Spread Of Buddhism Research Paper

After the collapse of the Han Dynasty the spread of Buddhism was largely accepted by many scholars and positions of power. However after the rise of the Tang dynasty, the spread of Buddhism was largely discouraged by scholars and high-ranking officials with a few exceptions of Buddhist scholars. Buddhism’s spread was accepted and flourished until the rise of the Tang dynasty were government officials started campaigned against it.

Whereas Buddhism started fifth century BCE with Buddha’s first sermon, which preached the four noble truths, Buddhism’s spread into China happened later during the period of political instability, after the collapse of the Han dynasty. One of the first documents showing the acceptance of the spread of Buddhism was the Chinese scholar Zhi Dun who preached that anyone in China who served the

Buddhism grew stronger when the government was weak and there was less of a force against Buddhism, but in the later Tang period governmental power grew and as a result emperors and scholars began speaking against it. Han Yu, leading Confucian scholar and Tang imperial court official, spoke against Buddha’s finger bone coming to the palace as it was nothing but an idol of Buddhism from a cult of the barbarian people spread to China. Han Yu wished that the finger bone will not come to the palace as its presences gives merit to Buddhism which disrupts Han Yu’s position of power. Another powerful official against Buddhism was the Tang Emperor Wu himself. He spoke to his people in the edict on Buddhism on how it takes working people into Buddhist temples to take food from working citizens allowing others to starve. Emperor Wu also talks about how Buddhism causes people to abandon their lords and this leads to the conclusion that Wu is condemning Buddhism as it is a threat to his power and not because it is a threat to his