Buddhism was founded in India and brought to China centuries after its founding. It slowly spread after the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 C. E.
after that the religion continued to spread over the course of many years. The spread of Buddhism in China was during a period of disunity for China. It provided hope for some. However not all were excited for this new practice entering their homeland. Many chinese Scholars and even Tang Emperor Wu had some strong things to say about of the spread of Buddhism was helpful and hurtful to the chinese people.
Buddhism came to China after the Han empire fell and helped some people keep their lives together. For example, Zhi Dun, a chinese scholar, talked about how many chinese served the buddha and followed his commandments as he would want them too. These words coming from a chinese scholar could have changed the minds of some people who wanted to follow the traditional ways. This scholar talked greatly about the Buddha most likely to win the hearts of chinese people and the Buddhist monks (Doc. 2). Continuing with the Buddha’s commandments.
They were actually called The Four Noble Truths.The were first taught in India during the Fifth century B. C. E. The Four Noble Truths are a sort of guideline for people practicing Buddhism.
They should you a way how to live and achieve Nirvana. Some chinese needed that guidance during the time (Doc. 1). The guidance also brought a new look to the world for many.
While a scholar talked about how even though Confucian didn’t acknowledge Buddhism it didn’t mean that it was false. It was a question answer where the questioner challenged Buddhism. The answerer was intelligent and has very good answers that supported Buddhism.The scholar must have been a follower of Buddhism and wanted to help spread his beliefs for others to enjoy (Doc. 3). While this scholar attacked confucianism in an indirect way, Zong Mi, a Buddhist scholar, explained that no one was wrong.
Confucius, Laozi, and Buddha were perfect teachers. They just approached the perfection of good deeds in different ways. Saying this made many if not all people love this scholar. He was favored by the Tang imperial household. This helped buddhism with the nonbelievers to at least appreciate the practice (Doc. 5).
Of course, with the pros comes the cons to Buddhism. While many followed, others disapproved of the new teachings. For instance, Han Yu, a Confucian scholar and official of the Tang court, talked of how the Buddha was a man of the barbarians who don’t speak chinese and dress differently. The Buddha talked nothing about the chinese ancient kings and didn’t address the chinese laws.
Han Yu was saying these things to ensure that buddhism stops spreading and china returns to its traditional customs. Han may have upset some people but he won the appreciation of the Tang dynasty (Doc.4).It would have helped if I had a document for a Buddhist church about their daily routine and how many people visited the church each day I could see how what they do affects how well buddhism spreads. In winning the Tang dynasty over, eventually Tang Emperor Wu spoke out about his feelings towards buddhism.
He said that if everyone left to go practice buddhism then there would be no food or clothes for people to put on or eat. He was telling people to stop practicing buddhism because it would save the lives of those who don’t know how to make silk for clothes or farm for food.The emperor was saying these things to help return the people to traditional customs and to stop buddhism from ruining their way of life (Doc. 6). All in all, many scholars having lost their empire went to buddhism as a sign of hope.
Then when the Tang dynasty came along, they planned on eradicating buddhism from their country and returning to traditional ways. Buddhism spread into China and turned many chinese, but there were still those who didn’t and planned on removing buddhism from their homeland.
