Confucianism In The Tang Dynasty

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Many dynasties in early China all believed the same religion, confucianism. They all believed in respecting their ancestors and had the idea of filial piety. In the Warring States, many religions were being used. In the Qin Dynasty the ruler thought that it would be better to rule an empire with legalism. Then, in the Han Dynasty they made Confucianism so big that to be a part of bureaucracy you had to pass a civil service exam about confucianism. This worked for them for a while however eventually a new religion was introduced, Buddhism. A new ruler, Emperor Wu thought that China should now be ruled with Buddhism. This is the religion used in the Tang Dynasty. It came through trade from India on the Silk Road (Columbia University, 2017). After …show more content…

He was interested in finding out about the Principles and searched for the true meaning of the sages in the texts not just studying the philological aspect. The change back into Neo-Confucianism wasn't huge. Confucianism was so big in China for many years, even during the Buddhism and Tang era many people still believed and liked confucianism. People in China grew up respecting their ancestors and elders. They have always had these same ideas on life and always will. Confucianism and Buddhism were different however in the Song when Neo-Confucianism was introduced it wasn’t a big deal to most people. Mediation was a key practice in both Buddhism and Confucianism. The Han policy of hiring and promoting was based on recommendations, so the Song-style testing involved a large bureaucracy. The new system of recruitment favored the wealthy. They were able to prepare for the tests better so others of lower class couldn’t compete. Test questions related more to economic management or foreign policy. Success would bring good marriage prospects and the chance for a better salary. While failure could ruin a man both socially and psychologically putting a huge amount of pressure on candidates. The Song government approved the mass production of test preparation books. The availability of these books greatly changed the Song in that they were able to gain expert advice from farming, planting or weaving. This caused a considerable amount of growth and wealth in the Song era. (Bulliet,

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