In what ways did the sponsorship of ruling elites help bring about the spread of Buddhism in South and East Asia?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Conversion of rulers in the spread of Buddhism
1. displayed partiality for royal and imperial disciples
2. Buddhism became the favorite spiritual resource of royal usurpers who wanted legitimacy and of monarchs who needed propagandists
3. no Buddhist emperor ever suspended the rites and sacrifices that Chinese emperors were required to perform
a. Buddhism could never monopolize the Chinese imperial court
b. it was the only movement of foreign origin ever really to catch on in China
c. sporadic bursts of imperial favor enabled Buddhists to establish an enormous network of monasteries that became magnets of piety for millions of people
4. Korea
a. fugitive Chinese monks made themselves indispensable at court
b. reconcile Buddhism with royal responsibilities under the old, indigenous religion
c. King Kwanggaet'o, King Changsu
d. Korea resisted Buddhist intrusions at first
1. importance of local religious rites as part of the ceremonial of kingship
e. launch of Buddhism as a royal religion in Southern Korea
1. conversions of King Song in Paekche and King Pophung of Silla
f. adapted to the reform of the Korean administration along Chinese lines filled the bureaucracy with men trained in the study of Confucianism
5. Japan
a. compromise between universal religion and traditional paganism
b. Prince Shotoku (574–622), the first great royal patron of Buddhism in Japan
1. value of the Buddhist clergy as potential servants of the state
2. wrote learned commentaries on Buddhist doctrine and founded monasteries
c. traditional elite feared Buddhism as a foreign intrusion and a menace to the imperial rites
d. Buddhism proved irresistable to Japan
1. Buddhist rituals were used in Japan to protect the state
6. Tibet
a. King Trisong Detsen
1. depicted himself as both the divine defender of the old faith and the enlightened enthusiast of the new
2. Theravada Buddhism adopted
b. Buddhism survived in Tibet only precariously
7. India
a. effort to combine Buddhism with traditional kingship failed most conspicuously in India
b. rites and practices associated with the traditions we now call Hinduism were taking hold
c. most Indian kings preferred to stake their power on devotion to particular traditional gods rather than on Buddhism