ipl-logo

How Did Buddhism Affect The Division Of China

1424 Words6 Pages

The Division of China Around 600 B.C.E, Buddhism emerged from India due to the teachings of Prince Siddhartha Gautama. Through trade routes, such as the Silk Road that connected India and China, Buddhists ideas were introduced to the region. In addition, Ashoka, an emperor of the Mauryan Dynasty in 268 B.C.E, realized the destruction he caused by his conquests and began to promote Buddhism. Ashoka sent missionaries to spread Buddhism throughout Asia, which planted the roots of Buddhism in China. As Buddhism was introduced to China through trade routes in 600 B.C.E., many traditional Chinese values converged with Buddhism, making it more easily accepted and spread throughout China. After the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 C.E., Buddhism became …show more content…

The introduction of Buddhism left the region rife with controversy. The suspicion and lack of understanding around the newly introduced religion left many frustrated and ignorant of the core beliefs of Buddhism. Around 500 C.E., when dominant political figures began to endorse Buddhism, still skeptics remained. This caused for some Buddhists to write informational question and rebuttal essays, such as “The Disposition of Error”, to help clear any misunderstandings that critics may have of Buddhism. The author who wrote this essay chose to remain anonymous, which one can assume is because of the controversy surrounding the topic at the time, and did not try to sway the reader one way nor the other but only informed them of true morals that Buddhists hold (Doc 2). Many, like the Confucian scholar and official of the Tang imperial court, Han Yu, immediately rejected Buddhism because they believed, like the ancient Greeks, that those that did not speak their native language of Chinese were barbarians and disgraced their sacred Chinese cultures (Doc 5). Han Yu’s commentary on Buddhism is a prime example of the “Middle Kingdom” philosophy, since he directly states that anyone who is not from China must be unworthy and lesser that the Chinese. In addition, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty wanted any part of Buddha’s body to be venerated, which is a drastically different Chinese viewpoint of Buddhism. Under Confucianism, one must respect ghosts, but keep them at the distance, yet the emperor of the Tang Dynasty directly promoted a foreign religion that disregards Confucian values; consequently, causing harsh division within the government itself. A mere twenty six years

Show More
Related
665 Words | 3 Pages

The Lotus Sutra, “Lotus of the True Dharma” notes the empowerment and influence from the philosophies of Buddhism as it shows the way towards Nirvana (Doc 3). The purpose of the Sutra is to convey to people of the hardships of making it to “Tathagata”, which encourages them to work harder and mature mindfully. Furthermore, the practices of Buddhism is also shown in an edict of Ashoka, the emperor of the Maurya Dynasty (Doc 6). He was a strong supporter of Buddhism and based many propagandas from the religion. His form of the religion, however, is the practice of great education and a path to happiness.

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

Buddhism was appealing to women because of the view that they were equal to men. In detail, Wei Shou’s “Summary of Buddhist Doctrine” in the Buddhist Doctrines and Practices explains “Women who enter the path are called nuns...if they can comprehend the rewards for good and bad acts they can gradually climb to the level of sages...” (83). This review is important because it recognizes both men and women as equals who can both accomplish salvation. Furthermore, in the “Lives of Eminent Monks”, Tiaohua writes to Seng Du, who she was previously engaged to, for leaving her and the ancestral rites and teachings of Confucian society to become a monk. Seng Du responds to her, saying “Men and women of the world, however, should adapt themselves to the times...you should pursue what you desire and admire.

Read More
1819 Words | 8 Pages

Buddhism in China DBQ A little before the Tang dynasty there was the Han dynasty where Confucianism was a staple of daily life and government. When the Han dynasty dissolved and the Tang dynasty took authority. Buddhism began to spread widely all over China. Buddhism was met with all types of responses: some saw buddhism as a threat to Confucian family values, while some saw Buddhism as a way to disregard worldly pleasures and luxuries that would only bring them harm, and lastly some mixed on the concept of Buddhism had an issue with the ascetic lifestyle led by its followers. One of the responses to Buddhism in China was that it was thought that Buddhism was a threat to Confucian family values.

Read More
489 Words | 2 Pages

DBQ Different people in China had different views on the spread of Buddhism. Buddhism was a religion, created in India (6th century B.C.E) and spread to China (1st Century). After Buddhism, China started to experience political problems. Many people believed this was caused by Buddhism. Some people sided with the belief and praised Buddha saying he has much to offer, while others repelled it for the effect of the ideas on China.

Read More
346 Words | 2 Pages

China was then invaded by Central Asian steppe nomads. The spread of Buddhism in China between 350 CE and 900 CE transformed Chinese society by establishing order and creating unity after the instability from the collapse of the Han Dynasty, even though the people's views on it were very mixed, some positive and some negative. Both documents 1 and 3 agree with each other. Both of these documents agree that Buddhism

Read More
687 Words | 3 Pages

Document 1 speaks directly from the Buddhist culture, citing “The Four Noble Truths” and lying down the basic principles of achieving physical and spiritual enlightenment. The document displays the basic ideals that all Buddhists, in and out of China, believed. Furthermore, Zong Mi, a leading Buddhist scholar, compares the Buddha to the Chinese sages, Confucius and Laozi, as all deserving of respect since they all lead to the creation of an orderly society. However, Zong Mi’s position as a Buddhist scholar gives him bias towards wanting to defend

Read More
1154 Words | 5 Pages

In Doc. 4, Han Yu, a Confucian scholar, discussed the idea of having a procession into the palace in which the finger bone of Buddha, retrieved from India, was to be displayed to the people. He saw this as ludicrous and disgusting, recalling that The Buddha was foreign, did not mention Chinese thinkers or kings and did not honor the central Confucian concept of the hierarchy and the family. Han Yu believed that, if The Buddha were alive, he would be sent away and unable to “delude”, or trick and deceive, the Chinese people. This account is hateful, calling Buddhism an “evil”. This shows that some scholars felt threatened by the foreign ideas flowing from India and believed that Buddhism was in no way beneficial to China.

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
641 Words | 3 Pages

Buddhism offered a comforting and stable option for all including aristocrats and upper-class citizens in times of

Read More
1137 Words | 5 Pages

By calling Buddhist followers Barbarians in an angry tone, it challenges the ideas taught by Buddha, Confucianism protects their culture (Document 5). The emperor of China, Emperor Wu in the year 845 CE would address the people of China showing how the Mandate of Heaven would incorporate Confucian ideas showing these were better for China. Angrily he challenges Buddhism and he orders the people of China to follow the ideologies of the emperor. In China, Buddha was never spoken of before the Han dynasty so because of this no one should follow Buddhist ideals, because it will continue to ruin the Chinese country (Document 7). Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty was seen as a threat to the traditional lifestyle of the Chinese society, and thus receive constant attacks from the emperor and

Read More
1137 Words | 5 Pages

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).

Read More
964 Words | 4 Pages

The introduction of Buddhism to China started off well, most openly accepted the foreign religion and it continued to thrive for centuries. Until the lack of an empire and laws plagued individuals minds. Other religions with a strong imperial structure, such as Confucianism, rose to support the growing number of negative minds. Buddhism was spread by Buddhist missionaries from India into China during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). It was, at first, confined to only the higher status individuals, like aristocrats and Chinese royalty.

Read More
1708 Words | 7 Pages

The two-part movie “Murder in the Heartland” from 1993, is the historical take on the bloody months of 1958, where mass-murderer, Charles Starkweather, killed 11 people in Lincoln, Nebraska. Directed by Robert Markowitz, the main roles of Charlie Starkweather, and Caril Ann Fugate, are played by actor Tim Roth and actress Fairuza Balk. The film shows Charles, called Charlie or Chuck, as an obsessed nineteen year old boyfriend, with his girlfriend being the much younger girl, Caril, who was fourteen at the time. Charlie’s first murder is a stranger working at a gas-station, before moving on to killing Caril’s family without her knowing. With his first four murders in place, the remaining part of the movie depicts his remaining murders, however,

Read More
1226 Words | 5 Pages

Some reactions were positive while others were negative. When Buddhism was first on the uprise in China, Confucian scholars quickly rejected because they saw Buddhism as being detrimental to the Chinese society since they saw some Buddhist practices as being evil and contravenes some of their Confucian principles as seen in Han Yu's ‘Memorial on Buddhism" (Doc 4). The Confucian Scholars saw Buddha as being "a being a man of the barbarians [basically a barbarian] who did not speak Chinese and who wore clothes of a different fashion". Also, with the Confucian Scholar's perception of Buddhism, they believed that some of the Buddhist practices like the mutilation of flesh being offered to the Buddha must not be allowed to stand. Confucian scholars also didn't appreciate how Buddhist teachings didn't mention anything about China's ancient kings and they also don't like the Buddha's way of dressing since it was against China's laws.

Read More
468 Words | 2 Pages

The influence of Buddhism in China arose religious conflicts. One big similarity is the attack of outside invasions. Nomads lead several attacks on Rome and China. These attacks called for big armies, armies that the neither of them had. Therefore, the nomads overtook China and

Read More

More about How Did Buddhism Affect The Division Of China

Related Topics

Open Document