Buddhism Influence

When the Han dynasty ceased, China was ushered into a period of unrest. The system of ethics based Confucianism was shown to be flawed. Buddhism was spreading, and it showed similarities with Daoism. So, the Chinese took the best out of the three, and the period of unrest was over. However, in the Song dynasty Confucianism would once again be dominant. The Chinese thrived in the arts and in architecture, with creations like the pagoda. The Chinese also had many technological advances and the largest, unified government in 500 years (Sayre 360-361).
While Buddhism spread throughout China, its long-time influence was decreasing in India. Buddhism helped to unify the Chinese culture, but it became a target for uneasiness and turmoil in India. Muslims from Persia invaded India. As a result, Buddhism continued to wane in India, worship centers were decimated, and the Buddhists were forced to flee to the Himalayan Mountains (Sayre 365)s.
Buddhism is believed to have come to Japan from China. Many Chinese cultural and literary elements were already apart of Japanese culture, and Buddhism was seen as susceptible to assimilating into Japanese culture. However, it was not received by everyone. The Mononobe and Nakatomi clans of Yamato period Japan were against Buddhism coming into the country. They competed against …show more content…
To the west, there was the state of Ife and the kingdoms of Ife and Benin. The dominated kingdom of Mail was to the north. The kingdom of Zagwe and the Swahili culture were to the east (Sayre 379). While Buddhism was very dominant in Asia, Islam, in Africa, was the dominate religion that was not indigenous in nature. However, the kingdom of Zagwe had Christian places of worship, even though they were few. The Swahili were well known for their trade of their animals and spices. They also played a crucial part in trading with all of Asia, from the Middle Ages onward (Sayre