The acceptance of Buddhism varied depending on where you are from and your place in society. Some Confucian scholars agreed with the emperor in rejecting the belief as an external, uncultured cult because of its differences, while other Chinese scholars agreed with Buddha, saying that Buddhism had much to offer, and finally, a third response came from a combination of Chinese and Buddhist scholars, who tried to make the Buddhist belief fit in with the already existing Chinese ideologies of Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism. One of the Confucian scholars that was against Buddhism was Han Yu, who wrote “Memorial on Buddhism” in 819 C.E. In this he talks about when the Buddha’s finger bone was brought to China from India. He calls the bones
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This should have been an easy job considering Legalism, Taoism, and Confucianism were found in the dynasty for centuries before Buddhism comes around. One anonymous Chinese scholar wrote “The Disposition of Error” during 500 C.E. It is a question and answer document, the questions are from a person who is against the spread of Buddhism into China (Doc 3). The first question is about if Buddhism if such a great thing, then why did Confucius and the great sages not practice it? And the answer is that “the records and teachings of the Confucian classics do not contain everything” (Doc 3). This means that just because Confucius is the “greatest” it does not mean that he knew or wrote down everything. The next question is about how the Buddhist monks “forsake” the practice of wives and children (Doc 3). And the answer is that “simple living and inaction are the wonders of the Way” (Doc 3). This may cause the reader to think that they are against Buddhism because of its wording, but because it is disproving the person arguing against Buddhism, the answerer therefore is supporting Buddhism, and talks about ways to combine Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. There is also another document that also tries to convince people to combine the three ideals. The essay “On the Nature of Man” written by Zong Mi during the early 9th century. This essay says the three ideals “differ in their approaches in that they encourage the perfection of good deeds, punish wicked ones, and reward good ones” (Doc 5). Simply put, they all have the same main ideas and everyone is striving for the same
This should have been an easy job considering Legalism, Taoism, and Confucianism were found in the dynasty for centuries before Buddhism comes around. One anonymous Chinese scholar wrote “The Disposition of Error” during 500 C.E. It is a question and answer document, the questions are from a person who is against the spread of Buddhism into China (Doc 3). The first question is about if Buddhism if such a great thing, then why did Confucius and the great sages not practice it? And the answer is that “the records and teachings of the Confucian classics do not contain everything” (Doc 3). This means that just because Confucius is the “greatest” it does not mean that he knew or wrote down everything. The next question is about how the Buddhist monks “forsake” the practice of wives and children (Doc 3). And the answer is that “simple living and inaction are the wonders of the Way” (Doc 3). This may cause the reader to think that they are against Buddhism because of its wording, but because it is disproving the person arguing against Buddhism, the answerer therefore is supporting Buddhism, and talks about ways to combine Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. There is also another document that also tries to convince people to combine the three ideals. The essay “On the Nature of Man” written by Zong Mi during the early 9th century. This essay says the three ideals “differ in their approaches in that they encourage the perfection of good deeds, punish wicked ones, and reward good ones” (Doc 5). Simply put, they all have the same main ideas and everyone is striving for the same