EACS 21 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Sun Hao, Confucianism, Mahayana
Document Summary
Of all asian civilizations that buddhism encountered outside of india, china"s was the most sophisticated, complex, & ethnocentric. Own thoroughly developed system of social organization, religious ideology, & speculative thought. Buddhism offered 4 new things to china: 2) devotion: provided bodhisattvas & cosmic buddhas who were more approachable than the taoist gods, & more powerful + compassionate than the local spirits of chinese folk religion. 4) meditation: mind training that supplemented techniques taught by native shamanic taoist tradition-->new meaning to pursuit of deathlessness & placing it more within reach of a wider range of men & women. Institutional was controversial emperor seen as mediator between heaven & earth. Buddhist monastics refused to kowtow to the emperor. Sangha practiced celibacy person"s prime duty to ancestors was to produce children. Monks shaved heads & cremated dead abomination against body received from one"s parents.
