MMW 12 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Millenarianism, Guanyin, Chinese Buddhism

• School: UCSD
• Department: Making of the Modern World
• Course: MMW 12
• Professor: Alexander B Stewart

Document Summary

Mmw 12 lecture 11 signification of buddhism. Regent for cao cao"s grandson usurps throne and founds jin dynasty (265-420) North falls to nomadic people who found states known as 16 kingdoms, then jin disintegrates into northern dynasty and southern dynasty. Warlords patronize buddhism to legitimize power and unite subjects. Hui yuan and others claim autonomy for buddhist monks, but recommend lay followers obey secular authority. Anyone can join and achieve enlightenment: rejection of family ties, salvation, goal to escape from world, monasticism, self-cultivation, adopted by commoners, foreign religion. Obeying people above you: family ties, no gods, ghosts. Etc: orderly life is goal, responsibility to family, obedience to family and emperor, favored by elites, native ideology. Appealed to common people: merchants can give and support temples and art. Clearer path to salvation than daoism: mystical. Daoism, buddhism, and confucianism all have a role in chinese society and are sometimes all worshipped together.