Mingxiang JI (501 EC) : a formação de um imaginário social pela cultura escrita na China do século V

Abstract

This paper search to address the expansion of Buddhism. To this end, it objective to investigate the entry of Buddhism into China as in the legendary reports combined as Mingxiang Ji, whose compilation would have been completed in the VI century EC. The cultural conquest of the Chinese empire is relevant to the history of Buddhism, since it served as a path to more extreme territories, such as Korea and Japan. Based on research in the mentioned documentary source and bibliographic review, the approach finded characteristics of Chinese Buddhism, arriving at the hypothesis that the expansion is partly explained by the incorporation of Confucian elements and of new social attitudes in the exercise of religion, among the transformations suffer by Buddhism through integration with the local culture. The research was done in an attempt to contribute to the study of themes related to the Asian continent, scarce in the Brazilian academic ambience.