Eusebius’ excerpt The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine and Mou Tzu’s excerpt The Disposition of Error clearly depict the issues Rome and China faced as these new religions entered their society. During Eusebius’ time Christianity was a fairly new religion and was seen as a threat to Pagan Rome, thus it received a lot of backlash. Mou Tzu lived in 6th century China which was after the Han Dynasty fell. This was a time where people were open to new ideas. Thus Mahayana Buddhism flourished since it was more inclusive and appealed to more people. However, there were still numerous Confucians who disliked Mahayana Buddhism. Thus, Christianity and Buddhism conflicted with the current religious norms of their respective civilizations and this
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Eusebius’ The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine and Mou Tzu’s The Disposition of Error attempt to illustrate times in which there was religious understanding and little internal conflict, however, this was not true as these new religions clashed with the existing religions and created rivalries. According to the Bagster translation by Ernest Cushing Richardson about Eusebius’ The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine, “He ensured the affection of his friends by magnificent proofs of liberality;... he governed on principles of humanity, he caused his rule to be but lightly felt and acceptable to all classes of his subjects” (bk 1, ch. IX). Eusebius attempts to portray Constantine as a benevolent ruler who cared about his subjects and promoted peace and understanding, but he has a bias opinion on how Christianity fared in the Roman empire after Constantine’s death. In actuality Christians were being persecuted by Pagans who “feared that the Greco-Roman gods would withdraw their favor from the Roman Empire because of the Christian insistence that the pagan gods either did not exist or were evil spirits” (McKay et al. 166). Mou Tzu’s The Disposition of Error gives insight into the external rather than the internal conflicts people …show more content…
Mou Tzu responds to his counterparts question on why Buddhists believe in reincarnation by stating that “If one has the Way,… one’s soul goes to… happiness. If one does not have the Way,… one’s soul suffers misfortune” (88). Thus, the Confucius population of China misunderstood the beliefs of Buddhists. This misunderstanding eventually turned into fear and during the late Tang period “...more than 4,600 monasteries and 40,000 temples and shrines were destroyed...” as Buddhist monasteries were not forced to pay taxes and its workers were exempt from forced labor (McKay et al. 166). Emperor Julian, who came after Constantine, viewed Christianity as “illogical” and thus did not support it. (Smarr 2017a). He could not wrap his head around how trivial Christianity was so he reverted back to his Pagan ways and denounced Christianity. Therefore the emergence of these new religions were met with retaliation as Christianity and Buddhism practiced radical rituals and believed in illogical ideas compared to the religions that were prevalent in Rome and China
Eusebius’ The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine and Mou Tzu’s The Disposition of Error attempt to illustrate times in which there was religious understanding and little internal conflict, however, this was not true as these new religions clashed with the existing religions and created rivalries. According to the Bagster translation by Ernest Cushing Richardson about Eusebius’ The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine, “He ensured the affection of his friends by magnificent proofs of liberality;... he governed on principles of humanity, he caused his rule to be but lightly felt and acceptable to all classes of his subjects” (bk 1, ch. IX). Eusebius attempts to portray Constantine as a benevolent ruler who cared about his subjects and promoted peace and understanding, but he has a bias opinion on how Christianity fared in the Roman empire after Constantine’s death. In actuality Christians were being persecuted by Pagans who “feared that the Greco-Roman gods would withdraw their favor from the Roman Empire because of the Christian insistence that the pagan gods either did not exist or were evil spirits” (McKay et al. 166). Mou Tzu’s The Disposition of Error gives insight into the external rather than the internal conflicts people …show more content…
Mou Tzu responds to his counterparts question on why Buddhists believe in reincarnation by stating that “If one has the Way,… one’s soul goes to… happiness. If one does not have the Way,… one’s soul suffers misfortune” (88). Thus, the Confucius population of China misunderstood the beliefs of Buddhists. This misunderstanding eventually turned into fear and during the late Tang period “...more than 4,600 monasteries and 40,000 temples and shrines were destroyed...” as Buddhist monasteries were not forced to pay taxes and its workers were exempt from forced labor (McKay et al. 166). Emperor Julian, who came after Constantine, viewed Christianity as “illogical” and thus did not support it. (Smarr 2017a). He could not wrap his head around how trivial Christianity was so he reverted back to his Pagan ways and denounced Christianity. Therefore the emergence of these new religions were met with retaliation as Christianity and Buddhism practiced radical rituals and believed in illogical ideas compared to the religions that were prevalent in Rome and China