Period 3
The simple idea of introducing a new religion to society always has positive and negative affects. For example, the concept of spreading Buddhism from its origin, India, had developed both criticism and support. The spread of Buddhism happened quite quickly in China and the Chinese responded in one of two ways. They were either interested in Buddhism because of its teachings or they thought it was a barbaric thing. To analyze the overall feelings in China, we must understand and explain why many people were attracted to Buddhism(group 1), and we must understand why some people despised the spread of Buddhism(group 2). The reasons why Buddhism has approximately 362 million followers is because of its teachings and beliefs. In the documents provided, documents one, two, three, and five allow us to analyze the positive response to Buddhism in China. In the …show more content…
In documents four and six, we can see why some people’s responses were negative towards the spread of Buddhism. In document four, we are allowed to see into Han Yu’s mind, a Confucian scholar. He believed that Buddhism was a cult of the barbarian people and that it had several flaws. He criticized it because the Buddha’s teachings did not speak of ancient kings and his clothings did not conform to the laws. Although this may have been a baist opinion coming from a Confucian scholar, it provides some evidence showing that some people did not like the teachings of Buddhism. In document six, we can see how even the emperor thought Buddhism was causing problems. He shows how it requires people to abandon their lords and parents for teachers, and he also shows how workers fail to work. The emperor, emperor Wu, may have not seen the teachings as the issue, but that it was making people go hungry and it made people leave their home and work. Both documents provide an insight on how Buddhism was rejected by some Chinese