Essay on Apwh Ch.9 Study Guide

China is a very influential world power and has been for many years. The Classical and Post-Classical years in China were a time of achievement and advancement, especially in the religious movement. Post-Classical and Classical China were very important historical periods, and their religions, and the effect of them on the world around them highlighted that importance.

It is prevalent that the spread of Buddhism collectively affected the government in 300-900 CE (Doc’s 1,7). Many people working in the government were impacted by Buddhism’s arrival in China such as emperors, aristocrats, and other higher ranking scholars (Doc’s 1, 7). Another way Buddhism was affecting government was Buddhism was skewing the reasoning and view of economy as shown according to Emperor Wu, Buddhism harmed the government by convincing them to give up farming, resulting in reducing tax revenue as an effect of the spread of Buddhism (Doc 7). Because the author is an emperor then they would write the the information to influence people not to be Buddhist which would lead them to state why being a Buddhist is not good and over exaggerate the other information about Buddhism; this helps support the claim that the spread of Buddhism definitely influenced the working of the government. Additionally the most popular religion of China at the time would almost always find

Albert Einstein once said, “Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.” I though this quote was an interesting beginning into seeing how this ancient religion changed over the course of its existence. I feel that Buddhism has changed over time but has maintained that core teaching that it had with the early Indians and with the Theravada teachings. Mahayana just happens to be the more loose teachings of the Buddha. The term used in

What I found to be the most interesting part of Buddhism is the story that is told on how it became a religion. Siddhartha Gautama, later known as Buddha, was born into a royal family. It was later said that Siddhartha was born with marks on his body that meant he was to conquer the world one day. The king wanted his son to grow up to follow in his footsteps, so he kept Siddhartha from leaving the palace. One day Siddhartha decided to leave the palace and where he saw things he had never imagined. Buddhists later called these the “Four Sights” (Brodd, 146). The first three sights that he witnessed were full of pain and suffering, whereas the fourth sight was full of hope. After witnessing these four sights, Siddhartha wanted to know the truth

Compare and Contrast: The Spread of Christianity and Buddhism in the End of the Classical Period.

Also, Buddhism was a more peaceful and calm religion. Unlike in Buddhism, in Hinduism there was a caste system. It was a group from a social system. Hindus had gone by using a caste system, but it was rejected in the Buddhism community which resulted in many Buddhist being laborers and craftspeople. Hindus and Buddha both had different beliefs. For example, “Hindus saw religion as a way of liberating the soul from illusions, disappointments, and mistakes of everyday existence.” (World History Patterns of Interaction, 2005)

Judaism was able to hold up the religion because exiles had built a distinctive religious community based on their conviction that had a special relationship with Yahweh. Their devotion to Yahweh was expressed in Torah and these enabled Jews to maintain a strong sense of their religion. Jewish monotheism, scriptures, and moral concerns also influenced development of Christianity and Islam. Jews had a really strong believe in Yahweh and Torah. Buddhism became very popular religion in Northern India, merchants who went to trade to different places spread their faith. Buddhism was very popular in China. After fall of Han empire, Buddhism received strong support from nomadic people who migrated to northern China and spread Buddhism and practiced it, and that’s what they believed for years. In present world people that believe in Buddhism are mostly found in China.

Hinduism is a very popular religion in India, being that it could possibly be the oldest religion of all time and originated in India, the Hindu population in India is 80%. With Hinduism being such a popular religion, it competes with Christianity and Islam at 900 million followers of Hinduism worldwide (Miksic, 10). As for the popularity of Buddhism, it is not nearly as prevalent as Hinduism is, even in India. A very important attribute to Hinduism is the caste system. The caste system is comprised of five levels that each Hindu is born into and cannot switch out of or marry into another. These levels include the Brahmans, who are the highest caste and include priests, scholars and other professionals, Kshatriyas, who are typically known

During the Classical Age we experienced the rise of the Han and Mauryan/Gupta Empire. These two empires were very different in the way they held together their people, government, and sustained a thriving empire. Methods of political control in Mauryan/Gupta India and Han china seem to have lots of differences and they are noticeably diverse yet they are still similar and unique. While the Han dynasty constructed extensive bureaucracy all over the empire, but India could not fully accomplish a strong thriving bureaucracy. However, there are also some similarities between two empires.

The Diffusion of Buddhism and Christianity in the Sixth Century During the sixth century, both Buddhism and Christianity were rapidly gaining in popularity throughout the world. However, they both diffused in different ways, and to different places. The similarities and the differences between the two religions’ diffusions are extremely important learning about the two religions. I believe the differences concerning where the two places diffused to greatly affected the number of converts for the two religions. Both Buddhism and Christianity relied heavily on missionaries to spread their respective teachings throughout the world.

Over the centuries, two main branches of Buddhism emerged: a transmission that traveled to Southeast Asia, and a transmission that evolved in East Asia.

Buddhism is an extremely interesting and intricate religion that shares many concepts with the religion that I researched, Hinduism. Buddhism originated in Ancient India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia. Buddhism declined in India during the Middle Ages. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars: Theravada, or the school of elders, and Mahayana, or the great vehicle. Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world, reaching over 520 million followers, which is over 7% of the world’s population. People practicing are known as Buddhists.

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, who lived in northern India from 560 to 480 B.C, founded Buddhism Buddhism, one of the major religions of the world. The time of the Buddha was one of social and religious change, marked by the further advance of Aryan civilization into the Ganges Plain, the development of trade and cities, the breakdown of old tribal structures, and the rise of a whole spectrum of new religious movements that responded to the demands of the times (Cones 10). These movements were derived from the Brahmanic tradition of Hinduism but were also reactions against it. Of the new sects, Buddhism was the most successful and eventually spread throughout India and most of Asia. Today it is common to divide Buddhism into two main branches. The Theravada, or "Way of the Elders," is the more conservative of the two; it is dominant in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand (Berry 23). The Mahayana, or "Great Vehicle," is more diverse and liberal; it is found mainly in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, and among Tibetan peoples, where it is distinguished by its emphasis on the Buddhist Tantras (Berry 24). In recent times both branches, as well as Tibetan Buddhism, have gained followers in the West. It is virtually impossible to tell what the Buddhist population of the world is today; statistics are difficult to obtain because persons might have Buddhist beliefs and engage in Buddhist rites while maintaining folk or other religions such as Shinto, Confucian, Taoist, and Hindu (Corless

To start off, the creation of Buddhism happened around the same time that Mahavira is teaching the ways of the Jains (pg 136). The person who would become the first “Buddha” taught on how to cure earthly suffering. It was somewhat common to other religions as they all provided comfort to their following on the suffering that was happening to them in the world (pg 136). One thing I found quite interesting was how the Buddha taught Buddhism. He taught his followers that “by understanding how we create suffering for ourselves, we can become free.” This holds very true outside of Buddhism, as by seeing how one is affected by negativity and suffering one can put into action how to remove or change the situation.

One branch of Buddhism is Mahayana, which literally means the Great Vehicle. Mahayana can more easily be defined as a loose collection of teachings with large and extensive principles that coexist all together. Mahayana defines itself as penetrating further and more deeply into the Buddha's Dharma, or the way of the Buddha. This practice originates in India, and slowly spread across Asia to countries as China, Japan, Korea through the missionary activities of monks and the support of kings. However, the roots of this religion are still not completely known. In the early views, it was presumed that it was as a separate school. Due to the veneration of Buddha’s , Mahayana was often understood as a more religious, traditional practice of