Buddhism
3 min readBuddhism is the most influential religion in China and isvery popular among Chinese，both admired by commoners and sponsored by emperors in certain dynasties.
Buddhism was introduced to China from India in the 1 stcentury BC，but not widely spread at first.During the Western Han Dynasty 18 persons were sent to India and back with the Buddha portraits and sutras.And along with them came Indian Buddhists.From then on sutras were translated and temples were built.Buddhism began to take a firm hold of the Chinese people in the 3rd century and became increasingly popular inChina after the 4th century and reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty.Now China has more than 13，000 Buddhist temples and 607.4 million Buddhists.
Why could Buddhism come into China and take root in China？
One reason is that Confucianism and Daoism need persons with knowledge to understand.But in China at that time there were quite a lot of illiterates.Confucianism and Daoism couldn’t be accepted by all the people.Buddhism was much easier to be accepted even by common people.
Another reason was that in China there was a lack of real religion.Buddhism gave people the care of religion for their lives，not just for their mind.
Sakyamuni is Buddhists’Deity，meaning Wise of the Shakya.The doctrine is based on transmigration.
Buddha，meaning an Enlightened Man or Fo or Zhengjue ，aims to convince beings of saving themselves from the sufferings of transmigration through practicing Buddhism by themselves，independent on deities and other external forces.
Buddhism has two divisions:Little Vehicle Buddhism and Great Vehicle Buddhism .Great Vehicle Buddhism sets its foothold in China as late as in the Wei-JinSouthern and Northern Dynasties.Little Vehicle Buddhism holds the view of personal salvation by the individual，possible only for those who join the monasterical order as monk or nun，at least for a short time，to accumulate enough meritorious karma for one’s own salvation to escape rebirth.Great Vehicle Buddhism believes salvation is possible to all sentient beings because they possess the Buddha nature in them and hence allhave the potentiality of being enlightened.Enlightenment is simply achieved by faith and devotion to Buddha and the religious ideal，the Bodhisattvaor Arhat.
At the beginning of the chapter we talked about Confuciaism and Daoism.They have been accepted as relgions.Andthey have their own doctrines to support themselves.Then what is the the ultimate reality of the Buddhist belief？It is selfdenial，transcendentalism and nirvana that distinguish Buddhism from other religions.However，the three can’t be completey isolated from one another.
Monks and Nuns
Buddhism disciples are monks and nuns.They are expected to observe purity，voluntary poverty，humility，simplicity，selfless service，self-control，patience，compassion and harmlessness.They have no families or property.They live in the temples，read and recite sutras，strike the bells and wood-fish，and pray to Buddha.They shave their heads，thinking hair is a sign of pain.They wear gowns，yellow for the monk andbrown for the nun.In the past they used to hold a bowl and wander about to beg for alms，believing that those who offered food could be saved from sufferings.
They choose to confine themselves to an isolated area for meditation for peace of mind.They must carry out their religious duties.If he violates any one of the rules，they will be deprived of certain religious rights.
Monks and nuns are accorded great respect and reverence.Their behavior must deserve the respect and reverence of the public.
