Buddhism was a very controversial philosophy in ancient China; many philosophers and scholars had strong views and arguments for or against Buddhism’s principles.
Buddhism was founded in India and brought to China around the first century C.E. Buddhism’s influences spread throughout China slowly but gained more followers after the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 C.E and continued to spread many centuries afterwards, during the empire’s political instability. China’s broken government and loss of unity allowed Buddhism to thrive. The philosophy promised that those who followed the ways of Buddha would rid themselves of their sorrows (doc. 1) and after death would be allowed to enter Nirvana; a state of being in which there is no suffering nor sense of desire for one's self (doc. 2). The idea of Nirvana also ties in with the Hindu’s belief of reincarnation. Achieving Nirvana releases a person from the cycle of reincarnation. The philosophy brought a sense of unity to its followers and a sense of hope of a life without pain. …show more content…
4) had problem with Buddhism because Buddha was not Chinese and it did not exist in China in earlier times. It’s shown that the Chinese looked down on other cultures that were not Chinese with the document stating that Buddha “..was a man of the barbarians..”. Confucian scholars were upset because they felt Buddhist traditions went against Confucian and other respected older scholars’ beliefs. One tradition being that monks would go greet the finger of buddha, even though great sages before this said this was not respectful to the dead and was considered an
Buddhism was founded in India and brought to China around the first century C.E. Buddhism’s influences spread throughout China slowly but gained more followers after the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 C.E and continued to spread many centuries afterwards, during the empire’s political instability. China’s broken government and loss of unity allowed Buddhism to thrive. The philosophy promised that those who followed the ways of Buddha would rid themselves of their sorrows (doc. 1) and after death would be allowed to enter Nirvana; a state of being in which there is no suffering nor sense of desire for one's self (doc. 2). The idea of Nirvana also ties in with the Hindu’s belief of reincarnation. Achieving Nirvana releases a person from the cycle of reincarnation. The philosophy brought a sense of unity to its followers and a sense of hope of a life without pain. …show more content…
4) had problem with Buddhism because Buddha was not Chinese and it did not exist in China in earlier times. It’s shown that the Chinese looked down on other cultures that were not Chinese with the document stating that Buddha “..was a man of the barbarians..”. Confucian scholars were upset because they felt Buddhist traditions went against Confucian and other respected older scholars’ beliefs. One tradition being that monks would go greet the finger of buddha, even though great sages before this said this was not respectful to the dead and was considered an