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The impact of the spread of Buddhism

Buddhism is the world’s fourth-largest religion after Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.[footnoteRef:1] From the sixth century BC to the fifth century BC, The Indian philosopher Siddhartha Gautama founded Buddhism in ancient India. Since then, it has spread widely in many countries and regions in Asia and has had a significant impact on the social political and cultural life of many countries. [1: Whigham, Phillip. "Buddhism." Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History, edited by William H. McNeill, et al., 2nd ed., vol. 1, Berkshire Publishing, 2010, pp. 427-435. Gale Virtual Reference Library]

The founder Siddhartha Gautama (c. 566 BCE–486 BCE) was also titled Sakyasinha and later Sakyamuni, or Sage of the Sakyas. He was born in the border of India and Nepal Kapilavastu, a Kshatriya caste of royal family, in the twentieth century. His mother Maya died, gave birth to him. His father, Suddhodhana, was of the Gautama family. When he was sixteen, he married with Yasodhara. For the next thirteen years, they lived in his father's luxurious palace. However, he did not maintain this kind of life for a long time. At age 29, he gave up this kind of life, left his wife and children, and began to study India philosophy. Then he started teaching; he preached his first sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath, near Varanasi. After his fist sermon, there were five disciples joined him. In later decades, through his efforts, he organized his disciples into the great Buddhist sangha, the oldest religious order that is still in existence. According to one claim, he passed from this world in 486 BCE at Kusinagara, at the age of eighty. The Buddha left behind a collection of traditions and teachings, written down in Pali by his disciples that became the Tripitaka. Later translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan, the Tripitika became the basic texts for hundreds of millions of Asian Buddhists.[footnoteRef:2] The four main truths about Buddhism are Life is full of suffering. All suffering is caused by desires. Renounce desires to rise above suffering. Adhere to Noble Eightfold Path to rid oneself of desire.[footnoteRef:3] Sakyamuni’s sermon is very easy to understand not complex and he has always advocated equality of all beings also equal treatment of women and slaves. Therefore, the people in the bottom of society love Buddhism. In addition, since many monasteries are close to the city, some merchants and aristocrats have much contact with Buddhism. Although they cannot become true monks, they also can support Buddhism in terms of money and land. Even monarchs of some kingdoms have become Buddhism believer. In this point, we can see Buddhism is tolerant. Based on this foundation, Buddhism spread very quickly. [2: Hockings, Paul. "Siddhartha Gautama." Encyclopedia of Modern Asia edited by Karen Christensen and David Levinson, vol. 5, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 199-201. Gale Virtual Reference Library] [3: Jenna Schultz, "Lecture Notes," (UST, 11.13.2017)]

Before and after the Gregorian calendar, Indian Buddhism began to spread from India to China because the spread through a very long period so the India Buddhism develop to Chinese Buddhism and with Chinese national characteristics. Now, Buddhism has the greatest impact on China. In the beginning Buddhism spread to China through the Silk Road. Across the Silk Road East and West exchanged ideas and discoveries, travelers exchanged their understandings of the world and shared reflections on the things beyond their understanding.[footnoteRef:4] Buddhism was the major influence in the expansion of trade and other contacts between India and China in the first millennium CE. But at the time these missions were mostly confined to foreigners. During the post-Han dynasty warfare and political chaos, Buddhism gained followers and influence and became to the most important religion in China.[footnoteRef:5] [4: Darian, Steven. "Silk Road." Encyclopedia of Modern Asia edited by Karen Christensen and David Levinson, vol. 5, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 207-209. Gale Virtual Reference Library] [5: "India, China, and Buddhism in International Trade." World History Encyclopedia, edited by Alfred J. Andrea and Carolyn Neel, vol. 8: Era 4: Expanding Regional Civilizations, 300-1000, ABC-CLIO, 2011, pp. 402-404. Gale Virtual Reference Library]

Therefore, who really brought Buddhism to China? There was a man called XUANZANG. XUANZANG, religious name of the Chinese pilgrim-monk who became a leading cleric of the early Tang dynasty after returning from an eighteen-year journey to the homeland of Buddhism in India.[footnoteRef:6] He is very famous in China, almost all men and women know him. His great impact has been made into a very classic TV series, called "Journey to the West". Until today, are still playing. Therefore, the heyday of Buddhism was in the Tang Dynasty. China's Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), which was founded by Liu Yuan, marked one of the most glorious periods in the history of China.[footnoteRef:7] In the Tang dynasty, not only the emperor worship of Buddhism, the vast numbers of ordinary people are worship and believe Buddhism. Also it’s affects all aspects of urban life. Capital Changan not only was the political and economic center, but also become a cultural center, Buddhist temples dotted around, and those Buddhist temples held a number of large events and rich activities, showing the Buddhist culture under the unique Changan City, which attracted people's attention. Temples are important landscape of Changan, as the center of Buddhism’s activity; it’s had an important impact on urban life. As some scholars said in the middle ages, a temple was a focal point and a point of transmission of faith. The temple is also an important place for people's entertainment. Whether it is holding Buddhist festivals in the temples or conducting Buddhist activities, all the people from all walks of life have shown great enthusiasm. It is enriched people's recreational activities. At the same time, this cultural factor has become the basis for the well-developed Buddhist cultures in the Tang Dynasty, and not only in Chang an, capital city, but also in other cities. [6: Sponberg, Alan. "Xuanzang." Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Lindsay Jones, 2nd ed., vol. 14, Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pp. 9860-9862. Gale Virtual Reference Library] [7: Yonglin, Jiang. "Tang Dynasty." Encyclopedia of Modern Asia edited by Karen Christensen and David Levinson, vol. 5, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 412-416. Gale Virtual Reference Library]

On the ethical side, after many years of development, there have been some changes in Buddhism. Buddhism has strengthened certain characteristics of Chinese traditional morality, including mercy all human life, and furthers these unique virtues, also main emphasis on all living things. Persuade us that we should be kind and love peace. Before Buddhism entered China, every school of thought, on the view of human nature has obvious defects. Mencius was the only one who pointed out and felt that killing was a cruel thing, but Mencius did not renounce the meat, so that he could only put forward a proposition of "gentleman far away from chef" to stop killing, it is little bit like "Deceive the bell" approach. However, since the introduction of Buddhism into China, there has been further development of ethics in China. Especially in terms of slaughtering, Buddhism advocates equality of life and everything is life. It is not only humans, but also animals, plants. Even I know every rock and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, and has a name. Killing is not only inhumane thing, also the thing that god does not allow to do. In Buddhist scriptures, has such a story, Buddha encounters an eagle prey, but he does not want to the eagle catch the rabbit and eat the rabbit so he cutting off some meat from his body to feed the eagle. In such a story, we can see that Buddha prefers to sacrifice himself because he does not want to see the loss of any lives. Therefore, the Buddhism’s doctrines are pity and cherish life.

In our life, Buddhism oppose extravagant and beggar-thy-neighbor. The special emphasis of Buddhism is inhibiting people’s own greed and selfish motives. And one good turn deserves another, what goes around comes around. Buddhist thought to encourage people to help each other. The Buddhism compassion altruism is to encourage people to do more good things. In reality, there are many people influenced by the creed of the belief to do many positive things for others. By doing those good things can also helping self in self-development.

As well, Buddhism has a particularly significant impact on architectural sculpture. After Buddhism spread into China, a pagoda completely originated from India appeared in China and can be seen everywhere. We never had this before Buddhism spread into China; it was slightly modified by India's dome pagoda. This form of architecture greatly increases the natural beauty of our landscapes. Such as the four famous Buddhism mountains: Wutai Mountain in Shanxi, Mount Emei in Sichuan, and Mount Jiuhuashan in Anhui and Putuoshan in Zhejiang Province; Lingyan Temple in Changqing County in Shandong Province. Also some famous temples, such as: Guoqing Temple in Tiantai County in Zhejiang Province; Yuquan Temple in Dangyang City in Hubei Province and Qixia in Nanjing.

Buddhism also sprend into many countries in Asia, and brings great positive impact. Buddhism makes people have more choices about faith, also enriches the traditional culture, it adds more color to this world that's full of variety.