Buddhism in China

Buddhism was originally founded in India, but over time the religion was brought to China during the 1st century C.E. Some people were delighted and amazed with the new religion, some accepted Buddhism as a whole but still did not totally convert, and others just despised the idea and felt that it was a bad influence on the Chinese people.

As Buddhism settled in China, some people distanced themselves away from it while others accepted the teachings and appreciated their new way of life. During the 6th century C.E. statues of Buddha were built in Lungmen, China to represent the great impact that it has on a lot of the Chinese people. The scholar and author Zhi Dun also had some favorable things to say about following Buddhism. He explains that if a person serves Buddha throughout their life, then they will be enlightened and enter Nirvana (the extinction of desire and individual consciousness). His point of view on Buddhism was like others during that time period; he believes that if you do all of the right things that you are required of according to Buddha, you will be rewarded in the end. A Dunhuang monastery in China has a Tang-dynasty wall painting, showing Emperor Wu Ti kneeling in accolade to two Buddha statues after he invaded Central Asia in the 2nd century B.C.E. This artwork indicates that Buddhism has dug its roots in to the Chinese culture so deeply that even after a whole century people are still practicing it even an Emperor.

Not all people were consummate with the teaching of Buddha, but some still understood the reasoning for it. Zong Mi a leading Buddhist scholar embraced all of the teachings of Confucius, Laozi, and Buddha referring to them as "perfect sages". He implied that even though they vary in their approaches, they still had order in their society's witch made them all prestigious. An anonymous Chinese scholar wrote "The Disposition of Error" witch asked key questions about the leverage Buddhism had on the Chinese people. One, he asks "why Buddhism is not mentioned in the Confucian classics or is the writings of the Buddha able to overpass the classics and commentaries of the sages"? The truth is that no one can compare the sages to Buddha because of the dissimilar qualities that they both have and that the Confucian classics don't have all the information from that era in them because of the bias. And two, he explains why Monks give up worldly pleasures like having a family and property because in exchange they escalate in goodness and wisdom. Another example of writing is "The Four Noble Truths" preached by Buddha himself. The truths explain why we have sorrow, what causes sorrow, and how we can prevent it by stopping all craving and leaving it behind. An additional document that would help is a diary or a journal of some sort because if we had that we could really find out others point of view of the expansion of Buddhism and how it affected them

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