Response To Buddhism Dbq Essay

Although Buddhism originated in the sixth century B.C.E, it quickly spread to China by the first century C.E. Buddhism was both accepted and adopted by many, but also opposed by just as many at the same time. Still some Chinese citizens chose to neither fully adopt or fully oppose the religion, but rather incorporated unique Chinese traditions into Buddhism and also created new traditions from it. Buddhism’s spread in China was met with many different responses. However, the mix of responses could be due to the fact that Buddhism’s arrival fell in the middle of a period of instability for China. Documents 2 and 3 are both in favor of Buddhism. Document 2, written by Zhi Dun, speaks of the actions one must take to truly be a follower of the

Documents 1 and 5 do not directly show support or contempt for Buddhism, but rather give another perspective of the religion. Document 1 comes from a sermon preached by the Buddha himself. “The Four Noble Truths” shows us the basic guidelines of the religion. This information is vital because many people who just simply chose a side of the fight for or against Buddhism may not actually know what the religion represents. By reading the sermon, the Chinese citizens could form a better understanding of Buddhism. Document 5 is from the writings of Zong Mi, a Buddhist scholar. Zong Mi compares the Buddha to other sages such as Confucius and Laozi. He does this because although someone may support one sage, they could disagree with another. He says however, that all three teachings should be observed the same. An additional document that could be helpful in the analyzation of the question would perhaps be a simple account of Buddhism from a lower class citizens point of view. Although the documents all analyzed Buddhism to a great extent, they were all from Chinese scholars or emperors. A low class citizen could tell us whether or not Buddhism affects the impoverished in positive or negative