Telling the Story of the Silk Road

The Highway to Trade

Buddhist adoption in Asia, through the Silk Road

Expansion of Early Buddhism

As we read Chapter 16 from Bresnan's Awakening: An Introduction of the History of Eastern Thought and watch The Silk Road: Where East Met West, we are introduced to the journey of Mahayana Buddhism and its evolution in China through the Silk Road. The Silk Road is connected all throughout China and other pars of the Eurasian continent, stretching from east to west and also south into India. The road helped trade move back and forth, also giving opportunity for "Buddhist ideas, Buddhist books, and even Buddhist monks to enter the flow and move wherever the Silk Road may take them" (Bresnan 377). One city that largely established Buddhism was Xian, "seen as the beginning of the Silk Road" (Silk, 7:43 - 7:46). But as time passed in China's capitol city Xian, so did the livelihood of Buddhist culture. 

Similar Statue of my family's

I find the history of expansion of Buddhist culture very interesting because growing up Chinese and Filipino American, I never really associated Buddhism to be originally practiced in India. My family would have Buddha statues sitting (in Lotus position) at the entrance of our door, and before we exit, we would have to rub his belly for good fortune. And being so young, I thought these practices were a main apart of my Chinese culture. I agree with Bresnan's comment, saying that Mahayana Buddhism making its way into China through the Silk Road and becoming strongly intergraded with its culture is "a very interesting intermediate step that most people in the modern world have never heard about" (Bresnan 377). Because I am one of those modern people, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. 

The Ancient Trade Route

As we gain knowledge about the Silk Road, I noticed that the text only briefly introduces us at the beginning of the chapter while the video mainly focuses on the topic throughout. Each source started with the length of the route, describing it to be the source of trade and culture expansion. "Along its many miles, there was money to be made. But the people on the Silk Road not only bought and battered goods, they also exchanged ideas and techniques" (Silk, 1:47 - 1:58). Unlike the text, the video doesn't state which exact ideas and techniques were exchanged in the beginning, "Buddhism traveled far ahead, hitching a ride on that fascinating highway of trade, an extremely long caravan route that connected China with other parts of the Eurasian continent" (Bresnan 377). After the brief introduction of Buddhist travel, the text describes what they brought and exchanged on their journey. To further expand my knowledge of trade on the Silk Road, I watched this video from Crash Course History on YouTube:

The Influence of Cultures on Europe

One topic in particular that I found interesting was the influence of Eastern culture on European cities, such as Venice, Italy. As we know, the Silk Road carried on for many miles throughout different regions and exchanged not only goods, but cultures and their ideas and techniques. Near the beginning of the video Sam Willis, the video's main historian, mentioned that in 1844, Charles Dickens visited Venice and have a very strange feeling that it wasn't an European city, "but an oriental one that was troubled by the wild luxuriant fancies of the East" (Silk, 3:06 - 3:28). Meaning that Dickens found much of Venice's environment to be influenced by Eastern Asian culture and Muslim styled architecture. Safe to say that the influence of Eastern culture, most likely came from the stream of trade. As someone whose visited multiple cities in Italy, one including Venice, it never occurred to me before how different it was compared to maybe Rome or Naples. 

Work Cited

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. 6th ed., Routledge, 2018.

Downes, Richard. "The Silk Road: Where East Met West." BBC UK, performance by Sam Willis, Season 1, Episode 1. Accessed 25 Apr. 2021.

Kartapranata, Gunawan. Buddhist Adoption in Asia, Mahayana Buddhism First Entered China through the Silk Road. 31 Jan. 2014. 

The Story of Daoism and Confucianism

The Right "Way" or "Road" to Live

As I continued to read Chapters 13 and 14 of Bresnan's Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought, I encountered two influential non-Buddhist traditions native to Asia's eastern region, Confucianism and Daoism. Both of these traditions focus on one's self-improvement through discovering positive-negative (yin & yang) energies of the world's natural order for universal harmony. Although Confucianism and Daoism share some subtle qualities, they are not the same. Daoism was formed later after the lifetime of Confucius, and appears to be the "antithesis of Confucianism" (Bresnan 335). Daoism focuses more on balance and the natural forces of life, while Confucianism focuses more on social order and it's relation to the environment. 

Disruption in Our Universal Harmony

The Teaching of Confucius
Portrait by Wu Daozi
685 - 758 CE

Confucius said that human society had gotten out of harmony with the larger natural order that is it apart of. When we hear the term natural order, we think of a moral source driven by unspoken rules of the universe, but it is much more than a set of unspoken principles. Natural order comes from the balance between our environment and our human nature. From Confucius judgement, he saw men as apart of nature, and we as humans must not be in conflict with that natural order. He believed that "there is a right ordering of society that is natural to it, in the same way that there is a right ordering to all of the things of nature" (Bresnan 308). Confucius witnessed the imbalance of harmony between the evolution of human's society and it's part in the larger natural order. Meaning that human's selfish and evil acts are what corrupts the harmony within our universal nature. During Confucius's day, society was organized through rank and generation, which lead authority to be taken advantage of. He found living under leadership and Government, which is established for men to feel protected, felt more oppressive. In Confucius's eyes, the highest concern was reestablishing the ordering in society. And before we can reach "Confucianism's system promise to fashion a society that is harmonious, peaceful, and prosperous" (Bresnan 301), it must begin within family and applying the wisdom we learn and encounter with our present situations. Confucius's vision of a reestablished human society, will bring back the universal harmony within our larger natural order.

The Basic Forces of Nature

Yin&Yang Symbol

Have you ever heard the saying "opposites attract and complement each other"? You could compare this with the Philosophical Daoist concept of yin&yang, that "harmony is the result of the innerworkings of the basic forces of nature" (Bresnan 352). The term originally comes from the Chinese words for moon and sun. The black and feminine-side of the symbol Yin, is the passive force principle that maintains and regulates, in which is also characterized as the dark and negative side. The white and masculine-side of the symbol Yang, is the active force principle that initiates action, also characterized to be the light and positive side. One cannot exist without the other, they are the balance within the forces of nature. 

Work Cited

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening: an Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. 6th ed., Routledge, 2018.

Daozi, Wu. The Teaching Confucius.

Mnmazur, Klem. Yin and Yang Symbol. 7 Dec. 2007.