Since two-hundred and twenty C.E Buddhism has spread through China tremendously. Although the spread was great, people interpreted Buddhism a different way. Generally poor people would agree with Buddhism due to being able to relate with everything Buddhism was presenting, due to Buddhism not being about wealth. While poor people could relate, wealthy people could not due to the wealth and extravagant lifestyle. As the struggles of lower-class people decreased, the amount of people following Buddhism decreased.
Buddhism has influenced China significantly, Buddhism originated in India in the sixth century B.C.E. which progressively moved to China after the fall of the Han dynasty in two-hundred and twenty C.E. During the beginning of the
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In the first document the Buddha puts importance on the steps to talking about the ending of suffering. This is why so many people decided to join the religion of the Buddha, many people who were poor were struggling because many lives were lost as the nation of China had unstable governmental leaders. Then again, this is why a lot of the wealthy people could not relate to Buddhism, they were not struggling and have an extravagant lifestyle (Document 6). Zhi Dun, who was pro Buddhist spoke about how the understanding and the acceptance of the Buddhist is important in China because the people in China who are wealthy don’t understand what it means to be a Buddha because they are lost in their wealthy life style. During upsetting eras, for example the time period after the Han yu’s fall, people would join Buddhism to be able to believe that they had the potential of a release from the physical world and escape to a better place where they could find enlighten (Document 4).
Buddha intended and had his sermons toward large audiences, which would be towards laborers or people in lower classes so that his sermons would have mass appeal. In Document 2 there was political statements from Zhi Dun that stated that Buddhism’s only purpose was to deliver a sense of protection to the lower class people who were afraid. Zhi Dun was a Chinese scholar, which is a class held high in Chinese society, so his views toward Buddhism did not reflect the ideas of the masses of people who believed Buddhist