strain on China’s society and economy as well as a threat to their rule. In document seven, Tang Emperor Wu declares that Buddhism “wears out the people’s strength, pilfers their wealth, causes people to abandon their lords and parents for the company of teachers, and serves man and wife with its monastic decrees” and that it causes a large strain on resources because workers are giving up their jobs. He goes on to state that Buddhist
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Buddhism as barbaric, imperfect, and foreign while others saw it as beneficial and a path to an orderly society and eternal salvation. Document one shows how Buddhism spread from India to China, The fact the Buddhism was not native to China caused great distress to scholars like Han Yu who stated throughout document five how the Buddha did not follow Chinese customs. He went on to explain that “the Buddha was a man of the barbarians.” Also, in document three, Faixan travels to India to find out how to improve chinese Buddhism because he does not think that it has been perfected in China. On the contrary, scholars who supported Buddhism praised how it offered a path to salvation (Document 2) and some, like Zang Mi in document six, went as far as to compare it to Taoism and Confucianism, saying that “all three teachings lead to the creation of an orderly society and for this reason the must be observed with respect” among other things. Both sides created great argument that only strengthened the beliefs of the elite who opposed the philosophy and the lower class who rejected