Buddhism

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the study of Buddhism is crucial to the understanding of Chinese history because, for almost two thousand years, Buddhism has influenced Chinese culture, politics, philosophy and literature. The author points out that the spread of Buddhism was unique for China for the reason that, when it was introduced, China was already a very old civilization with very sacred traditions and was felt by the population to be the only truly civilized society in the world. The paper relates that the most important reason for the success of Buddhism in China is Buddhism's willingness to recognize and take in certain elements of preexisting religions.

From the Paper:

"It is hard to tell exactly how Buddhism made its way into China, but it is assumed though, that this first contact was with Buddhist icons worshiped by Central Asians coming into China. Back then, the Chinese accepted the Buddha into their lives as a religious figure because of their own mythical Yellow Emperor and the philosopher Loazi, who was believed to have reached the Buddhist level of immortality. However, the turning point for Chinese Buddhism was when the original texts started being translated into Chinese."

Sample of Sources Used:

• De Bary, WM. Theodore and Irene Bloom (1999), Sources of Chinese Tradition: From Earliest Times to 1600, New York: Columbia University Press.
• Dudley, Jesse. Map of Spread of Buddhism, Week 6 Lecture Notes, HIS280Y1Y: History of China, October 19, 2006.
• Hansen, Valerie (2000), The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

More papers on Buddhism:

• Research Paper # 83498 : "Cha'an Buddhism"
• Analytical Essay # 135257 : "Passage on Buddhism"
• Essay # 83990 : "Chinese Buddhism "
• Essay # 32376 : "Buddhism and Buddhist Art"

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