Confucianism: The Influence Of Buddhism In China

During this early period of constant political and military conflict, Buddhism found an accepting audience in China, while the influence of Confucianism slowly died out. Buddhism arrived in China in the 1st century AD as the religion of merchants who came from Central Asia. During the next three centuries, /the Chinese encountered a great variety of ideas and practices identified as Buddhist. Buddhism differed markedly from earlier Chinese religions and philosophies. A universal religion, it embraced all people, regardless of their ethnicity or social status. It also had a founding figure, the Indian prince Siddhartha, who lived during the 6th and 5th centuries BC. To many Chinese, Buddhism seemed at first a variant of Daoism, as Daoist terms were used to translate Buddhist concepts. A more accurate understanding of Buddhism became possible after Kumarajiva (343?-413?), a Buddhist monk from Central Asia, settled in Chang’an and directed several thousand Chinese monks in the translation of Buddhist texts. …show more content…
But it was during the long period of disunity at the end of the Han era that Buddhism really took hold among the Chinese people. It is not difficult to understand why. Confucianism held that human nature was essentially good; it emphasized the network of mutual duties and obligations between ruler and ruled, father and family, elder and younger, husband and wife. At the end of Han, the law of survival seemed to have replaced Confucian relationships and Confucian theories of human goodness. Buddhist pessimism seemed more in keeping with the times than Confucian