Syncretism

The last quiz we had was on syncretism of Buddhism from India to Asia. I did a comparison between China and Japan. My main point was a from a religious stand point, was that Buddhism had to blend with both the national religion of Shintoism, and that they were both different in the fact that Buddhism had to furthermore blend with Daoism. My difference is definately lacking, but frankly enough no major difference religiously can be depicted between the syncretism of Buddhism religiously to both China and Japan. Their are plenty of facts to back this up; like the way Daoism was used as a bridge into China, and the way for Japan that bridge wasn't needed, because Daoism wasn't as strong in Japan.

Refelction of Theme

November 13, 2007

The theme that I chose was the development and interaction of cultures, which I believe was expressed greatly throughout this unit. Especially since this was the unit where we started to learn about religion, and how it affected people, and the development of civilizations. For example there was Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and polytheistic religions, which often related gods to nature(some of these were just philosophies, not religions). These religions provided order, explained the unexplainable, unity, and it often provided moral guidelines. For advances in technology there was the wheel, bronze, writing systems, and stone tools.