| Backstory: This quickly amounted to one of the worst writings ever to spew forth from my head, composed for my EALC-350g class "Chinese Civilization." It was due on a Friday, but since I was only to lose one point per day late, I put it off until the next Tuesday evening. I was the only one to do so, thus solidifying my role as a collegiate slacker. It was to be written on one of a list of choices of which I chose: "In what ways did Buddhism contradict traditional Confucian values, and why do you think it was eventually embraced by the Chinese despite these contradictions?" What a load... Anyway, it was to be 5-7 pages of text with a full bibliography. My mine brazenly defied theses restrictions as I managed four pages, plus two lines, and the contents of my bibliography were nothing more than the course textbooks. Needless to say, I expect no higher than a C, even with my abilities. Those of you unfamiliar with most of my work will still think this piece is brilliant and articulate, because, to be honest, you are simple folk, but my perpetual readers will recognize the lack of my famous wit, with only a few slight exceptions. To the latter contituency, I humbly apologize. Enjoy...Grader's comments, etc. in italics throughout. Mine are in bold. TITLE? Historically, China has been relatively unstable politically through the numerous shifts of power between dynasties. Only occasionally was the shift so great as to affect the populace's ideology, which had traditionally adhered to the tenets of Confucianism. Really? It was the collapse of the Han dynasty that led to the greatest challenge to traditional values, with the introduction of Buddhism to China. Yes, but what are you going to say about it? What us your Thesis? Since it is not the origin of Buddhism itself in India that is important, we shall essentially ignore it, for our purposes. Significance lies in its establishment and development in China, however, and that shall be the focus of this portion of the essay. As anyone may ascertain from any pertinent textbook[he crossed out the entire pre-comma part of the sentence], the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 AD dealt a crushing blow to traditional values held among the people. You need to describe in detail the pre-fall intellectual environment of Han. No suitable alternative beliefs had presented themselves, however, until the collapse of the Jin reunification attempt in 316 AD. At that point, northern China fell completely under the rule of foreign barbarians who brought with them a foreign religion that slowly percolated[circled with a ? I used it right, didn't I?] down to the masses. One of the first aspects of Chinese culture to illustrate Buddhist influence was, fittingly, art. The primary examples of such exist in the sculptures of the cave temples at Yungang and Longmen . As art became more accessible to the people, so did the theological inspiration behind it. Like Communism several centuries later (more than that)[well, it was just under two millenia, what was i gonna say: "a thousand years and some change"?], Buddhism had such appeal perhaps because of the time period in which it was introduced; Political dissatisfaction and near chaos forced the public and those aspiring to leadership to examine alternative solutions to their political and spiritual quandaries than those that tradition would yield, though the switch to Communism was more economically-based. You see what I'm getting at. I do?...This is a little out there in terms of relevance to this paper. It seems that China took to foreign influence as many people deal with the five stages of grief: The "what"!? [I knew that would get him] Denial was evident in China's ethnocentric philosophy dating back to ancient times; Anger coming in the various wars with would-be invaders; Bargaining in the form of sending tribute payment to the Huns to keep the peace; Depression occurred in the Period of Disunity after the Han, and then came gradual Acceptance, as with Buddhism. One of the first steps in this acceptance was the demigod status impressed upon the Buddha himself, much like China's own Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu . This made Buddhism more comprehensible to the people by relating this unfamiliar person to their own legendary beings. This was, however, contradictory, in that there was overwhelming evidence and proof of the Buddha's actual human existence, whereas the Yellow Emperor is entirely mythical and Lao Tzu, while human, has been the subject of many fictitious works. The most predominant difference between Buddhism and traditional Confucianism was the language in which their doctrines were related. Perhaps this should have been mentioned first, but as you (just WRITE, don't address me)["me" was double underlined] read, it wouldn't really flow, and this bit right here is really just superfluous. But I digress. Yes indeed you do. A lot.[whole sentence circled. I think he stopped reading there, because I had much more provocative stuff later without a scratch.] Returning to the topic, one of the best literary works to address the discrepancies between Confucian thought and Buddhism is the Disposition of Error, attributed to one Mou Tzu, a Buddhist defending his beliefs to a Confucian Doubting Thomas. In it, the author responds to his intellectual adversary's questions systematically and clearly, while citing familiar literature as references. At one point the author responds with, if I may paraphrase liberally, "Confucius' words are not absolute, nor are those of the Classics." |