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    Spread of Buddhism in China DBQ

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    Julie
    This document summarizes the perspectives of different Chinese scholars and leaders on how Buddhism impacted China when it spread there in the 1st century CE. Some sources cited, like Documents 2 and 3 from Chinese scholars, believed Buddhism had a positive effect by bringing unity. However, Documents 4 and 6 from a Confucian scholar and emperor argued it negatively influenced society by causing people to abandon their duties. Documents 1 and 5 presented a neutral view, with one explaining Buddhist traditions and one saying it could coexist with Confucian teachings. The document concludes by suggesting viewpoints from a peasant or woman could provide additional context on Buddhism's impact.

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    Spread of Buddhism in China DBQ

    Uploaded by

    Julie
    49 views2 pages
    This document summarizes the perspectives of different Chinese scholars and leaders on how Buddhism impacted China when it spread there in the 1st century CE. Some sources cited, like Documents 2 and 3 from Chinese scholars, believed Buddhism had a positive effect by bringing unity. However, Documents 4 and 6 from a Confucian scholar and emperor argued it negatively influenced society by causing people to abandon their duties. Documents 1 and 5 presented a neutral view, with one explaining Buddhist traditions and one saying it could coexist with Confucian teachings. The document concludes by suggesting viewpoints from a peasant or woman could provide additional context on Buddhism's impact.

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    Buddhism in China

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    This document summarizes the perspectives of different Chinese scholars and leaders on how Buddhism impacted China when it spread there in the 1st century CE. Some sources cited, like Documents 2 and 3 from Chinese scholars, believed Buddhism had a positive effect by bringing unity. However, Documents 4 and 6 from a Confucian scholar and emperor argued it negatively influenced society by causing people to abandon their duties. Documents 1 and 5 presented a neutral view, with one explaining Buddhist traditions and one saying it could coexist with Confucian teachings. The document concludes by suggesting viewpoints from a peasant or woman could provide additional context on Buddhism's impact.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    49 views2 pages

    Spread of Buddhism in China DBQ

    Uploaded by

    Julie
    This document summarizes the perspectives of different Chinese scholars and leaders on how Buddhism impacted China when it spread there in the 1st century CE. Some sources cited, like Documents 2 and 3 from Chinese scholars, believed Buddhism had a positive effect by bringing unity. However, Documents 4 and 6 from a Confucian scholar and emperor argued it negatively influenced society by causing people to abandon their duties. Documents 1 and 5 presented a neutral view, with one explaining Buddhist traditions and one saying it could coexist with Confucian teachings. The document concludes by suggesting viewpoints from a peasant or woman could provide additional context on Buddhism's impact.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Julie Outten

    Pd. 3A
    2/9/15

    Spread of Buddhism in China DBQ


    Buddhism in China, beginning in the first century C.E., played a positive role in bringing
    unity to its people through religion, while others believed it was also negatively influencing
    people against their basic daily roles and was the cause of some problems in society- but with
    both of these views left some to believe it had a neutral or no effect upon China.
    Doc. #2 and doc. #3 showed that Buddhism positively brought unity amongst the people
    of China in the first century C.E. Doc. #2 was from Zhi Dun who was a Chinese scholar/high
    official when nomads were invading China. Zhi believed that it was possible for the people to
    follow after the Buddha and that the Buddha would help along the journey to reach
    enlightenment, which is very appealing and many people accepted this. Doc. #3 was also written
    by a Chinese scholar who was being questioned about Buddhism. This scholar believes that
    Buddhism does not have to come directly from Confucian Classics, and that in fact, Buddhism
    could quite possibly be above the status of Confucian Classics which many people followed.
    Since both of these documents are coming from scholars who are upper-class this may influence
    the opinion they have upon Buddhism.
    Doc. #4 and doc. #6 both stated that the spread of Buddhism was negatively
    influencing/impacting the society and culture of China. Doc. #4 was from Han Yu, a Confucian
    scholar, who believed that this was causing the people to turn against their duties/laws. Han Yu
    thinks that the people are turning into a large mass who would do and believe anything to
    achieve enlightenment and that the people will end up becoming uncontrollable. Since doc. #4 is
    coming from a Confucian scholar this may influence his viewpoint upon Buddhism because he

    may believe that Buddhism is trying to replace Confucian Classics and simply take over China,
    which is the opposite of what he wants to occur. Doc. #6 came from Tang Wu, an emperor who
    believes that Buddhism is negatively influencing the customs of the nation by making people
    abandon their everyday jobs to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha, causing the economy to be
    at a lack of workers and with an increase of the homeless. Since Tang Wu is an emperor his
    opinion upon Buddhism may have been negatively influenced upon because his people are
    abandoning him to follow their beliefs.
    Doc. #1 and doc. #5 both had a neutral opinion upon the spread of Buddhism within
    China. Doc. #1 is the explanation of Buddhist tradition in order to allow people to either accept
    or decline the following of Buddhism, which is not forceful or required. Doc. #5 is from another
    Buddhist scholar who has a neutral opinion upon Buddhism and believes that it can/does coexist
    with the teaching of Confucius values, although he may not have a direct viewpoint upon the
    good and the bad within each, since it is unclear with what he follows and believes in.
    Two additional documents could be helpful in determining how to spread of Buddhism
    impacted China from the viewpoint of a peasant/low-class person of China, or from a woman. If
    we had the viewpoint of a low-class citizen of China we could view how Buddhism may have
    helped or hindered the growth of peasants, economically, spiritually, and socially. Buddhism
    could have helped peasants to be more accepted into society since they could just be trying to
    obtain enlightenment, but could also have caused people to dislike peasants for causing
    unoccupied jobs and beggars for shelter and food. The perspective of a woman could also be
    helpful in determining the influence of Buddhism because the roles and freedom of women could
    have become less strict, but also could have hindered them and caused more guidelines for
    women to follow.

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