Primary Source: Ashoka

In what ways and for what reasons might this story from the Ashokavadana have appealed to various groups of early Buddhists?

The story might appeal to various groups of early Buddhist because it teaches a valuable lesson in a way that doesn't simply state it. The story captures people because of its unexpected and surprising lesson at the end of it. Other than the fact that it attracts people because it's a story, the story appealed because it shows that all castes were equal. King Ashoka, the one who praises himself as Beloved-of-the-Gods, has the respect to bow down to all Buddhist monks, regardless of their caste. It shows how to whom you are born to is not important, but it is important what you do with your life.

Map of the Qui and Han Dynasties

Chinese Dynasties vs. Indian Dynasties

Indian dynasties and Chinese Dynasties had their differences in their political systems and their religious bases. In China, after the Foundational Era, most of the governments favored strong centralized governments, whereas in India, the governments gave the local leaders a lot more power. The way that these dynasties fell was also different. The Gupta dynasty fell to the nomads named the White Huns, but the Chinese dynasties fell to internal pressures such as rebellion, not the Xiongnu that often attacked them. The governments were also different in how they hired. It was based  by caste in India, but it was based on skill in China.

Mencius vs Xun Zi

Mencius believes that people naturally have morals and that even without prior knowledge, people will choose to do the good thing because they have instinctive morals.
Xun Zi believes that people will naturally do whatever is best for them, which will probably be bad for others. He believed that people need to be taught to behave well, otherwise they wouldn't do so.
As much as I want to believe that Mencius is right in an ideal world, Xun Zi's views are more realistic. Without telling children the difference between good and bad, they would never know the difference, and would do whatever would get them a reward, or would benefit them, like stealing candy, or cheating on a test. Xun Zi's method of education for morals is sound because often little children that don't know any better  seem to be stubborn on what they want and what they do not want. This view is based upon experience and Mencius's idea is either ahead of our time or not realistic. 

Confucian Analects

1. Confucianism, because of its lack of a god like figure, cannot be considered anything more than a philosophy or a way of life. Confucianism teaches how people should live their lives, but there is no exact, definite mention of a god, even though there are several mentions of a heaven.

2. The first two chapters of the Analects describe whether a person is born good or bad. It suggests that people can choose which path to go down. The Master describes this way of thought when he says "If for three years he does not alter from the way of his father, he may be called filial"(9-10).  The quote shows that if a person deviates from the ways of his father, then he is a bad person, whereas if he doesn't, he is a good one. The Master also says that, "...you will have few occasions for repentance" (18). This shows that even in life, you can waiver between good and bad, and that second chances were given. The quote "When one gives few occasions for blame in his words, and few occasions for repentance in his conduct, he is in the way to get emolument"(24) reinforces the idea of second chances, and the book gives reasons to follow the guidelines that it sets.

Map of Persia

Zarathustra on Good and Evil

Zarathustra has the assumption that humans always have the choice between the path of goodness and the path of darkness. He assumes that the wise would pick the path of goodness. He also assumes that humans would choose the path to salvation if given the choice, and that the human race needs a motive to make good decisions as a whole.

History Head

comments:
Hi Ronak,
Your history head has one of the more elaborate timelines on it than others. It has more details and more importantly, your pictures were very representative as well. As for criticism, your poster lacked some things like a title and organization that would have made it more presentable. For my history head, the society that I did were the Mesopotamians. These societies are similar because they both had their origins and key cities located near major rivers. They both were different in terms of religion influencing political power. the pharaoh in Egypt was the most powerful,where kings that had no tie to the Mesopotamian religion was the most powerful. What did the rightmost picture outside the head represent?
-Harsh Dedhiya

Hi Amit,
I thought that your poster was very good in terms of the pictures you used. Some of them were very symbolic and were original in their use. As for criticisms, your poster left something to be desired when it came to a timeline. Use of one would have made your poster better to understand when it came to time period, which is especially important in Mesoamerica because they developed much later. One thing similar between Mesoamerica and Mesopotamia is their polytheistic religions, which developed on opposite sides of the world. One thing that was different was the main food crop in both the societies. While maize was the main food source in Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia relied on wheat. What was the picture inside the head with the person crying?
-Harsh Dedhiya

Essays and Tests

I thought that the test itself was rather simple, and I felt that I was prepared for the test both through the similar formats of tests last year and studying for the test. The essay, however was much more open-ended than I had expected. I thought that the prompt would have been structured in a way that said specifically said what to write about. I thought I was not prepared for the essay, and I feel like I did poorly on it. I would definitely adjust my studying style to focus more on questions in the same format and adjust so that I focus on  things that would be asked upon the test. For the essay, I  feel like I need to prepare for each possible prompt and I need to write out the main points of each possible essay prompt.