Buddhism spread from China to Korea and Japan by the 6th century CE; it retained a dominant position in China until the decline of the Tang dynasty in the 9th century.

Thereafter Buddhism remained important in China, but more as a private than an officially sponsored religion. Buddhism also interacted in China with religious Daoism, especially from the 3rd century CE.

Religious Daoism, in the form of several competing sects, absorbed many of the local religious temples and doctrines of ancient China. It offered believers immortality or reincarnation in a celestial pantheon, and amassed a canon of sacred texts rivaling that of Buddhism.

Daoism spread westward into CentralAsia along the Silk Road, providing, just as Buddhism had done, religious facilities for traveling believers; many of the important Buddhist temple complexes of Central Asia show Daoist influence or incorporate Daoist chapels. Meanwhile, in the western reaches of the Silk Road, important changes were also taking place. Christianity was transformed, in the century orso after 50 CE, from a local phenomenon in the region now comprising Israel and Palestine to a rapidly expanding, proselytizing religion through the efforts of the major Christian apostles.

Christianity spread eastward as well as westward, in the process evolving various differences from place to place in doctrine and forms of worship. By that time, Nestorian churches were to be found in cities all along the Silk Road, though there were undoubtedly many fewer Christians than Buddhists in Central Asia.

Mani arose from the Zoroastrian tradition, and consciously incorporated elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other faiths into his own doctrines; he saw himself as the successor to Zoroaster, the historic Buddha, Jesus, and other great ancient religious teachers. Manichaeism became an important rival of Christianity in the Middle East and Mediterranean North Africa, and was known all along the Silk Road though with little or no impact on China and East Asia , but its influence began to wane by the end of the 6th century.

Silk Road faiths from the Middle East to the north western reaches of China were challenged and, in time, displaced by the spread of Islam, which is at present the faith of the majority of people in the countries spanned by the old Silk Road. Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was born around CE. At the age of40, according to Muslim tradition, he became the recipient of a series of revelations, recorded in the Quran, which is for Muslims a faithful recording of the entire revelation of God sent through Muhammad.

The basic teachings of the Quran were belief in One God, unique and compassionate; the necessity of faith, compassion, and morality in human affairs; accountability of human actions; and the recognition that the same God had sent Prophets and Revelations to other societies, which Islam affirmed while regarding the Quran as the final message and Muhammad as the last of the divine messengers. Although the initial spread of Muslim rule and authority to neighboring regions, which took place after the death of the Prophet in , was a result of conquest, the actual process of converting the peoples in these regions to Islam took a long time.

It was effected primarily through the work of Muslim preachers, traders, and rulers. On the whole, the process of conversion to Islam, with a few exceptions, was a peaceful one. In the Silk Road context, a good example of this process are the Sufis, devotees committed to spiritual life and unity among traditions, whose teachings of Islam exist in all the vernaculars and cultures of Silk Road peoples. The full diversity of Muslim traditions, schools of thought, and civilizing influences have flourished along the Silk Road.

These include the development of philosophy and science; law and history; literature and the arts; and the expressions in music and dance of the devotional and creative spirit of Islam.

That pluralism still denies the life of most Muslims living along the old Silk Road. At present, at least million Muslims live in Asia, almost half of the total number of Muslims in the world.

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How Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism complement one another. As Manichaeism rapidly gained more followers, the Roman Empire became suspicious of the religion partly because it came from the Sassanid Persian empire and had the possibility of acting as a fifth column. As a result, the Manichaeans arrived in the Roman Empire as a group with few connections to the Sassanian Empire.

The rapid spread of Manichaeism must have also caused Diocletian some concern because he enacted a law in that prohibited the Manichaean religion; the Roman emperor believed it undermined Roman morality with Persian customs.

We have heard that these men [Manichaeans] have but recently sprung up and advanced, like strange and unexpected portents, from the Persian people, our enemy, to this part of the world, where they are perpetrating many outrages, disturbing the tranquility of the peoples and also introducing the gravest harm to the communities. And it is to be feared that peradventure, as usually happens, they may try, with the accursed customs and perverse laws of the Persians, to infect men of a more innocent nature, namely the temperate and tranquil Roman people, as well as our entire Empire with what one might call their malevolent poisons.

Manichaeism did not disappear from the Roman Empire when Diocletian outlawed the religion; instead, it became an underground religion and followers practiced Manichaeism secretly by taking on the appearance of normal Catholic Christians.

Manichaeans also used the guise of Christianity to escape persecution by Vahram I after his execution of Mani; to resolve this issue, the Persian king decided to include Christians in his persecutions.

Unable to establish any religious communities, Manichaeans found no other choice except to practice their religion in secrecy. In addition to the persecutions from the Roman state, the Catholic Church also persecuted the religion of Manichaeism on the grounds that it represented a Christian heresy. Many Manichaean beliefs contrasted the teachings of Christianity and even undermined their authority in some cases.

For instance, Mani believed that he had received divine revelations and proclaimed himself an Apostle of Christ; in the view of the Christian Church, Mani's claim presented a threat that they could not ignore since they also claimed to have apostolic teachings.

The movement of Manichaeism further east into Asia occurred primarily through commercial and missionary activity, as it did in the West. In particular, the Sogdians did much to help spread Manichaean teachings and literature into Central Asia and even China. The Sogdians, known for their commercial success in Asia, had established links between the East and the West that facilitated the spread of Manichaeism.

As merchants travelling throughout Asia, the Sogdians tended to become familiar with the foreign languages and religions that they encountered along Silk Road trade routes. In addition to translating and spreading the teachings of several religions, the Sogdians also adopted many of them as their own over several centuries. Sogdians tended to adopt Buddhism and Zoroastrianism in the second to fourth centuries ce, but many converted to Manichaeism in the seventh and eighth centuries.

As the Muslims began to take over many of the trade routes used by Sogdian merchants, they began to convert to Islam to maintain their commercial links. Like the Sogdians, the Uighurs contributed to the movement of Manichaeism across Asia.

The Uighurs, a nomadic Turkish tribe on the borders of northern China, adopted Manichaeism as their official state religion from to The Uighurs responded to the emperor's request by defeating the rebels and liberating the city of Luoyang in The khaghan made Manichaeism the official state religion in , making the Uighurs the only state to ever adopt Manichaeism as its official religion.

The reasons behind the khaghan's acceptance of Manichaeism remains a mystery, but some possible theories have emerged. Foltz suggests that the khaghan may have appreciated the strict discipline of Manichaean followers while another possibility comes from the Chinese disapproval of Manichaeism.

Colin Mackerras notes that the khaghan may also have tried to establish commercial connections with the Sogdians. To help alleviate this problem, the Uighurs used Sogdians who practiced Manichaeism as agents in the trades of their silks. The Sogdian Manichaean traders managed to convert many of their Uighur partners to their religion; as a result, Manichaean temples in Tang China served as trading stations for both the Uighurs and Sogdians.

The clergy organized feasts and gave spiritual guidance to members of the congregation, while workers performed the agricultural duties on the fields, distributed grain and clothing to the monastery's residents, and prepared the vegetarian food for the clergy.

Some Manichaean monasteries acquired much wealth and owned estates and employed servants, who suffered severe punishments for failing to perform their duty. Monasticism became characteristic of Manichaeism in Central Asia and China. In the West, persecution by the Romans and Christians prevented Manichaean priests from residing in a populous area for extended periods of time. In contrast to schismatic groups like the Arians and the Donatists, Manichaeism did not represent a separation from the Catholic Church; as a result, they did not have the advantage of claiming ownership over established church properties like the schismatic Christian groups.

Lieu mentions that Manichaeans sometimes tried to create temporary churches by meeting in ordinary houses where they displayed their religious items and scriptures. In , the Uighur kingdom fell to the invading Kirghiz, one of their subject peoples. Without the protection of an official Uighur state, Manichaeism eventually became the target of a new wave of persecutions, this time in China.

In , the Tang emperor issued an edict that restricted the practice of Manichaeism to non-Chinese:. The doctrine of Mar Mani is basically a perverse belief and fraudulently assumes to be [a school of] Buddhism and will therefore mislead the masses.

It deserves to be strictly prohibited. However, since it is the indigenous religion of the Western Barbarians and other [foreigners], its followers will not be punished if they practice it among themselves. Much of the eighth-century persecutions in China occurred at the instigation of Buddhists that became jealous of Manichaeism's success and threatened by Manichaean similarities to Buddhism.

Both religions also believed that saviors of light would come to earth to spread their message of salvation, leading to the identification of Mani as the "Buddha of Light. In Central Asia and China, Manichaean followers promoted the religion as a type of Buddhism, which had an extensive monastic organization to help spread its beliefs.

Unlike Buddhist monasteries, Manichaean temples did not provide housing for their priests unless they became ill. Since Manichaean priests often served the Uighur khaghan and his representatives as advisers, Lieu suggests that the priests may have taken residence in Uighur diplomatic and commercial compounds. With the support of the Uighurs, Manichaeans gained new privileges from the Tang government, such as the construction of new temples; however, once the Uighur kingdom fell to the Kirghiz, the Tang government ended their own sponsorship of Manichaeism in China.

Xinru Liu further notes that the construction of Manichaean monasteries appears to have corresponded with the commercial interests of the Uighurs since these temples also served as storage houses for trading commodities. The Tang emperor banned Manichaeism in and Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity in , only a few years after the fall of Uighur power. The severe persecutions in China caused followers of Manichaeism to practice their religion in secrecy.

In south China, secret Manichaean meeting-places had the appearance of Taoist temples so that they could remain undetected in official registrations. The decline of Manichaeism in the East and West had several contributing factors. Peter Brown suggests four reasons for the decline of the Manichaean movement in the Roman Empire. Second, Manichaeism promoted an early, more radicalized, form of asceticism commonly viewed as outdated by many Christian Romans.

Brown's also claims that Manichaeism had lost the support of the merchants. Manichaeism survived in Central Asia and northern China through the seventh and eighth centuries due to the missionary and trading efforts of the Sogdians. While commercial activity still flourished along the Silk Road in Asia, trade activity in the West had receded causing many merchants to become landowners in predominantly Catholic communities.

Fourth, the sixth century saw the traditional Persian monarchy reestablished and Nestorian Christianity increasing its influence in Mesopotamia, excluding the possibility of a revival in Manichaeism.

Even though Manichaeism flourished in Central Asia and China, the religion eventually faded with the decline in Silk Road trade. While Brown suggests several possible factors that contributed to the decline of Manichaeism, he does not mention the issue of state sponsorship. In many of the areas where Manichaeism managed to earn the support of a state government, an established religion already existed that resisted the infiltration of Manichaean influence.

In the West, Christianity dominated as the state religion of the Roman Empire and relentlessly persecuted any religious groups that they deemed heretical, including Manichaeism.

The Buddhists in China resisted the efforts of Manichaean followers and had a part in instigating the Chinese persecutions of Manichaeism. About us. Stay updated. Corporate Social Responsiblity. Investor Relations. Review a Brill Book. Reference Works. Primary source collections. Open Access Content. Contact us. Sales contacts. Publishing contacts. Social Media Overview. Terms and Conditions. Privacy Statement.

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