HISTORY 70F Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Zhu Xi, Taoism, Deeper Understanding
Document Summary
Religious healing: rise of christianity, return of buddhism. Advancement of scientific medicine; progressive advance of invention of traditional Return to interest in ancient texts (ex: hippocrates); return to confucius texts with renewed interest: not taking everything at face value o. Tension between looking back at ancients as knowledge/wisdom and building upon their knowledge. At end of 9th century, china experiences poor weather problems: droughts. Leaders were more interested in living a life of luxury; less interested in taking care of problems of empire. Perception that government didn"t care about welfare of people. Very similar to the fall of the han dynasty. Song dynasty (960-1276: why had the tang dynasty fallen, buddhism & daoism were too escapist (historians believe) People weren"t concerned with state of empire; political statecraft; too immersed in their own goal of obtaining immortality or nirvana. Many blamed buddhism and daoism for the fall of the tang dynasty.
