Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hi, I'm Grace Gilmore.
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Um, a student and Professor White Kurtz.
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Um, history course.
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And this is my final term project presentation on the
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persecution of Buddhism in Tang China.
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Buddhism is a religion.
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It was developed by Siddhartha Guadarrama.
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Um, and he is known as Buddha or the Awakened
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One. It originated in northern India and became popular around
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the world.
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Um, it actually spread through the Silk Road and a
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lot of different ways throughout history.
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It's being focuses prayer and meditation to reach a level
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of enlightenment.
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And it came to China during the Han Dynasty in
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the fourth century.
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Buddhism talks a lot about, um, reaching a state of
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like, becoming a weekend or in land.
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And you can only do that through letting go of
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worldly pleasures and morally things.
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So Buddhists are often monks, and they would leave everything
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behind to go on a journey to find enlightenment.
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They believe in reincarnation, and they believe that through each
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life, they learned through suffering, and they become closer and
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closer to becoming enlightened.
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So when Buddhism came to China, um, it became popular.
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And then people criticize that didn't become popular again.
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Um, this happened several times.
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But one of the most notable times was the great
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anti Buddhist persecution during the Tang Dynasty by Emperor Wu
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Song Tang and um he destroyed a lot of monasteries
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and temples and shrines and, like made a lot of
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Buddhist monks and nuns become secular.
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Um, during this time, it really changed how Buddhism was
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seen in China and it because at that point, like
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Buddhism was really, really powerful.
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So after who's on it lost its power and wealth.
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Um, because the temples, they were gaining a lot of
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wealth. Um, there was a lot of different reasons why
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was on could have, like, had such animosity towards Buddhism.
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Ah, lot of people say is like because of the
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money or like because he, like, didn't believe and how
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they believed in death.
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But, um, either way, he really like had a lot
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of criticisms.
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And in the reading from the website, he lists a
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lot of just like arguments against Buddhism.
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I thought the two most important ones that he really
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talked about were like, how, um, stages, like Confucius and
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like other of, um, rulers and leaders from China didn't
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practice. It didn't talk about it in the classics, Um,
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and also how, like Buddhism's main thing is like denial
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of worldly pleasures.
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And he thought that that was wrong.
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That's like, kind of the basis of Buddhism.
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So, like within all of his criticisms, I feel like
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those two really encompass them the most, because the first
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one really has to do with culture and the SAG
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one really has to do is just like the standard
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belief of Buddhism.
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So this kind of covers it.
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All these air, the direct quotations from the sources I'm
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going to read them and then we can kind of
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talk about like, what's going on in them.
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But the argument about classics, um, his argument, one where
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he says, If the great way.
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But the way of the Buddha is the greatest and
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the most vulnerable of ways.
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Why did Yao Xun, the Duke of Show and Confucius
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not practice it in the Seven Classics?
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One sees no mention of it.
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Can they exceed the classics and commentaries and beautify the
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accomplishments of the stages?
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So this kind of really references to like Chinese culture,
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which has to do a lot with like making their
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ancestors proud and honoring those that came before them.
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And they, like, have these classics which like these writings
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that they believed in and they used in all their
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teachings. Nobody mentioned Buddhism, so he kind of thought that
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that was like a way to are you against Buddhism
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and later amounts to like, kind of response to that
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in a way that makes sense.
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But I'll get into that on his slide.
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But this is the main thing saying like, Well, if
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they didn't believe it, why should we believe it?
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And a lot of the Chinese people went along with
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that because culturally, that kind of makes sense.
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Another one of his arguments waas about the worldly pleasures.
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So, he says of those who live in the world,
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there is none who not love, wealth, possession, end position
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and hate, poverty and baseness.
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None who does not enjoy pleasures and idleness shrink from
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labor and fatigue.
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But now the monks were red cloth.
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They eat one meal a day, the bottle of the
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six emotions and thus they live out their lives.
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What value is there in such an existence?
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So this is he's just kind of like directly digging
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on how the Buddhist monks live.
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Um, and he just doesn't agree with that.
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And I think a lot of the Chinese people kind
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of didn't agree with it because it's a big shock,
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um, to normal life, to give up everything, just to
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have spiritually life.
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But Mose, you explains this better eventually.
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But I mean there to solid arguments until there responded
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to. So when I were going to go to the
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responses, yeah, so most to wasa Buddhist monk.
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And he defended Buddhism and he had writing that kind
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of had his responses in it, and that kind of
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helped defend his place as a monk.
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Um, his first response to that first argument was about
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how, like Buddhism really can't be compared to the classics
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because it's a completely different thing.
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And he uses the criticism as kind of like a
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stage to explain why Buddhist deny themselves the worldly pleasures.
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Um, how, like Buddhism works and what it's really about.
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So his direct quotations were, although these four teachers were
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SAGES, to compare them to Buddha would be like comparing
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a white deer to a unicorn or swallow to a
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phoenix. So this is some kind of saying that they're
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two completely different things and you can't compare them.
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And yes, this ages were smart.
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They were wise and they knew things.
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They had things you contribute.
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But you can't just look at one person, four people,
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um, forever and Buddhist teaching was transcendent and different and
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deeper, and it couldn't be compared to what they already
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have. Um, and really?
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I mean, I feel like they should be open to
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something new, even if they didn't agree with it.
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Banning it from the entire country was kind of extreme.
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So I don't know.
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Through this I feel like he's kind of explaining that
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they have to have a more open mind.
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And things could be bigger than what there was in
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the past.
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And his second response was wealth and rank or what
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man desires.
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But if he cannot obtain them in a moral way,
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he should not enjoy them.
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So this is speaking to the worldly pleasures thing.
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This is a little bit more cryptic.
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It's hard to understand, But, um, who doesn't basically believes
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that, like human suffering, is how we get to enlightenment.
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And if we can't get to happiness, in a moral
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way than, like we don't deserve it.
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So it's kind of like we don't deserve enlightenment until
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we suffer.
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So that's kind of how Buddhism works, and it's complicated.
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But like throughout practice, it helps.
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It's easier to understand.
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Yeah, um, but yeah, like in conclusion after the ban
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on Buddhism put in place by Emperor Wu Song like
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that was 18 months that Buddhism wasn't even allowed in
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China and it did come back.
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People still practice it in China, but it wasn't the
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same as before.
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I definitely had a lot of popularity, a lot of
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power before, Um, but that definitely changed.
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Um, the reasoning still isn't clear for why Emperor Wu
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Song was so strict about Buddhism.
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But I think Matsu did it like a good job
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of explaining his point and defending Buddhism.
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Buddhists were peaceful.
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They really didn't want to harm anybody.
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They just were doing their own thing practicing their religion.
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But as we learned throughout history this semester, people practicing
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their religion peacefully and people agreeing to disagree doesn't happen
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very often.
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So I think it's been really interesting to learn about
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all the different religions and learn about all the different
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cultures coming together.
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And, um, to become more well read well versed in
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this topic has been a blessing.
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So here are my references.
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My sources.
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Um thank you.
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And hope you have a good night.