Between the third and ninth centuries C.E. China underwent a number of changesin its cultural makeup. Foremost amongst them was the adoption of Buddhist religiouspractices. I must stress that this was not a formal or universal change in religion but aslow integration of a system that permitted adaptation of its own form to promoteacceptance as long as the fundamental theories and practices remained the same, unlikemost religions. Buddhism worked its way into the court and decision makers of theChinese state and that was the major sticking point for the religion in China. ForBuddhism to be accepted the Emperor would have to condone it and at least offer hisacceptance of it. Without imperial approval the religion was doomed to failure in such aregimented and centrally controlled state, of course some would practice it under threat oflegal action because of faith but as a whole it would not prosper. To understand the levelof acceptance of Buddhism within China, one must look at each class individually and seehow widely practised it was by each class. This is due to the emphasis there was on classand how any single act, religion included, could be restricted to a single class as its baseof power. This was the case with Buddhism to start as it came into China by way of themerchant traffic that continued to increase in the first half of the first millennium C.E. These merchants being of a middle class on average were well situated by class andoccupation to promote the spread of Buddhism rapidly to a large and diverse collection ofindividuals. As such, after its initial entrance into China Buddhism was not a single classphenomenon, it was widespread and hierarchically diverse. It makes sense then, todefend the claim that China was a Buddhist country, we must prove that the religion hadthe support or at least acceptance of the emperor, a significant number of the court andgovernment officials, the wealthy landholders and the peasant...
