HIST 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Longmen Grottoes, Sui Dynasty, Silk Road
Document Summary
Object: longmen grottos: buddhist statues carved in longmen cave, large in size, many of them, smaller statues are guards protecting main larger statue, must be sponsored by wealth. 3 kingdoms (220 ad-263/264/280: after han, china divided into 3 kingdoms. Shu: romance of the three kingdoms (sanguo yanyi, cultural figures: known for poetry, not only strict military figure. Tuoba wei: xianbei; nomadic minority, adoption of chinese ways. Emporer xiaowen (r. 471-499: employed chinese han officials, royal family adopted chinese family names, speak chinese, wore chinese clothing, believed chinese system, along with confucianism to be the best way, was able to chinese an ethnic minority. Buddhism in india: siddhartha, lived around 500 bce. Gave up his riches to think about how to fix the class problem: sitting in meditation under a bodhi tree, achieved enlightenment, trying to save the lower class suffering. Essence of buddhism: 4 noble truths. Cessation of pain is to be sought by ending desire.
