Buddhism Persecuted

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Buddhism Persecuted
By:The Masked Blogger

             In the Tang Empire, A.D.845, Buddhism was being persecuted as ordered by the Emperor. Thousands of Buddhists were killed, almost five thousand monasteries were destroyed, and forty thousand temples and shrines were burned. The cause of this all is the interlacing religion that somewhat oppose each other. These two religions are Buddhism and Confucianism. Many Tang guards were under Confucian discipline, and felt Buddhism to be a disruptive force in China. These guards were able to persuade the Taoist emperor into persecuting unfairly. Another main reason why Buddhism was prosecuted was because of money. Back then, as well as now, people donated money, land, and other objects to Buddhist monks and nuns in hopes of gaining spiritual balance and being sent into the afterlife on good terms. Thus, monks and nuns had a lot of money to spend to renovate temples and shrines and have large celebrations. These temples were destroyed, and the rubble was used for selling and trading. All of the metal objects in the temples were plundered, bagged, and were melted down and stamped to be used as hard currency. After the plundering, monks and other high ranked Buddhist are going to be forced to return to lives of regular taxpayers in a Confucius society.

           The final reason for the persecution of Buddhists in this age is an opinion of the emperors. The emperor believed that this outside religion was a burden to China and a religion that was disrupting his peace. He believed prosecuting and destroying their religion was philosophical and ideological. He thought this would make people happy and allow him to have peace. Well you’ve heard it here, Buddhism is falling, and there is a projected rate at which they will rise again and again be persecuted at about 900A.D. I thank you for your time and consideration.