During the time of the Silk Road, many Jews become involved in international trade. In many
ways, they were uniquely qualified for the profession. There existed significant Jewish
communities in India, Persia, the Arab nations, and in cities throughout Europe; in almost all
these communities, a good number of Jews were already merchants. While most Arabs and
Persians could not speak Russian, Greek, or Italian, Jews in Persia, Arabia, and Europe all knew
enough Hebrew to communicate with each other. Thus Persian and Middle Eastern Jews had a
much easier time trading with European Jews than Arab Muslims did with European Christians.
As tensions between Christians and Muslims heated up around the time of the Crusades, many
of them refused to or were
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not permitted to trade with each other, while Jews throughout the world had no problem selling goods to their kinsmen. Persian Shiites and Arab Sunni Muslims would sometimes be at war with each other, or with Hindu Indians or with Christian Europeans, yet the Jewish community stayed united and continued trading between countries.
2. Since Buddhism had become an intimate part of Chinese intellectual life for several centuries, it
was impossible for the Sung reformists to replace Buddhism entirely by their new philosophy.
While using concepts found in the Confucian Classics, the Neo-Confucianists interpreted them in
the light of Buddhist understanding. To limit the topic of study, this paper will examine only the
influence of Buddhism on the Neo-Confucian concept of the sage, focusing on sagehood as an
attainable goal and self-cultivation. The study of the concept of the sage in Neo-Confucianism
will show not only the Buddhist influence, but also the development of the concept from early
Confucianism
3. The background to the mathematical developments which began in Baghdad around 800 is not
well understood. Certainly there was an important influence which came from the Hindu
mathematicians whose earlier development of the decimal system and numerals was important.
There began a remarkable period of mathematical progress with al-Khwarizmi's work and the
translations of Greek texts.
4. The Great Khan, Mangu's brother, Kublai, was indeed hospitable. He had set up his court
at Beijing, which was not a Mongol encampment but an impressive city built by Kublai as his new capital after the Mongols took over China in 1264 and established Yuan dynasty (1264-1368). Kublai asked them all about their part of the world, the Pope and the Roman church. Niccolo and Matteo, who spoke Turkic dialects perfectly, answered truthfully and clearly. The Polo brothers were well received in the Great Khan's capital. One year later, the Great Khan sent them on their way with a letter in Turki addressed to Pope Clement IV asking the Pope to send him 100 learned men to teach his people about Christianity and Western science. He also asked Pope to procure oil from the lamp at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. To make sure the brothers would be given every assistance on their travels, Kublai Khan presented them with a golden tablet, a foot long and three inches wide and inscribed with the words "By the strength of the eternal Heaven, holy be the Khan's name. Let him that pays him not reverence be killed." de Rubrouck in 1253 had made the dangerously journey to Karakorum and returned safely; however the Polos traveled farther than Carpini and Rubrouck and reached China.
The Major religions spread across Eurasia and Africa through trade routes and conquest. Along with the religions came ideas and practices to new and distance places, changing local populations and create new traditional beliefs and customs. Beliefs and religions ebbed and flowed through the Silk Roads that was “an artery that for nearly a thousand years was the primary commercial network linking East Asia and the Mediterranean world. This trade route extended over 5000 miles and took its name from the huge quantities of precious silk that passed along it.” Nomads, monks and traders survived on these open roads selling goods, services, and ideas to other people and traders to pass on.
Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy can have a substantial amount of unfamiliar terminology and specific meanings for words we think we know the definition to. In order to ensure comprehension and clarity a few terms need to be defined. Buddhism as a spiritual movement is the following of the teachings of a fifth century B.C. E. Indian spiritual leader named known as Siddhartha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or --in the case of this essay-- the Buddha. Tibetan Buddhism will be defined in a similar manner. Tibetan Buddhism is in the course of this essay will focus on one of the six schools of thought in the Tibetan Buddhist cannon. The “Oral Tradition” or the Kagyu School is the monastic linage that arrives in Kauai in the twentieth century.
Yu, Han. “Memorial on Buddhism”. Making of the Modern World 12: Classical & Medieval Tradition. Trans. Richard F. Burton. Ed. Janet Smarr. La Jolla: University Readers, 2012. 111-112. Print.
Chinese scholars were positive towards Buddhism and pro-Buddha. In the document of “The Disposition of Error”, an anonymous Chinese scholar answers the challenges to Buddhism in China in an argument about converting to Buddhism between Confucianists and Buddhists. A confused strict Confucianist ask if Buddhism was so great why wasn’t it recorded? “If Buddhism is the greatest and most venerable of ways...
When the Hebrew language was revived, it provided a limited range of religious topics and ignored other areas. The reasoning behind the loss of the Hebrew language was due to the fact that denotations were lost and the universally valid law was more important than knowing concrete objects. Thus, Jews were forced not to pay attention to concrete nature and objects or use words from other languages. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the Hebrew revivalist, during the time of 1858-1922, edited Hebrew ne...
24 Amore, Roy C. and Julia Ching. The Buddhist Tradition. In Willard G. Oxtoby, Ed. World Religions: Eastern Traditions. P. 221
Among some of the largest conflicts in the world stand the Crusades; a brutal conflict that lasted over 200 years and was debatably one of the largest armed religious conflicts in the history of humankind. Since this is so clearly an event of importance, historians have searched vigorously for the true answer as to why the crusades began. Ultimately, because of accusatory views on both the sides of the Christians and of the Muslims, the two groups grew in such hatred of each other that they began to act in deep discrimination of each other. Moreover, Christian motives seemed to be driven mostly by the capture of Jerusalem, the dark ages of Europe and the common-folks desperation for land, wealth, and a spot in heaven. What seems to be continually
Confucianism is a philosophy and way of life formed in China by Confucius, an early Chinese philosopher. It began as a simple concept with ideals of personal virtue, simple filial piety, and basic gender distinctions and social inequalities. But, over time with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism it began to transform into a way of life that was degrading towards women with certain hostilities towards rivaling religions. In its early period, from around 500 B.C.E to the Common Era, Confucianism changed in that it became the leading belief system and a major part of Chinese tradition. From the transition into the Common Era to the end of the Classical time period, Confucianism was altered because of a loss of popularity following the collapse of the Han dynasty and the corruption in the governing political system. In its ending period, the post-classical era, Confucianism underwent perhaps its biggest adjustments with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism. The ideas and virtues presented in the “rebirth of Confucian philosophies” of intolerance of foreign religions and extreme filial piety...
In fact, Buddhism would become a central aspect to culture of the Chinese. Buddhism had a great impact on the Chinese, philosophers, and Chinese emperors. Additionally, Buddhism had a great influence on Chinese art, and Buddhism was the greatest foreign influence on the artwork of the Chinese. Chinese artist would mix their traditions, with other popular Buddhist art forms from places, such as India. The arrival of Buddhism in China greatly influenced the art of China for many dynasties.
As people, all of the actions we take, and as a result, the benefits and consequences which occur, are rooted from our own beliefs. This is seen every day through the way we carry ourselves, the choices we make, how we treat others, etc. But, most notably, it is seen throughout history in the actions and culture of nations. China in particular is an area with many belief systems/ideologies which have developed over its long history; these include Confucianism, Legalism, Daoism, and Buddhism. With the previous statement, it is only logical to conclude that these belief systems have had a large impact on China’s development and culture.
The study of Buddhism over the past century or so has resembled the encounter of the blind men and the elephant in many ways. Students of Buddhism have tended to fasten onto a small part of the tradition and assume their conclusions held true about the whole. Often the parts they have seized on have been a little like the elephant's tusks a striking, but unrepresentative, part of the whole animal. As a result, many erroneous and sweeping generalizations about Buddhism have been made, such as that it is 'negative', 'world-denying', 'pessimistic', and so forth.
Many of these come from German, as does the word Yid, in German, Jude, itself (Blech 16). But it is also made up of about 15 to 20 percent Hebrew words and phrases, as well as French, Polish, Russian, Rumanian, Ukranian, and other borrowings (Blech 19). Hebrew and Aramaic words were retained in religious words or words concerned with learning and social life (Mark 120). Through their frequent relocationing, Jews came into contact with new languages and often adopted names for the local flora and fauna, and elements of material culture, as well as abstract words, such as affections (Bunis 169). Blech calls Yiddish “a highly pragmatic language” because it has no difficulties borrowing words form other languages (Blech
The foundational roots of Zen Buddhism originated in China, where it was coined in the native tongue, Ch’an. Buddhist philosophy focuses Deriving from the ancient Japanese’s Shinto traditions, which aimed at fully synthesizing the, “spiritual and material”, Zen stresses that there is no aim intellectually (Koller). This ideal highlights the importance of the insignificance of study of the physical world. These original Buddhist ideals were established by, “the legendary Bodidharma”, who stressed the power and importance...
Vetter, T. (1988). The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism. New York: E.J. Brill.
(4) Chen, Kenneth. Buddhism in China. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 43.