AP World History: The Spread of Buddhism in First Millennium China

Part A: Document-based question from the 2004 AP^® World History Released Exam (Suggested writing time-40 minutes)

Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying Documents 1-6. The documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.

This question is designed to test your ability to work with and understand historical documents.  Write an essay that:

• Has a relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the documents.
• Uses all or all but one of the documents.
• Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as possible.  Do not simply summarize the documents individually.
• Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the authors’ points of view.

You may refer to relevant historical information not mentioned in the documents.

1. Based on the documents provided, analyze the responses to the spread of Buddhism in China. 

Historical Background: Buddhism, founded in India in the sixth century BC, was brought to China by the first century AD, gradually winning converts following the collapse of the Han dynasty in AD 220.  Buddhist influence continued to expand for several centuries.  Between AD 220 and AD 570, China experienced a period of political instability and disunity.  After AD 570, the imperial structure was restored.

           

In the sixth century BC, Siddhartha, the son of a well regarded Indian family, set out on a journey of internal reflection and personal enlightenment.  His conclusions developed into a universalizing religion in the years to come – Buddhism.  Many followed the Buddha’s, Siddhartha’s, teachings and spread his philosophy founded on his first sermon, “The Four Noble Truths.”  In this sermon, the Buddha emphasized the drastic effects of desires.  The Four Truths are as follows: first, suffering and sorrow is everywhere; second, suffering is the result of desire or cravings; next, in order to stop suffering, one must eliminate desires; finally, in order to eliminate desires, one must follow the Way (Document 1).  This thinking has penetrated the Asian landmass since its birth circa 500 BC.  However, despite its universalizing nature, Buddhism received varying reactions upon its entering and proliferation in China within the first millennium AD.

            Because of its straightforward methodology and promise of a less sorrowful life, Buddhism received a warm welcome and support from scholars in China.  Circa 350 AD, Zhi Dun, a Chinese scholar and friend of the aristocracy and officials, elevated a Buddhist life as a properly moral and eternally beneficial life in an “era of sensual pleasures” (Document 2).  He proposed that whoever adheres to the Buddha’s teachings will reach Nirvana and enlightenment.  This teaching was critical in a time when central Asian steppe nomads were infiltrating northern China; it may have brought a sense of peace to Zhi Dun and his readers to hope for a sorrowless eternity to follow this period of chaos.  Amidst the chaos toward the end of the political and economic disunity and instability, questions arose concerning Buddhism and its practices.  Some questioned: “If Buddhism is the greatest and most venerable of ways, why did the great sages of the past and Confucius not practice it?” (Document 3).  Others wondered how monks could be happy without wives, children, and property, knowing that their hereditary line will cease to exist.  “The Disposition of Error” (Document 3) seeks to answer these questions and considerations.  In response to Buddhism’s relation to Confucianism, the author explains the ability of both to be mutually exclusive, able to exist regardless of the other.  “All written works need not necessarily be the words of Confucius” (Document 3).  In reply to the abstinent monk’s happiness, “The Disposition of Error” clarifies that such earthly things, such as wives, offspring, and possessions, are luxuries; the monk replaces such worldly joys with the “wonders of the Way” by “simple living and inaction” (Document 3).  In addressing these questions, “The Disposition of Error” reveals to a Chinese Confucian audience the separation between Confucian ways and the Buddhist Way while still maintaining the authority of Confucius.  This pluralism is increasingly demonstrated in an essay composed by the leading Buddhist scholar, Zong Mi, in the early ninth century AD.  During this period, the Tang dynasty ruled over China and encouraged a meritocracy to form as a result of the strenuous civil service examinations.  Those who succeeded on these examinations became leaders and persons of authority in the Tang bureaucracy.  The civil service exams were based heavily on the learners’ knowledge of the comprehensive ancient texts.  And so, Zong Mi’s essay, “On the Nature of Man” also emphasizes the perfection of all the Chinese ancients’ teachings – those of Confucius, Laozi, and the Buddha – which ultimately bolstered the authority of the Tang’s civil exams (Document 5).  As a result of its straightforward practices and assurance of a less sorrowful life, Buddhism was welcomed by Chinese scholars and laymen and eventually was raised to the same, if not higher, level as the Ancient founding principles.

            However, not every Chinese scholar, official, and Emperor saw Buddhism as a beneficial addition to society.  On the contrary, established bureaucrats and well regarded Confucian scholars portrayed the Buddhism as “no more than a cult of the barbarian peoples” (Document 4).  Han Yu, the one who provides the above quote from his “Memorial on Buddhism,” found the Buddhist monasticism to be revolting and extremely substandard to Confucian based China.  One specific Buddhist practice which Han Yu mentions provides an excellent example: the public display of the long-dead Buddha’s finger bone.  In “Memorial on Buddhism,” Han Yu begged the Chinese Emperor to end such processions and cleanse China of this impurity.  For as Han Yu quoted from Confucius, “Respect ghosts and spirits, but keep them at a distance” (Document 4).  This referencing to Confucius provides profound insight into ninth century China; for by quoting Confucius to the Emperor, Han Yu was attempting to persuade the majesty by using his intellectual, moral, and societal foundations.  This shows that even with the centuries, nearing millennium, of Buddhist infiltration, Confucian thought still retained a foothold on China.  This can be even further demonstrated by Emperor Wu’s “Edict on Buddhism” (Document 6) just thirty-six years after Han Yu’s “Memorial.”  Emperor Wu saw his territory as a whole and found Buddhism to have poisoned the traditional Chinese customs like a “luxuriant vine” (Document 6).  He believed Buddhism sucked up his people’s ability to work and their wealth.  Men and women neglected their positions and jobs to lead the monastic life.  In doing so, they rejected their productive tasks and expected other male “farmers to feed them” (Document 6) and other female silk harvesters and weavers to clothe them.  As explained by a prominent Confucian scholar and the Emperor himself, Buddhism was not a help to the economics and structure of Tang China; on the contrary, it was a revolting poison which had infiltrated society.

            Buddhism, a universalizing religion, promised great eternal benefits to laymen and scholars alike; however, to the more practical and pragmatic, the earthly deterioration which Buddhism brought outweighed such benefits.  The passive, meditative, ideal life promoted by Buddhism may have been wonderful for the time being, but destructive for the future.  This is no foreign concept to those living in the twenty-first century.  Everyone knows the destructive nature of pushing off responsibilities onto someone else; one pushes it onto another, then that individual pushes it onto another, and the cycle continues until one individual or the whole system collapses under the load.  A relatively recent example of this is the 2008 real-estate bust when loans were given to loanees, who in turn loaned to other loanees, and on and on.  The debt kept building and building until the bubble burst and the economy collapsed.  Pushing responsibility onto the next person, group, generation, or society has never reaped any long-term benefits – not today nor in the time of Buddhism in China.