Many who have bothered to study Chinese history will agree with your observation, myself included. If only the decision-makers in the US foreign policy establishment will understand this very important point, the world would be better off and more peaceful.
Henry C.K. Liu
"Rosser Jr, John Barkley" wrote:
> I would note that Chinese history is marked by a
> perpetual oscillation between openness to the outside world
> and a closed-in xenophobia marked by attitudes of
> superiority. The periods of openness have seemed to
> coincide with periods of power and expansiveness in the
> early stages of vigorous dynasties, notably the early Han,
> the early Tang, and the early Ming. During these periods
> of openness there has tended to be greater tolerance
> internally both of local religions as well as those clearly
> coming from outside such as Buddhism, Islam, and
> Christianity. Is this not the case, Henry?
> Barkley Rosser
> On Wed, 18 Nov 1998 01:12:41 -0500 "Henry C.K. Liu"
> <hliu at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> > Enzo makes a very good point.
> > Statements do not become of note merely because they were said by historical
> > figures.
> > It is because prosterity find certain statements worthy of note that make the
> > author historical.
> >
> > Typical of Chinese preoccupation with authenticity and scholarship, the
> > motivating force behind many sects of Chinese Buddhism (Fo Jiao) in the period
> > after the fifth century had been primarily exegetical. Each sect longed to be
> > the possessor of authentic theological treatises written in Sanskrit by
> > acclaimed sages in India, holy land of Buddhism known as Tianshu during Tang
> > time (618-907). Each sect dreamed of exegetical supremacy by performing
> > orthodox translation on its own authentic sutra (jing) and by rendering
> > enlightened interpretation.
> > Many holy and zealous sengs (monks) braved horrendous hardship to travel to
> > remote Xiyu (Western District, a term Tang geographers used to include India,
> > referred to as Tianshu), for the purpose of gaining enlightenment from the true
> > source and to bring back original sutras of indisputable authenticity and
> > authority.
> > India was reached at this time from Changan by first following the Silk Route
> > west until Ferghana and Kokand (modern-day Central Asian Uzbekistan), then
> > turning south, through the northeastern corner of Bactria (modern-day Balkh,
> > Afghanistan), cutting across Pakistan to Punjab in northern India. Direct
> > access to India from Xizang (Tibet) was made prohibitively difficult and
> > hazardous by the forbidding Himalayas Mountains, not to mention the hostile
> > Tufans (Tibetans) who inhabit the northeastern foothills of the Himalayas.
> > It is peculiar of Chinese Buddhist culture that while it persistently seeks
> > authenticity from external sources, a deep-rooted aversion to things foreign
> > concurrently requires it to twist its interpretation to conform to
> > characteristically Chinese mentality. It reflects a central contradiction in
> > Chinese culture that is at once attracted to foreign ideas and incurably
> > xenophobic.
> >
> > Henry C.K. Liu
> >
> > Enzo Michelangeli wrote:
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Mathew Forstater <forstate at levy.org>
> > > To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
> > > Date: Tuesday, November 17, 1998 11:39 PM
> > > Subject: Re: Buddhism
> > >
> > > [...]
> > > >In its
> > > >best and true version (where best and true are defined by me) Buddhism is
> > > >atheistic, radically egalitarian, and inseparable from commitment to social
> > > >justice. There is tremendous evidence for this. But as others point out
> > > >there is evidence for whatever you want.
> > >
> > > Exactly. All successful religions share this property: you can always find
> > > there something to prove anything and its opposite.
> > >
> > > > What has to be remembered is that the
> > > >historical Buddha (Guatama, Siddhartha, or Sakyamuni) taught for over 50
> > > years,
> > > >and changed his mind many times during his life, tried different
> > > approaches.
> > > >Different sects of Buddhism correspond to teachings from different parts of
> > > his
> > > >life. This is additionally complicated by the usual later preversions and
> > > >misinterpretations by others. So authoritarian priests or states have
> > > commited
> > > >acts in the name of Buddhism that are anything but Buddhist in spirit. But
> > > I
> > > >think we should take care in reducing the view of the "individual" in
> > > Buddhism
> > > >to anything like modern western notions. Mat
> > >
> > > I'm afraid that projecting past views of the world onto our contemporary
> > > coordinate axes, with the consequent loss of information, is an unavoidable
> > > part of learning - and often the translation from a language to another adds
> > > further damage to the accuracy of representation. When we translate, e.g.,
> > > "chi" as "spirit" or "tien" as "heaven" (sorry Henry, I'd like to use pinyin
> > > but I don't really know it!) we necessarily evoke to a contemporary western
> > > listener a number of associated concepts that may not have been intended by
> > > the original speaker, located on another spot of time-space, and at the same
> > > time we miss other possible meanings. "Tien", for example, also means
> > > "nature" or "cosmos", i.e. the world "outside" the sentient self. Hence the
> > > expression "the other half of heaven", whose literal translation sounds
> > > otherwise a little incongruous.
> > >
> > > Besides, to be perfectly honest, we don't really know what Buddha, or
> > > Christ, or Socrates, or Lao Tzu really said, let alone how many times they
> > > changed their mind, due to the fact even their "original" books were written
> > > by third parties. On the other hand, why should that really matter? Ideas
> > > are more important than identities, and luckily are not encumbered by
> > > patents.
> > >
> > > Cheers --
> > >
> > > Enzo
> >
>
> --
> Rosser Jr, John Barkley
> rosserjb at jmu.edu