history 2
Yemima Amanuel 
WorldHistoryIChapter4.pptxNew Religions
World History I Chapter 4
China’s legalism
As China was becoming an empire, there were entire centuries of unrest. The Era of Warring States ran from 500-221 BCE. During this time, Chinese scholars and philosophers asked themselves how peace and order could be restored.
Legalism was an outgrowth of this. Legalism is government and culture led by a strict set of very specific laws, with equally specific punishments and rewards.
Legalism treated the people more like cattle; as if they were stupid and needed to be led, therefore, only rulers knew what was good for the people.
Under legalism, farmers and soldiers held more power than other workers, because they were necessary for the running of the empire. Scholars, merchants, etc. occupied a lower class- even the nobility were considered to be fairly useless. Because this system was fairly brutal, Legalism fell out of popularity quickly.
Confucianism
Confucius (551-479 BCE) was a member of nobility, who became a teacher and philosopher. After his death, his students published a book of his teachings, called the Analects.
Confucius believed strict laws and harsh punishments were not usually necessary as long as people followed the natural order of things. I
In Confucianism, the fathers were superior to the sons, the husbands to the wives, the older brothers to the younger brothers. If the superiors modeled correct behavior, the inferiors would naturally follow these examples, and everyone would live peacefully.
Confucianism
Confucius believed education was crucial to increasing the ren, what the text calls their “human-heartedness, benevolence, goodness.” People studied history, language, literature, philosophy and ethics. Scholars once more became revered among Chinese.
Religion was not emphasized, as the point of living was to make this the best possible world by becoming the best possible person you could be- not focusing on life in the hereafter.
Confucianism became the basis for Chinese culture.
Daoism
Another popular worldview in China around this same time was Daoism. Founded by Laozi, a librarian/historian. His book was the Daodejing, (meaning The Way and the Power).
Whereas Confucius emphasized education and morality to improve human relations, Laozi believed that meditation among nature held the keys to happy, orderly living.
Daoism focuses on the dao, which is basically the energy that creates the essence of life.
Unlike Confucians, Daoists weren’t interested in striving to become educated to perform well on the civil exams from which all jobs flowed in China- they would rather leave civilization and wander among the natural world.
Room for Both
Although Confucianism and Daoism were very different, the Chinese believed there was room for both worldviews, and that they actually complemented each other, like yin and yang- two different parts that make up the whole, as shown to the right.
Thus, one could work hard all day in the Confucian way, then come home to relax in nature in the Daoist way. Sound familiar?
Hinduism
A major religion growing out of India, Hinduism has no known founder. In fact, the term Hinduism is actually a made-up one given by non-Indians to encapsulate the many different kings of Indian culture and beliefs.
Hinduism has many gods, many beliefs and many practices because the area of its birth has many different cultures.
Hinduism
The central idea of Hinduism is that of the brahman, the World Soul, “the final and ultimate reality,” as the textbook says.
The purpose of religion is to help on prepare the individual soul, the altman, to return to the brahman after death, to become one with it again. To do this, one had to improve in each life one is given.
After many lives, if the person’s karma was good (in other words, if a person is good in this life, he or she is reborn in the next life to a higher social position- that’s what good karma really means) eventually the person’s altman gets to stop being reborn and rejoin the World Soul of the brahman.
Hinduism
It’s this idea of being a good enough person in this life to rise to a higher class, in the next one that makes the idea of caste so important in India.
The lower castes are the farthest away from rejoining the brahman, and therefore are expected to be the most poorly behaved (because they are the least spiritually evolved).
Women have an extremely subordinate role in early Hinduism, where they were seen as necessary evils for the sake of procreation, and where child marriage was common (and is still practiced in some areas).
The Indian Women’s Wall protest movement. The women are protesting
for equal rights.
Buddhism
Buddhism also began in India, founded by Siddhartha Gautama (566-486 BCE), a prince of a small state who left his rich privileged life to find the way to alleviate human suffering.
He meditated intensively for 49 days, during which he achieved spiritual enlightenment, attaining the title of Buddha, meaning “the man who had awakened.”
Buddhism
Buddha taught that living a moral life and meditating would lead to nirvana, ultimate enlightenment. After achieving nirvana, one could eventually join the essential life force, as with Hinduism.
Unlike Hinduism, Buddhism had no rituals and few rules, and did not recognize the need for different classes or castes; all were considered equal, although gender inequalities still existed. Women could become nuns more easily under Buddhism. Being a nun didn’t mean more equality, but it did mean slightly more freedom than marriage.
Buddhism
As Buddhism spread through Asia, it changed from place to place. Enlightenment became more possible for any person to achieve, not just people who devoted their whole lives to the search for it. It could also be achieved in a single life rather than multiple lives.
More emphasis was placed on helping others. The concept of bodhisattvas, enlightened people who put off their final journey into heaven in order to help people- a sort of Buddhist angel- grew.
Buddha himself was eventually deified, and there would eventually become many different Buddhas one could pray to, just as there were many different levels of heaven and hell.
Monotheism
In other areas, monotheism, the concept of worshipping only one god, grew.
One of the first monotheistic religions was Zoroastrianism, which evolved in Persia in 500-600 BCE.
Zoroaster was a Persian prophet who taught that there was only one god, Ahura Mazda, who watched over people and fought evil in the form of Angra Mainyu.
Ahura Mazda
Zoroastrianism
Zoroaster taught that a savior would come who would restore peace to the world. Those who worshipped Ahura Mazda would be reborn to live in Paradise eternally, but those who followed the path of evil would be punished eternally.
Zoroastrianism gave the world the concept of a judgement day and life after death in either a heaven or hell, based upon choices we make of our own free will.
Although Zoroastrianism died out, many of the concepts became absorbed by other religions such as Judaism.
Judaism
Judaism began among the Hebrews, who created a state that split into two parts, Israel and Judah, around 1000 BCE.
Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and its people were scattered throughout the Assyrian empire, mostly as slaves.
Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE but were allowed to retain their culture and some were even allowed to return to their homeland in Jerusalem.
Judaism
The Jewish god was known as Yahweh. He shared a special agreement with the Jews, called the Hebrew Covenant. In the covenant, the Jews agreed to worship only Yahweh, and Yahweh agreed to name the Jews as his chosen people and protect and help them.
Like Buddha, Yahweh told his people to be mindful of those in need and to help them. Many believe he also told them to protect the planet.
Jews making a sacrifice to Yahweh
Greek Rationalism 600-300 BCE
While these new worldviews were growing, Greece was in its classical age. No new religions grew here but a new way of thinking did.
Greeks began to de-emphasize the importance of religion in understanding the world. Instead, they began to use logic, argument and examination to achieve knowledge. This movement presaged the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, which will eventually lead to our modern age.
Rodin’s “the Thinking Man”
Greek Rationalists
The most famous of the Greek rationalists was probably Socrates (469-399 BCE). He was an Athenian philosopher who taught the youth of Athens to question everything, even their current form of government. He asked whether there should be class divisions and whether wealth should automatically equal power. He told them “the only true knowledge is in knowing that you know nothing.”
He was sentenced to death by the Athenian Council for corrupting the youth of Athens. Socrates famously died by drinking hemlock.
Socrates, teaching to the last breath, prepares to drink the poison
Other Greek Rationalists
Thales discovered that the moon had no light of its own but was instead lit by the sun. He was able to understand and predict eclipses.
Democritus discovered atoms.
Pythagoras mad many mathematical discoveries
Hippocrates made may discoveries about the human body; he is considered the father of modern medicine
Herodotus witnessed and wrote about the Greco-Persian wars, becoming the father of the study of history
Plato wrote many works on government and politics
Aristotle did many things, including cataloging hundreds of species of animals. He was a noted philosopher.
Christianity
Another major world religion was founded around 4 BCE with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity and Buddhism became two of the world’s largest religions.
Neither Jesus nor Buddha set out to start a new religion; instead, both wanted to increase interest and understanding of their existing religions.
Neither Jesus nor Buddha claimed divine status, but both were eventually considered to be divine, and both are worshipped directly by many followers.
Christianity
Jesus’ death by crucifixion might not have meant the foundation of a new religion had it not been for the faithfulness of his disciple, Paul, who traveled the Eastern Roman Empire to tell Jews and non-Jews about Jesus’ teachings. He was later canonized as Saint Paul.
Although Jesus’ mother, Mary, became an important part of the religion for the original Christians, the part women in general were allowed to play in the Christian Church got smaller as women became increasingly identified with sin in church dogma.
Stained glass from a cathedral- St. Mary, St. Paul, St. Peter
Christianity
Christianity slowly spread through the Roman Empire over the next 300 years after Jesus’ death. Eventually about 10% of the empire’s inhabitants were Christian.
At times, Christians were singled out for abuse such as crucifixion by emperors because they refused to worship Roman gods or give sacrifices to venerate former Roman emperors, as was required by law.
"Triumph of Faith Christian Martyrs in the Time of Nero" by Eugene Romain Thirion “
Christianity
Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 300 CE. In 380 CE, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, largely because of the religion’s message of loving one another and living peacefully, which helped the Romans keep order in their far-flung empire.
Emperor Theodosius finally outlawed polytheism and forbade the worship of Roman gods and former emperors.
Emperor Theodosius I, declaring that all other religions except Christianity are now outlawed
Modern Christianity and Buddhism
Missionaries helped to spread Christianity throughout Europe and Africa, and eventually Asia.
Today both Christianity and Buddhism contain various sects within them who have slightly different beliefs than the others. In Christianity, for example, some followers believe Jesus was the son of God, others believe he was God Himself on earth, and still others believe he was just a human being whom God spoke to. Buddhism has these same arguments to some extent, also.
