The Relationship Between Confucianism And Buddhism Essay -- Confuciani

It is often said that, aside from the impact of Marxism on twentieth- ampere-second China, the single other time when the Chinese looked beyond their own borders for intellectual nutrition was during the period when Buddhism was absorbed from India (LaFleur 23). Why did this piety appeal to the Chinese when they do by so many other external influences? After all, being fix to the rest of the world by the Silk Road meant they were constantly inundated with falsehood concepts from far and wide. The answer must lie in how Buddhism interacted with the other combines already established in the country, namely Confucianism and Daoism (sometimes spelled Taoism). While at first peek it may appear that Confucian China would be the last family Buddhism would find a niche, it was in fact the combination of Confucianism and Daoism that laid a foundation at least slightly receptive toward this new faith from India. This paper will focus master(prenominal)ly on the interaction among Bu ddhism and Confucianism. Buddhism made it to China over land in the first century C.E. from the northwest and by sea in the second century C.E. The main influence, however, came from the northwest via the Silk Road (Zuercher 415). In fact, Buddhisms main avenue of expansion was on trade routes throughout Asia. According to Jason Neelis, trade as a fomite for the expansion of Buddhism is reflected in the fact that the religion spread in an asymmetric pattern unlike typical diffusion (Neelis 7). It was the Theravada branch in limited that has been associated with trade. Mahayana, on the other hand focused on the more settled, pastoral lifestyle. Ironically it is this branch that took hold in China. Once trade brought the religion within Chinas bor... ...Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2012. Web. 6 October. 2012. LaFleur, William R. Buddhism A Cultural Perspective. Ed. Robert S. Ellwood. velocity Saddle River, NJ Prentice Hall, 1988. Neelis, Jason. Early Buddhist Transmission and fo xiness Networks Mobility and Exchange within and beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Leiden Brill, 2011. Powers, John. Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. 2nd ed. Ithaca, NY Snow Lion, 2007. Saunders, Kenneth J. Buddhism in China A Historical Sketch. The daybook of Religion 3 (1923) 157-69. Shien, Gi-Ming. The Epistemology of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Philosophy 28 (1953) 260-264. Zuercher, Erik. Buddhism in China. In The cyclopaedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, vol. 2, 414-21. New York MacMillan, 1987.