5 - Buddhism: Incarnations and reincarnations

Summary

Bodhisattvas and barbarians: Buddhism in Ming and Qing China

There were many factors behind the decline of Iberian Catholicism in China and Japan, but one condition that missionaries in both places shared in common was the determined opposition of Buddhist monks and their allies. The reason behind this opposition, other than simple chauvinism, was that Buddhism was itself fighting for political prominence, and the strange new religion was making that endeavor more difficult. But just as Christianity faced different challenges in entering China and Japan, so too did Buddhism adapt to the rapidly changing political circumstances.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang never persecuted Chinese Buddhism as such, the new preeminence of Confucianism cast a long shadow. Ming laws propagated Confucian values and upheld a Confucian intellectual orthodoxy. The dynasty's elites earned their status not by heredity or imperial favor, but by their mastery of Confucian scholarship. Entire extended families devoted resources to training their most promising children to take these examinations one day. Even if examination success did not necessarily lead to a coveted position in the imperial bureaucracy, degree holders earned privileges that set them apart from other commoners: they had the right to travel by sedan chair, to post a flag in front of their house, and to seek an audience with the county magistrate. Because of their elite status, this class is sometimes termed China's gentry. They were the keepers of the flame, by definition devoted to Confucianism.