China Meets Buddha Essay

Submitted By eskimoducky88
Words: 297
Pages: 2

China Meets Buddha

According to John Kieschnick, author of The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture, Buddhism was spread through China through the trade routes, mainly the route called the “Silk Road”. When Buddhism did arrive it brought all new concepts, doctrines, and beliefs with it, but it also brought some similarities that helped the Chinese integrate it into their own ways of life. By having a culture that has new and interesting views and believes, and similarities, there is a greater chance that the culture and believes will spread across the land. But over all other forms and ways that Buddhism was spread to China, the main one was through trade routes.
There are many reasons for the acceptance of Buddhism into the Chinese Culture. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica one the reasons that it was so accepted was because that the Buddhist culture was filled with very deeply colored practices of magic, which at the time was very compatible with the Chinese Taosim. Both cultures and religions also had a very popular concept of the afterlife, which being a form of attaining immortality through ascetic practices. Because of these many similarities the Buddhism culture was able to spread and be accepted throughout China.
Buddhism was integrated into China first through trades, then through texts and rituals and believes, and finally through several schools within China. Schools began to teach their own distinctive approaches to the religion. Another way