Developments in East Asia | 1.1

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##Purpose

Before you learn more about East Asian belief systems, choose between Confucianism, Buddhism, or Daoism as the foundational ideology for ruling your hypothetical kingdom.

##Process

You are the ruler of a newly established state in East Asia during the period c. 1200–1450 CE. Your goal is to create a stable and prosperous (wealthy) society. To achieve this, you must choose one guiding philosophy—Confucianism, Buddhism, or Daoism—to structure your government, culture, and economy. Your decisions will shape the future of your realm!

1. Which belief system will you choose to guide your government and society and why? [[☃ explanation 2]]

2. How will your government be organized? [[☃ explanation 3]]

3. What cultural values will you emphasize? [[☃ explanation 4]]

You can complete this activity in a few different ways. [[☃ explanation 11]] or [[☃ explanation 12]]

What did you write? Share with a friend or classmate, or you can [[☃ explanation 13]]

##East Asia 1220-1450

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*By Merry Wiesner-Hanks*

*China alternated between periods of unity and disunity as the population and economy grew. Vietnam, Korea, and Japan were all shaped by China, though they also developed their own traditions.*

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##Political and cultural developments in China

Ever wonder why China has been the dominant power in East Asia for the last two thousand years? Sure, military conquests mattered, but China’s power came more often through its cultural influence. Politically, China went back and forth between periods of unity and disunity in the centuries around 1200, but the population, economy, and cities continued to grow. Vietnam, Korea, and Japan were all shaped by China, though they also developed their own traditions.

China first became a unified state during the third century BCE, with an emperor at the top of a ruling dynasty. There were periods of strong centralized government, some lasting centuries, but these alternated with periods of conflict when China’s border states invaded, or when groups within China fought each other for power.

The Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) expanded Chinese borders outward and created a cosmopolitan culture with elements from many different places. In the tenth century, Tang China broke into separate competing states. One of the largest and most enduring was ruled by the Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE), centered in southern China. It is with the Song that our look at China in this period really begins.

Song territories were not as extensive as the Tang’s had been, and they shrank further during the twelfth century when the non-Chinese Jurchens conquered most of north China. Song China had a large and increasing population, however, and a broad and well-educated ruling class. Aristocratic lineage was still the easiest path to power, but not the only path. Hundreds of thousands of young men took civil service examinations—a Chinese educational innovation—after a long period of rigorous study. This provided a way for many able men to gain influence, an opportunity not open to women.

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The life of scholar-officials in Song China involved more than study and official duties. They were expected to appreciate and even produce literature, music, and art. Some scholars promoted Confucianism, the philosophical system based on the ideas of the fifth century BCE thinker Confucius. One outstanding scholar, Zhu Xi (1130–1200 CE), brought together Confucian writings into what became the official version and the basis of examinations from then on. Confucian writings emphasized the importance of social hierarchies, including ruler/subject, husband/wife, and father/son, all of which reflected the cosmic relationship between Heaven and Earth. Women’s proper realm was believed to be the household, not the world beyond. Still some girls learned to read beside their brothers, and domestic tasks could include producing things such as silk that supported the family, not simply housework.

In the 1270s, the Mongols conquered southern China, ending the Song dynasty and establishing their own dynasty, known as the Yuan (1279–1368 CE). They maintained a separation between Mongols and Chinese, though Chinese men did serve in the Mongol army and government. In the fourteenth century, drought, disease, rebellions, and ineffective leadership led to disorder. Taizu, a brilliant Chinese general who had begun life as a penniless orphan, defeated many rivals for power. He led armies against the Mongols, and founded a new dynasty, the Ming, which would last for three hundred years (1368–1644 CE).

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##Economic innovation and expansion

Rulers depend on taxes and required labor for their power, so the emperors of the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties were always interested in economic expansion. But many ordinary people also led important innovations, including the expansion of wet-field rice culture in central and southern China. In this system, villagers leveled forests, swamps, and coastal plains, transforming them into irrigated rice paddies that were less dependent on irregular rainfall. To reap two harvests a year, they grew rice seedlings in a seed bed and then transplanted the seedlings into a flooded field, an extremely labor-intensive process involving every family member. This system helped expand the food supply, which allowed the Chinese population to grow from about 50 million in the eighth century to about 100 million in the twelfth.

Villagers also grew cash crops such as sugar, tea, mulberry leaves (for silkworms to eat), and cotton. Women in village households raised silkworms, spun silk thread, and wove textiles. Profits from these household enterprises paid their rents and taxes, and bought charcoal, tea, oil, pottery, and other consumer goods. Trade was carried out in coins, or in paper money, invented by Chinese merchants. In the 1120s the Song government itself began issuing money, producing the world’s first government issued paper money. In addition to printing paper money, block and movable printing technology allowed for the production of texts, such as Confucian manuals for aspiring bureaucrats to study for their government exams. Manufacturing and trade also flourished during the Song, in particular with the production of porcelain, including vessels to drink one of China’s most important trade goods—tea!

Industry expanded as well, especially the production of iron, which grew six-fold in the ninth to twelfth centuries. Most iron was used for military purposes, including for armor and high-quality steel for swords and spears. Gunpowder had been invented in China in the ninth century, and it was used in the following centuries for weapons. These first included bombs and land mines, then exploding-tip arrows shot by giant cross-bows, and then cannons that shot projectiles.

Meanwhile, economic expansion was fueling the growth of cities. By 1200 the most urbanized part of the world was eastern China, with at least six cities that had more than 100,000 residents each. Hangzhou, for example, began as a rice-growing village in the fertile Yangzi River Delta, and grew steadily to become the largest city in China—and perhaps the world. During the Tang dynasty the city became one of many cosmopolitan centers of learning, where Nestorian Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam brought by foreign merchants joined various branches of Buddhism and Confucianism. After 1132, Hangzhou had become the capital of the Song state. Immigrants poured into the city from the surrounding countryside and the conquered north, and a century later its population may have reached one million. The city was not only a center of trade and production, but also culture, entertainment, and education. Visitors reported on the city’s many markets, bathhouses, silk shops, and painted ships. After their conquest of China, the Mongol Yuan dynasty moved the capital north to Dadu—now Beijing—but Hangzhou remained an important port and a giant city.

##Chinese influence in East Asia

From its earliest centuries, China exerted strong influence on its smaller neighbors, including Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, especially among the elites. Confucian political ideas, Buddhist religious teachings, and Chinese writing were adapted for local use. They were brought in through written texts, imported material objects, visiting ambassadors, marriage across societies, and traveling scholars, students, merchants, musicians, and monks. Chinese influence was especially pronounced during the Tang dynasty, when Vietnam was ruled directly by China and Korea was a vassal state that paid tribute to China. In the eleventh century, powerful regional overlords in Vietnam threw out most Chinese people, but Chinese cultural influence remained.

In the early years of this period, Korea was ruled by a dynasty known as the Koryŏ (935–1392 CE), the origin of the name “Korea.” A powerful, wealthy aristocracy controlled a poor peasantry. The Koryŏ modeled their government and capital city on China. When the Mongol Yuan dynasty conquered China, the Koryŏ hoped to buy them off, but instead the Mongols conquered Korea in the 1250s. The Koryŏ technically remained in charge, but they had to obey the orders of the Mongols, including the forced migration of hundreds of thousands of people to other places under Mongol rule. When Mongol rule fell apart in China, it did so in Korea as well, and a new indigenous dynasty, the Chosŏn, took power in 1392.

Japan, by contrast, managed to avoid conquest by the Mongols. During the Heian period (794–1185 CE), Japan had been dominated by the Fujiwara family. The Fujiwaras developed a brilliant court, where aristocrats learned Chinese literature and philosophy, wrote poetry, and surrounded themselves with beautiful paintings and objects. Although Chinese continued to be used for scholarly writings and official documents, a new script for writing Japanese phonetically was increasingly used for poetry and memoirs, some of these by female authors. Japanese monks who had traveled to China introduced new strains of Buddhism. One was Chan, known as Zen in Japan, which emphasized rigorous discipline and obedience to a master. Another was Pure Land Buddhism, which venerated the Buddha Amitabha and offered the possibility of reaching paradise through simple devotional practices. Pure Land was popular among ordinary people, who blended this with traditional Japanese religion, termed Shinto.

In the late twelfth century, however, civil war brought an end to the dominance of the Fujiwaras. For the next several centuries, other powerful families established military governments headed by a *shogun*, meaning top general. Shoguns advised emperors on major decisions, appointed officials to all the important government positions, directed the military, and became the center of courtly life. Skillful shoguns were occasionally able to assert authority, but in general power became increasingly decentralized. Landowning aristocrats and their bands of warriors, called *samurai*, often fought each other. The shogunate was able to repel massive invasions by the Mongols in 1274 and 1281, but disputes continued and violence was widespread.

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**Author bio**

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks is Distinguished Professor of History emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and currently the president of the World History Association. She is the author or editor of 30 books that have appeared in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Chinese, Turkish, and Korean.

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##Before you watch

Before you watch the video, it’s a good idea to open and skim the video transcript. And always read the questions below so you know what to look and listen for as you watch.

##While you watch

1. According to Francesca, where was silk produced in the era of the Song Dynasty, and what were some of the most important export markets?
2. According to Professor Xiaolin Duan, how did the economy work during the Song Dynasty? Who made silk, in particular?
3. Other than clothing, what other uses were there for silk?
4. According to Professor Duan, was the silk trade part of a wider Afro-Eurasian trading system? How?
5. What does the Pictures of Tilling and Weaving tell us about who did most of the work to produce silk?
6. Does Professor Duan believe that there was an industrial revolution in China in this period? What evidence is there for it?

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##After you watch

1. How does the production and trade of silk impact the government, economy, social interactions, and cultural developments of China?
2. Chinese silk is one example of a local commodity that was traded across extensive regional networks. The silk trade reshaped small communities, the Chinese state, and regional exchange networks across much of Asia. Can you think of anything that is or was once made in your community? Where does that good get distributed? Who produces it? How does that industry affect your community, and how do you think it impacts other places?

Share your responses with a friend or classmate, or[[☃ explanation 3]]

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##Purpose

Compare what you’ve learned about historical developments in East Asia to the hypothetical kingdom you created at the beginning of the lesson.

##Process

Look back at the philosophy you chose to guide your kingdom in the opener activity for this lesson.

1. How similar or different was your kingdom compared to the actual historical examples? [[☃ explanation 2]]

2. If you could change one aspect of your kingdom after learning about real-world history, what would it be and why? [[☃ explanation 3]]

You can complete this activity in a few different ways. [[☃ explanation 4]] or [[☃ explanation 5]]

What did you write? Share with a friend or classmate, or you can [[☃ explanation 6]]

##Confucianism

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*By Eman M. Elshaikh*

*The confusing thing about Confucianism is how it required unequal relationships, but also balance and harmony within those relationships – at home, in school, and in government.*

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##Introduction

For someone who left no writings behind, Confucius sure is quoted a lot. Hundreds of aphorisms (wise sayings or proverbs) and philosophical ideas are attributed to Confucius, but historians aren't exactly sure which ideas were really his. After Confucius' death, his followers compiled his teachings into The *Analects*, which lay out Confucius' ethical system.

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But according to The *Analects*, Confucius didn't think he was coming up with original ideas. Instead, he claims he is merely a transmitter, promoting what's essentially ancient Chinese wisdom. History is a big part of Confucian beliefs. For Confucius, the key to an ideal society was in the past. Confucius (551-479 BCE) was an educated man born to a wealthy family. But he was very troubled by the political turmoil he observed. Confucius lived during the Eastern Zhou dynasty when different states were fighting to gain more power. It was an unstable time with frequent wars. Motivated to ease these problems, he developed a sophisticated moral framework. His teachings would make a huge impact on Chinese culture and government and, as this philosophy traveled along trade networks, to other societies in East Asia as well.

##The Confucian solution

Confucius believed that to restore order, societies had to encourage certain virtues, such as loyalty, trustworthiness, and respecting your elders. He believed people were capable of attaining these and other virtues through education. By learning history, literature, and philosophy, people could gain insights. They could then apply this knowledge to their private lives and to public political issues. But how do you practice virtues, and how do you enforce them in others? That's where rituals and rules come in. It's one thing to you say you're virtuous, but when the whole community adopts rules and practices rituals meant to encourage specific virtues, people are more able to adjust to this ethical life. By living respectful and ethical lives, his followers believed they could become "superior" people.

In order to attain this moral refinement, according to Confucius, people had to constantly reflect upon their behavior. In The *Analects*, this is described as follows: "Master Zeng said: Each day I examine myself upon three points. In planning for others, have I been loyal? In company with friends, have I been trustworthy? And have I practiced what has been passed on to me?"

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Initially, Confucian ideas appealed mostly to everyday folks. But over time, his philosophy gained popularity in the political sphere and became the official belief system of the Chinese state. Confucianism also became a big part of the educational system. So much so that officials had to master Confucian principles in order to pass the civil service exams for government employment. Because of this, Confucian ideas influenced Chinese government for centuries.

But though Confucianism was bound up in government, it didn't call for harsh laws or punishments like Legalism$^1$, another Chinese philosophy. According to The Analects, "The Master said: Guide them with policies and align them with punishments and the people will evade them and have no shame. Guide them with virtue and align them with *li* [traditions and virtues of the Zhou] and the people will have a sense of shame and fulfill their roles…" As this passage suggests, Confucianism called for a kind of moral training which strengthened the correct social order. It was less about punishing wrongdoers and more about making people want to be good.

##Confucianism and social order

The Confucian social order was centered on relationships, and in particular "five key relationships". Importantly, these relationships were generally unequal but complementary, which means that they worked in harmony$^2$ . Fathers were above sons, husbands above wives, older siblings above younger ones, and rulers above their subjects. (One relationship—friend to friend—was not unequal). Because, in general, one side had more power, that side had to behave morally, with concern for the other side. This would then help the inferior person in the relationship obey and respect the superior. Though it sounds contradictory, the unequal relationships were meant to create balance and harmony.

In this way, the family was an example of political life, and the place where social order was created and maintained. The family was seen as a kind of mini- government. Filial piety, meaning respect and honor for elder family members, was incredibly important. It tied into existing practices, like the veneration (great respect) of ancestors. These principles were clearly expressed in The *Analects*:

>*"1.6 The Master said: A young man should be filial within his home and respectful of elders when outside, should be careful and trustworthy, broadly caring of people at large, and should cleave to [embrace] those who are ren [virtuous in all things]. If he has energy left over, he may study the refinements of culture (wen)…*

>*1.9 Master Zeng said: Devote care to life's end and pursue respect for the distant dead; in this way, the virtue of the people will return to fullness…"*

Confucian family structures were also very hierarchical when it came to gender. Though filial piety called for respecting all elders, men came first. Women's roles were primarily to care for the family and manage the household. They typically did not have formal roles outside of the home. This was truer for women of the upper classes than it was for lower class women, who sometimes had to work outside of the home to support their families. In the cosmic balance between *yin* and *yang*, women were seen as passive, soft, and inferior.

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Even though Confucian ideas resulted in social hierarchies, they placed an emphasis on compassion. The most superior person in society, the emperor, was therefore tasked with ensuring justice and providing for his subjects. According to The *Analects*, "The Master said: To guide a state great enough to possess a thousand war chariots: be attentive to affairs and trustworthy; regulate expenditures and treat persons as valuable; employ the people according to the proper season." This emphasized the importance of sincerity and care on the part of the state. Similarly, men had to care for their wives and children and treat them with kindness.

Despite this hierarchical structure, Confucianism still left room for social mobility. Because it emphasized education and proper behavior, it created opportunities for common people to improve themselves and gain important positions. It created a system which valued merit rather than simply noble birth, though who your parents were still mattered.

Confucianism was therefore a belief system that was distinctly political, focused on maintaining order in relationships at many levels. But it was less concerned with the divine and the mystical. Confucius is said to have claimed that because humans have yet to understand this life, they can't really know anything what's beyond it. Little thought was given to concepts like heaven, hell, and reincarnation. Instead, Confucius and his followers focused on practical, worldly affairs, like maintaining harmony in family, government, and the community.

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**Author bio**

The author of this article is Eman M. Elshaikh. She is a writer, researcher, and teacher who has taught K-12 and undergraduates in the United States and in the Middle East. She teaches writing at the University of Chicago, where she also completed her master’s in social sciences and is currently pursuing her PhD. She was previously a World History Fellow at Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP World History.

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##Buddhism

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By Eman M. Elshaikh

Buddhism began with a young prince’s spiritual epiphany, then traveled with missionaries, merchants, and political power across Asia. As it moved, it changed along with the communities that adopted it.

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##What would you do?

Imagine you're a young Indian prince living in the sixth-century BCE. You have every material thing you could want in life. Soon, you will inherit your family's wealth and become a powerful warrior prince. But one day, you pop your head out of the palace and see that the world can be a pretty rough place for people who aren't rich princes. What do you do? Well, if you're Siddhartha Gautama (563–483 BCE), you renounce your titles and worldly possessions and begin wandering the countryside, begging for food and living the life of an ascetic—a person who lives a disciplined life by refusing to indulge in luxuries like ice cream, alcohol, and comfortable mattresses. As he adopted this lifestyle, Siddhartha began preaching a new belief system, and people started calling him "the Buddha." His teachings became the foundation of Buddhism.

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But this isn't the story of one guy. The story of Buddhism is as much about the spread of Buddhism as its origins and teachings. The Buddha's simple teachings quickly spread from India across Asia and beyond. As it traveled along trade networks, Buddhism touched the lives of millions of people. But Buddhism itself changed as it moved. In some places, like China, powerful leaders and movements adopted Buddhism, transforming it into one of the world's major belief systems.

##Origins

In the sixth century BCE, India was changing. After centuries of conquest, the Aryan people$^1$ had established new kingdoms, cities were growing again, and trade flourished in India's ports and along its roads. But this was also a time of religious change across the ancient world$^2$. The Aryan conquests of India introduced a new belief system called Brahmanism. Brahmanism was based on the Vedic texts and was dominated by a priestly class of brahmins. Brahmanism brought the caste system to India, which divided all people into a strict social hierarchy.

Both Hinduism and Buddhism emerged from this earlier belief system. But while Hinduism formalized elements of Brahmanism, such as the caste system and the divinity of the Vedas, Buddhism rejected many elements of the old religion. Buddhist beliefs challenged the social structure that gave priests special access to spiritual life. Instead, Buddhism suggested that anyone could gain salvation and wisdom by letting go of desire. In this way, Buddhist teachings rejected the caste system and challenged the existing social order.

##Calcus of enlightenment

This article began by asking what you would have done in Siddhartha's place. You probably had a different answer than he did. Maybe you enjoy ice cream and mattresses. And that's okay. Not every convert to Buddhism was forced to adopt an extreme ascetic lifestyle. Buddhism offered believers a "middle path," which was guided by the principles the Buddha had gained back when he was the young prince Siddhartha. According to Buddhist sources, Siddhartha had been meditating under a tree near the Ganges River when he had a spiritual epiphany (breakthrough). This epiphany revealed to him truths about the universe. He called these the "Four Noble Truths":

1. life is suffering
2. suffering comes from desire
3. one must limit desire to limit suffering
4. to limit suffering, one must follow the "Eightfold Path".

Four truths? Eight paths? This is starting to sound like math. Don't worry. Math is suffering. This is not math. Here's a primary source to prove it. The Pali Canon, an early text of Buddha's teachings, describes the Eightfold Path like this:

And what is that ancient path, that ancient road? It is just this Noble Eightfold Path: that is, [1] right view, [2] right intention, [3] right speech, [4] right action, [5] right livelihood, [6] right effort, [7] right mindfulness, [8] right concentration. I followed that path and by doing so I have directly known aging-and-death, its origin, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation [end]. I have directly known birth…existence…clinging…craving…feeling…contact…the six sense bases…name-and-form…consciousness…volitional formations [desires], their origin, their cessation, and the way leading to their cessation. (Gautama, 69).

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Buddhism teaches that by controlling desire and limiting suffering, this path could lead a person to spiritual enlightenment. But the road to enlightenment was not easy. The Eightfold Path required a great deal of self-sacrifice and dedication. The women and men who followed this path often adopted a monastic way of life, leaving behind worldly affairs and devoting their lives to attaining spiritual enlightenment. This usually meant becoming monks or nuns and taking vows of celibacy and poverty, meditating, and abstaining from violence.

##Buddhism and social change

Buddhist beliefs might have focused on individual enlightenment, but they had important social consequences. Buddhism challenged the structure of Indian society, where Brahmins had authority and status. It also challenged the caste system more broadly, because enlightenment was not limited to those of upper castes. Buddhism also welcomed women into monastic life, providing roles outside of the home. These differences made Buddhism appeal to many in the lower castes of Indian society.

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As mentioned above, the road to enlightenment was difficult, and—probably like you—most people were unable or unwilling to abandon their families and possessions for a life of spiritual devotion. Most people who chose lives as monks or nuns did so because they could afford it. Laborers and servants, for example, could not simply abandon their livelihoods and retreat into spiritual contemplation.

But Buddhism was flexible. As it spread, new versions emerged to meet the different needs of converts. For example, Mahayana Buddhism, which means "the great vehicle," allowed people to strive toward enlightenment even if they couldn't become monks. Mahayana Buddhism grew into the most widespread form of Buddhism in the world. Buddhism's rejection of the caste system and the flexibility of its "middle path" is what helped it spread across Asia.

##From one Buddha to many Buddhisms

Though Buddhist beliefs originated in India, they spread quickly. Buddhism moved through trade networks, traveling on Silk Road caravans through Central Asia to China and aboard merchant ships to Southeast Asia. Buddhism also got some help from powerful leaders. Emperor Ashoka, who ruled the Mauryan Empire in India from 268 to 232 BCE, used his power and conquests to spread Buddhism through India and beyond. He sent missionaries from his empire into the surrounding regions, including Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka.

A big part of Buddhism's success outside India was its ability to accommodate local beliefs. As it spread, Buddhism changed, blending with elements of different belief systems, a process known as "syncretism." For example, Buddhist ideas blended with Confucian and Daoist beliefs in China, where concepts like ancestor veneration (honor) and filial piety (honoring elders$^3$) became part of Buddhism. Another example is Greco-Buddhism. Descendants of Alexander the Great's empire still lived in Central Asia, and when they converted to Buddhism, they blended it with elements of Greek culture. In some places, the Buddha came to be regarded as a deity, and new Buddhas were added to the pantheon, though these were not part of the original belief system.

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After reaching China, Buddhism began to expand during the third century CE. An age of political upheaval followed the collapse of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE. This collapse of political authority meant many people sought meaning in new kinds of communities. For many, Buddhism offered a fresh start as the old order collapsed. Chinese rulers began using Buddhism to unite their people. From China, Buddhism spread to Korea and Japan. There too, Buddhism blended with local practices. Buddhist monks in Japan even became caretakers for Shinto shrines and participated in Shinto rituals.

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Why did Buddhism spread around the world? First, it offered a universalist message: that every individual could attain enlightenment by following its teachings. This message appealed to those, like women and peasants, who were marginalized in society. Second, Buddhism was missionary and had several powerful political supporters. Buddhists believed that their message could and should be spread to everyone and anyone. Emperor Ashoka was the first ruler to encourage Buddhist missionaries to travel abroad, and later Chinese rulers sought to spread Buddhism as a way to build their own power and influence. Finally, Buddhism was a flexible belief system, capable of adapting and changing to fit very different places and people.

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Though it is one of the largest belief systems in the world, with about 500 million followers today, Buddhism is not singular. It has taken on many forms in many places. From northern India, where it originated, Buddhism traveled along trade networks to Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and beyond. And though it originated and spread in India, Buddhism gradually became less popular there. In countries like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia, Buddhism is today the dominant belief system. Wherever it went, Buddhism changed how communities were organized. It challenged social hierarchy, created opportunities for women, and gave individuals of all classes a role in spiritual practice. But as Buddhism changed each new society it touched, so too did Buddhism change. Indeed, it was Buddhism's ability to adapt to new contexts that allowed it to spread so far.

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Author bio

The author of this article is Eman M. Elshaikh. She is a writer, researcher, and teacher who has taught K-12 and undergraduates in the United States and in the Middle East. She teaches writing at the University of Chicago, where she also completed her master’s in social sciences and is currently pursuing her PhD. She was previously a World History Fellow at Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP World History.

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##Why do Belief Systems Spread? How China Made Buddhism its Own

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*By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor*

*Historically, belief systems have been shared along trade routes and at times, have been transformed once they’ve entered a new region. This was certainly the case with Buddhism.*

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##Introduction

Many non-Buddhists’ picture the Buddha as a happy, shirtless man with a large belly that people rub for good luck. This idea of Buddha is a particularly Chinese one. You wouldn’t often see that representation in India, where Buddhism originated. Images of the “Laughing Buddha”, or Budai, can also be seen in other parts of Southeast Asia such as Thailand and Singapore, as well as in Japan. So why is the image of Buddha so different in these areas compared to India?$^1$

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As you read earlier in this lesson, Buddhism began in India with the life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. But Buddhism was not confined to this region. Merchants traveled from India to nearby locations such as China and Southeast Asia bringing goods to exchange. But they also brought ideas, including belief systems. One of the most popular belief systems was Buddhism.

There are many reasons why Buddhism became popular in China. Buddhism united the Chinese people into a community of believers. This unification helped the Chinese overcome a period of war and unrest during the Warring States period. There is also the connection to exchange networks. When trade increased along the Silk Road, ideas and belief systems also spread. Sometimes the area that adopted these new beliefs changed the beliefs into something that was their own.

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Scholars have asked, “Who spread these ideas across China?” Did Indian people move to China and bring this faith? Did the Chinese spread these beliefs around the empire themselves? Or maybe it was a combination of these two explanations?

The traditional origin story of the arrival of Buddhism in China began with a dream of the Emperor Ming Ti. He reigned during the Han Dynasty in the mid-first century CE. He dreamed of a golden god, thought to be the Buddha. In order to understand this vision better, he sent representatives to India to learn more about the Buddha. Ming’s advisors brought back Buddhist sutra (scripture) and housed these works in a temple near the capital city. There could be some truth to this, just as many origin stories might have some truth to them. But historical accounts focus on a more gradual introduction of Buddhism to China through trade routes.

As Buddhist ideas spread from Indian merchants throughout China, parts of the faith were adopted. Some Buddhist ideas became mixed with similar beliefs that already existed, like Daoism. Both Buddhism and Daoism focused on magical beliefs and rituals. Many Chinese found it easy to blend these two belief systems. The Chinese followers of Daoism also had another origin story about their founder, Laozi. They believed Laozi traveled to India where he was reborn as the Buddha. This belief helped to mesh these two faiths together.

The Chinese kept some of the Indian faith’s practices and beliefs. This included the more traditional beliefs in karma and nirvana. Over time, these central doctrines to Buddhism became “Sinicized” (changed through Chinese influence). For example, many Chinese emperors had a fascination with immortality. As a result, there were many court members who attempted to create tonics that would extend the emperor’s life on Earth. Some of these elixirs actually ended up causing the death of a few emperors. But this focus of extending life on Earth and achieving immortality became interwoven with some Buddhist practices like enlightenment (nirvana). So, for many Chinese who adopted Buddhist beliefs, the idea of nirvana morphed into one that was different from the definition of nirvana in India. One of the most popular forms of Buddhism in both China and Japan is the Pure Land School. The Pure Land School believes in the Indian sutras but has a different focus than Indian Buddhism. “While in India rebirth in the Pure Land meant a complete break with earthly life, which was considered a life of suffering, in the Chinese Pure Land School it means an extension of earthly living.”$^2$ Buddhism became Sinicized. It was changed for a Chinese audience and combined with other Chinese beliefs such as Daoism and more traditional cult practices.

The height or “golden age” of Buddhism in China was during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). During this period, many of the Tang emperors protected monasteries. The faith grew both spiritually and economically. But as foreign influences became less trusted in the ninth century, Buddhism experienced persecution. The Chinese government ordered over 4000 monasteries destroyed. In addition, close to 300,000 monks and nuns were forced out of their homes and places of worship. While Buddhism in China declined somewhat after the Tang, it never disappeared. In some areas, it combined with both Daoism and Confucianism. These three belief systems combined with more traditional Chinese rituals to become a mixture practiced together.

##Historical scholars explain how the Chinese made Buddhism their own

How and why did Buddhism change after it was brought to China? Chinese and Buddhist history experts looked at evidence and formed ideas to explain the spread of this belief system. The Japanese expert Zenryū Tsukamoto wrote *A History of Early Chinese Buddhism* (1979). In these two volumes he says mistakes may have been made in translating Buddhist writings into Chinese. Did these mistakes in translation lead to a different form of Buddhism in China than the one practiced in India? Or were the differences in Chinese and Indian Buddhism a result of other factors?

“Eventually Indian artifacts joined this stream [of goods and ideas shared along the Silk Road] and, most important for our purposes, Buddhism began to flow with it, exerting an enormous influence not only on Chinese cultural forms but on those of the rest of Asia as well…Buddhism, this rebel child of Indian culture, proceeded eastward quite as if it were the representative of Indian civilization, functioning very actively and over an extended period of time as an embassy of peace, uniting the sophisticated, and at the same time utterly dissimilar, cultures of India and China…

As an example of the transformation just mentioned, one might cite the fact that scriptures of this foreign religion, written with a phonetic script or recited orally, in a language with a highly developed morphology [structure], were now rendered into a literary language of a totally different character, that of China, written with ideographs [characters] each of which had an independent meaning of its own and characterized by an absence of morphology. Now the Chinese had recourse not to the original but to Buddhist scriptures translated into their own language, which they read, interpreted, and equipped with commentary, developing a set of Buddhist doctrines and practices able to function in Chinese society…Under the circumstances, the original sense of the Indian Buddhist scriptures inevitably underwent a typically Chinese interpretation. However mistaken this interpretation might be from the point of view of the originals, Chinese Buddhism developed on the assumption that the interpretation was an accurate one.” (4-5)

Kenneth Kuan Sheng Ch’en expresses a slightly different view in his work *Chinese Transformation of Buddhism* (1973). Ch’en thought that Buddhism went through a gradual process of Sinicization. The Chinese were willing to accept this belief system because it fit with beliefs and practices they already had, such as Daoism. However, in order for the Chinese to fully embrace Buddhism, the faith was organized into a more orderly format.

>*“It is true that the process of Indianization [of China] did take place, but it is also true that another process was going on, namely, the adaptation of Buddhism to Chinese conditions. While Indian ideas were gaining ground, the Chinese were also fashioning changes in the Indian ideas and practices, so that Buddhism became more and more Chinese and more acceptable to the Chinese. I call this process the Sinicization of Buddhism in China…*

>*Already possessed of a high level of civilization when Buddhism was introduced about the beginning of the Christian era, the Chinese were not totally overwhelmed by the new religion. It is true that for a few centuries, the Chinese were captivated by the overpowering religious panorama brought in with Buddhism, but in time, what some scholars call the basic personality or the local genius of the Chinese began manifesting itself…*

>*Further examples of such Sinicization may be cited here. One is the classification of the Buddhist sutras [scripture] according to chronological periods, which may be attributed to the Chinese predilection [preference] for history. During the centuries after the introduction of Buddhism in China, a tremendous body of literature, conveying the widest assortment of doctrines and ideas, was translated into Chinese. This huge body of literature must have been a constant source of amazement to the Chinese, for how could one individual preach such a variety of teachings during his brief span of life? Moreover, how could one explain the numerous doctrinal differences taught…These problems led the Chinese Buddhists to undertake the task of organizing and classifying the entire corpus [collection] of literature according to periods and doctrines. By classifying the sutras according to chronological periods, the Chinese succeeded in bringing some order out of chaos.” (5-9)*

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**Author bio**

Bridgette Byrd O'Connor holds a DPhil in history from the University of Oxford and has taught Big History, World History, and AP U.S. Government and Politics for the past ten years at the high school level. In addition, she has been a freelance writer and editor for the Big History Project and the Crash Course World History and U.S. History curriculums.

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