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. According to the Tang emperor Wu, edict:
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According to Tang emperor Wu: “Now if even one man fails to work the fields, someone must go hungry; if one woman does not tend her silkworms, someone will go cold. At present there are an inestimable number of monks and nuns in the empire, all of them waiting for the farmers to feed them and the silkworms to clothes them while the Buddhist public temples and private chapels have reached boundless numbers, sufficient to outshine the imperial palace itself.” (doc. 6) How emperor Wu presents this the kingdom is definitely not at a surplus and is most likely struggling. Ascetic worship requires constant praying and reflection and this cannot be done for person who is working the fields. It is not stated whether Buddhism is the reason crop yields are very low but it seems implied by the mentioned of the temples, monks, and nuns. The Buddhist religion would have to have been popular enough to empty the fields of most of its workers. The author of this example is a Tang emperor complaining about not enough workers being in the fields so he must have been unsatisfied with the Buddhist religion and its ascetic ways. The low crop yields weaken the dynasty so the emperor would of course have been unhappy. As for the other high officials who were in support of the Tang dynasty they most likely would have been unhappy also. As for the other members of the dynasty, when the yields grow low enough the Buddhist ways would make them dissatisfied. Another piece of evidence is from an anonymous Chinese scholar: “....but simple living and inaction are the wonders of the Way.” (doc. 3) This document is showing that living simply and without luxuries, and that being inactive society and personal life in staple or wonder of the way of Buddha. So this was a very important part of Buddhist livelihood and most likely kept up most of their daily routines/lives keeping them from working the
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.
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
While Chinese initially accepted Buddhism and defended its policies, over the centuries others increasingly scrutinized Buddhism’s absence from past texts and used it as a scapegoat for political and social problems. When there was no empire to enforce laws, Buddhism gained popularity, but after imperial authority reemerged, Buddhism faced mounting opposition. An additional document that shows the actual numbers of converts to Buddhism during this time, preferably in a graph, would be useful in determining whether or not the worries of the authors in documents against Buddhism were grounded. For a few centuries after arriving in China, Chinese defended and supported Buddhism. Zhi Dun praised Buddhism as providing a path to nirvana, though as an upper class scholar who probably did not personally feel threatened by invading nomads, his testimony does not necessarily reflect the danger lower classes likely felt.
The religion of Buddhism first appeared in India during the sixth century B.C.E and its teachings migrated to China by the first century C.E., gradually winning over the Chinese people following the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 C.E. Buddhist influence continued its expansion in China for several centuries. Throughout Chinese history, China reacted to the spread of Buddhism within its empire in several ways: some valued its policies for their implications in Chinese culture, others condemned Buddhist ideals for not being original to the empire, while many remained indifferent towards Buddhism and its spread. Support for the spread of Buddhism became most evident among Chinese scholars. An anonymous scholar believed that the old Confucian philosophies of China were nothing in comparison to the greatness of Buddhism, even going as far as to compare the sages to the Buddha as swallows to a phoenix (document 3). Additionally, he admires the dedication that the Buddhist monks showed; the monks enjoyed the act of living and inaction, freeing themselves from worldly pleasure.
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
Most of the civilization was uninterested in the religion, as seen in Document 1. The Asian monk and scholar wrote about how they saw it as equal to other religions, yet were incurious about it. The Qin monk is trying to persuade others to convert to buddhism, so when they die they will reach Nirvana and it will ‘Free them from all fear and keep them from falling into the evil paths of existence. Buddhism first became popular, when Kumarajiva himself translated these Buddhist texts into Chinese. This made the texts available to all, and laid the foundation for the acceptance of Buddhism.
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).
The authors purpose is to show that Confucius is the a real teaching in China while Buddhism was not and just an idea. Finally, many people did not believe that Buddha had any affiliation with China and the dynasties. Buddha did not speak Chinese nor wear Chinese cultural clothes and he came from India which leads many scholars to believe he did not have an effect. For example, “...to say that Buddha is no more than a cult… did not exist here in ancient time.(Document 4)” The point of view of the author is against Buddhism and does not believe that Buddhism had any correlation with China.
After imperial structure was restored, the Chinese began to disapprove of Buddhism (docs 4, 6). Chinese government authorities increasingly saw Buddhism as a threat to their political power and moved to discredit it. Imperial Tang advisor Han Yu saw Buddhism as evil, anti-Confucian, and illegal (doc 4). Han Yu’s position and livelihood greatly depends on Confucianism remaining dominant, especially due to the civil service system, which provided him with his government job. Due to this, he is not a very reliable source on how the average citizen and even the Chinese emperor felt about Confucianism remaining dominate (doc 4, POV).
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.
They called these leaders royalty. These leaders who were far more “superior” and powerful than them, referred the people as “commoners”. The Tang Dynasty was full of power hungry leaders. Some leaders abused the poor and asked the people to pay more taxes than the rich while some made the country suffer by subjecting the poor to hard labour. However, there were many righteous emperors during the Tang Dynasty, who followed the teachings of Buddhism, which flourished in China at that time.
Buddhism was able to stay and gain a good foothold because, the commoners aspired to be like the royal and thus, began to study Buddhism. This also stemmed from trying to please the royals (Keith Pratt). The fact that it derived from China is a critical aspect of understanding Buddhism in the Silla Kingdom. The Buddhist faith, which had originally been shared from India to China, is very dissimilar to the Buddhism that arrived on the Korean peninsula.
Name Mason Jensen Mrs. Jessen 2 Hour ELA Date February 10, 2023 Philosophies of Ancient China There were three philosophies in Ancient China: Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism. Confucianism is an ancient Chinese belief system, which focuses on the importance of personal ethics and morality. The Daoist community believes that nature, not people, ultimately controls how things change. Therefore, humans and their rules are less important.
Regardless of personal or professional evidence-based theories, Confucianism is the trademark cornerstone of traditional Chinese culture (Na, 2016). Confucianism is vitally important to the political and social order of traditional Chinese culture. The tenets of Confucian philosophy’s hierarchy revolve around five relationships: 1) Those who are ruled must obey their ruler, 2) Sons must obey their fathers, 3) Wives must obey their husbands, 4)
The advent of Buddhism in parts of India took place with the arrival of Xuanzang during the 7th century, a highly educated Buddhist monk who decided to travel all the way through the rugged landscapes and hard, unfavoring climate to the land west of his country, with an aim of collecting information he thought was missing from the local Buddhist manuscriptures, and answers to his questions he thought would only get from the land where Buddha lived and the religion itself originated. “I regretted the teachings [of Buddhism] were not complete, and the scriptures deficient in my own country. I have doubts in my mind, but I could find no one to solve them. That is why I decided to travel through the West”. Xuanzang set out for his journey with one of his most dedicated