In this story, we will know how India culturally dominated China for over 2,000 years.
The late 19th and early 20th century was a period of intense intellectual
activity both in India and China. With dominating western influence over these countries jolted its rooted ideas of tradition and culture. The western influence clashed with these countries' cultural and traditional roots and gave rise to an intellectual class that established the need to contend with the question of modernity — the force behind the rise of the West. The deep-rooted notion of empire, civilization, and tradition was found inadequate to resist European colonialism that was inextricably linked with Western modernity.
In continuation of this intellectual debate, in 1935, Hu Shih wrote an article entitled 'The Indianization of China: A Case Study of Cultural Borrowing'. Hu Shih was one of the most significant philosophers and intellectuals of China during the early twentieth century. He was a professor of philosophy at Peking University in Beijing, China. His article on the 'Indianization of China' presented a scathing criticism of Indian influence on China that inhibited the blooming of 'indigenous modernity', progressivism, and dynamism there. Hu's views supported contemporary 'modernist' Chinese intellectuals' labeling of India under the British as a 'ruined' civilization, 'failed' state, or incapable role model for the agenda of modernity. Through his article, he made a famous observation that "India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border". This represented an admission of Indian cultural hegemony over the ancient Chinese civiliz ation by one of the most esteemed modern Chinese intellectuals, which was significant for those extolling the superior virtues of Hinduism/Indian thought as well as for those examining Sino-Indian encounters and connections.
No one should have any doubt about the influential might of ancient Indian culture over its neighbors and Asia as a whole. Hinduism continued to wield its influence on these lands so long as the Hindus ruled India. This influence ceased by the 15th century CE. After the 15th century, Indian Hindu empires were attacked by Islamic rulers continuously and she was not able to buy some time to build themselves again eventually in the 16th century the Islamic Mughal Empire seized the entire country and after then the influence of Indian culture deteriorated later.
How India influenced Asia and China
Indianization of China: A Case Study of Cultural Borrowing'. He writes that the first borrowings naturally related essentially to those areas of Chinese life and culture which lacked analogous concepts. From the religious life of India, the Chinese borrowed ideas of multiple paradises and hells, each varying in peace and comfort or conversely in severity and horror from the other. It adopted the theory of karma and the idea of transmigration of the soul, linking reward or retribution for the simple moral values of good and evil to the believers' past, present, and future lives. A pristine 'this-worldly' worldview was thus entangled in a complex 'other-worldly' system of thought. With these and other such borrowings from India entering through land and sea routes, there arrived myriad beliefs and practices became part of Chinese cultural life.
The influence of Buddhism
Buddhism in India grew as a powerful popular religion and it began to permeate. Chinese imperial patronized Buddhist scholars and because of its wisdom, it started to influence local Chinese people. This was the reason for Buddhism grew in China mostly as a popular religion of the poor and the lowly. Hu writes, 'the Chinese people soon came to look to India as "the land of the Buddha", and even as "the Western Heaven" from which nothing but the great truths could come. Through China, the wisdom of ancient India reached Korea and Japan.
Story of Bodhidharma
One such story of ancient India's influence on China is linked with the legend of Bodhidharma. He was the second Indian Buddhist monk to travel to Southern China. Bodhidharma traveled to a nearby temple named Shaolin to speak to the translating Buddhist monks. When he first arrived he was refused admittance, but he meditated until he proved that he was worthy. During his stay at the Temple, he noticed the monks there were weak from the long hours of meditation. Because the monks were weak and thin at the time when Bodhidharma arrived, he developed Shaolin Kung Fu to make them stronger and healthier. Therefore, he went to a nearby cave behind the temple where he meditated for nine years to find a way to strengthen them. There are many legends about Bodhidharma and his stay at the Temple and caves. One legend suggests that Bodhidharma developed Shaolin Kung Fu to help heal cramps from long hours of meditation. He used Indian stretches such as yoga to strengthen the monks. Still today, the Kung Fu is an integral part of Chinese culture and society.
Final Thought
The Indian cultural dominance over China was not the result of strategically placed ideas to blind a country, so one could rule them as the Western countries have done in the past. Indian culture still possesses the wisdom to show light to humanity so that humanity could experience peace and wisdom. One example, of that, is YOGA, a tool that developed in ancient India to gain strength in the body and spirituality for the soul. Today, on 21 June, every year the entire world celebrate the International Day of Yoga since 2015 and people are benefitting from it.
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