The Age of the Sages
The Axial Age in Asia and the Near East
Mark W. Muesse
Fortress Press
Minneapolis
THE AGE OF THE SAGES
The Axial Age in Asia and the Near East
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Cover image: Zoroaster image © Torea Frey; Prince Siddharta, the Buddha, Gandhara, from Peshawar, Pakistan, Gandhara style, second century CE, Marble, Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY; Statue of Confucius, Chinatown, New York, NY, © Vanni Archive / Art Resource, NY
Cover design: Tory Herman
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Print ISBN: 978-0-8006-9921-5
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4514-3861-1
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For Dhammika Swarnamali Muesse
My wife, teacher, and friend
Contents
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgements
Timeline
Introduction: What Was the Axial Age?
West Asia
1. The Noble Ones
2. The Life of Zoroaster
3. Zoroaster’s Legacy
South Asia
4. South Asia before the Axial Age
5. The Start of the Indian Axial Age
6. Death and Rebirth
7. The Quest for Liberation
8. The Vedantic Solution
9. The One and the Many
10. The Life of Siddhattha Gotama
11. “I Am Awake”
12. Why We Suffer
13. The Noble Path
14. From Buddha to Buddhism
15. Jainism
East Asia
16. East Asia before the Axial Age
17. The World of Confucius
18. The Foundations of Confucianism
19. The Cultivation of Virtue
20. Early Confucianism and the Rise of Daoism
21. The Daodejing
22. Daoist Politics and Mysticism
Conclusion: Reflections on the Axial Age
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Preface
The Age of the Sages is unlike most other introductory books in the study of religion. Most foundational religious studies texts approach their subject in one of a few basic ways. Some works focus on a single tradition, such Islam, Buddhism, or Christianity. Books of this sort usually unfold chronologically, starting from the tradition’s inauguration (or shortly before) and proceeding historically to the present. The advantage of this general method is that it permits the study of a single religious tradition in some depth. If the book’s approach is chronological, it adds the very important dimension of showing how a religion evolves over time. Without a historical perspective, one might be led to think that religious traditions are relatively static and that devotees of a particular religion believe and practice the same things. As someone whose job is to interpret religions, I am frequently asked questions such as “What do Hindus believe?” The truest answer one can give to a question like that is that Hindus believe-and have believed-many different things throughout their history. The same answer, of course, could be offered for all the world’s major religions. Thus, one of the dangers in not taking historical development into account is that the great diversity manifested in all religions gets neglected. Focusing on the evolution of a single tradition can avoid that pitfall. The disadvantage to the single-tradition approach, however, is that it rarely allows for comparisons with other religions. Without the comparative dimension, one might be misled into believing that a particular religious tradition is completely unique or that it develops independently of other domains of culture or other religions. The comparative method ensures that a religious tradition is interpreted against the larger background of human experience beyond the specific religion under study.
Another kind of religious studies text takes the comparative approach seriously but in so doing sacrifices much of the depth one gains from studying the historical development of a single tradition. Many textbooks for introductory courses in world religions are structured in this manner. Such books are designed for courses in which one might spend the first two weeks on Hinduism, then two weeks on Buddhism, two days on Jainism, a week for the Sikhs, three weeks on Chinese religions, and so forth. The benefit of this method is the opportunity it affords to study traditions side by side to see how they differ and compare. It is difficult truly to understand any religion—including, and perhaps especially, one’s own—without such comparisons and contrasts. In the same way that studying another language enables one to recognize the taken-for-granted features of one’s native tongue, so too does the comparative study of religions bring to consciousness the dimensions of religious belief and practice that usually escape our notice. One might be tempted to think that all religions posit the existence of a creator god until one encounters a tradition like Buddhism, in which belief in god plays no role in accounting for the existence of the universe. Similarly, one could assume that Jesus originated the Golden Rule until one finds that Confucius uttered essentially the same principle five centuries earlier. In the words of Max Müller, one of the first comparativists of religion, “He who knows one, knows none.”[1]
But the problem with the comparative approach of most textbooks is that each religion receives such short shrift that its treatment is often shallow and its historical development is glossed over or insufficiently addressed. Furthermore, a religion’s evolution in the larger context of its culture can be easily neglected. Thus, one fails to see how traditions are related to other aspects of their social setting, such as art, economics, politics, and education. Because it lacks adequate attention to historical development, this two-weeks-per-religion approach can also disregard the ways in which religious traditions frequently influence and shape one another. This is also a hazard of the single-tradition method. In fact, one of the least appreciated aspects of the world’s religions is the extensive ways in which they interact. To cite some small examples: Prayer beads seem to have originated among the Hindus and later adopted by Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Muslims. Karma and rebirth are ideas shared by Jains, Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists, who appropriated these concepts in very different ways relative to one another. The Roman Catholic Church canonized a Saint Josaphat, who was a fictionalized character based on the life of the Buddha.[2] Such instances of cross-fertilization between religions can easily be ignored when one’s approach tends to focus on religious traditions in isolation from one another.
The present volume adopts a different approach. By examining the evolution of Asian religions over a six-hundred-year span known as the Axial Age (800–200 BCE) and against the background of their preaxial settings, we will have the opportunity to study religions both comparatively and developmentally. This method aims to combine the benefits of considering the historical evolution of religions, as championed in the single-tradition approach, with the benefits of regarding religious traditions in comparative fashion. The comparative dimension allows us to view how different religions respond to similar historical and social circumstances and to see the mutual interaction of re
ligions in proximity to one another. But by limiting the time frame and the number of religions we cover, we gain a measure of depth in our investigation and connect them more fully with their social and political contexts. Thus, we will neither attempt to study all the major religions of the world, as most comparative introductions do, nor provide a comprehensive account of their historical developments, as many single-tradition introductions do. Rather, we shall examine several of the principal religions of Asia during a particular—and particularly important—period.
The great value of this book, however, derives not simply from the approach it adopts but from the era on which it is focused. The Axial Age, as we shall see, is simply one of the most intriguing periods in religious history. No other six-hundred-year epoch compares with its spiritual and philosophical richness. It is called “axial” because it marks a decisive turn in the evolution of the human spirit; it profoundly shaped who we are today, and it continues to offer us great insight for the living of our lives well over two thousand years later. It has lessons to teach us about the nature and function of religion in human experience as well as valuable guidance for the twenty-first century, whether we consider ourselves religious or not.
Overview of the Chapters
The book begins with a discussion of the Axial Age and its characteristics and contours. We note how brilliant and sensitive thinkers in this period began to reflect on life in new and sometimes unprecedented ways across several geographical regions we call “axial centers.” Although these centers were located in numerous parts of Eurasia, we will attend principally to the traditions that emerged in three Asian sites to delimit the scope of our study: Zoroastrianism in Iran (with mention of its influence on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam); Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in India; and Confucianism and Daoism in China.
Although not an axial center, we begin our analysis in Central Asia in order to study the early Indo-European peoples who later migrated to West and South Asia and decisively shaped the religious outlook and practices of those regions. Today, we refer to these migrants as the “Indo-Iranians” in recognition of their eventual destinations. We trace their movements first into Iran, where we examine the context out of which came the most mysterious of all axial sages: Zoroaster. Perhaps the world’s first prophet, Zoroaster was responsible for reforming the ancient Iranian religious tradition and for popularizing ideas such as the Day of Judgment, the devil, and the apocalyptic redeemer. We will look at these conceptions both in their native Iranian context and as possible influences on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
In South Asia, we start with the indigenous Indus Valley Civilization and witness the impact of the migration of a branch of the Indo-Iranians (retrospectively called the Indo-Aryans) that eventually made its way to northwestern India. We will explore the elements of both Indus and Indo-Aryan religions to prepare for the examination of the axial transformation of Indian religion. Preaxial religion in India focused on this-worldly concerns, such as the acquisition of material needs and comforts, a long life, and successful reproduction, and was decidedly oriented toward ritual.
With the advent of the Axial Age, Indian sages began to question the values associated with the material world and ritual practices. Indian religion became increasingly preoccupied with understanding the destiny of the individual and the nature of the deepest reality underlying all appearances. After a great deal of speculation, the ideas of reincarnation and karma were widely accepted, creating a new problem for Indian religion: attaining release from the endless rounds of death and rebirth known as samsara. Individuals by the hundreds began to renounce worldly life and to experiment with solutions to this predicament. Among the scores of new spiritualities developed during this time, we examine three of the most important and most enduring: the mysticism of the Upanishads, which provided the foundational structure for the massive conglomerate of religious beliefs and practices later known as Hinduism; the teachings of the Buddha, based on an approach he called the Middle Way; and the beliefs and practices of Mahavira, whose movement became known as Jainism. Setting these traditions side by side will afford the chance to see how they responded to many of the same problems but offered distinctive and innovative solutions.
Our final destination is East Asia. We begin with a study of the preaxial culture of what was later called China. Understanding this early period, which is barely within reach of current historiography, is important for appreciating the axial transformations brought about by Confucius and the thinkers associated with the tradition of Daoism. We look at the earliest attestations of religious practices that have been important throughout Chinese history, including divination and ancestor reverence. Later, when we turn to Confucius and his followers and then to the Daoists, we observe how these practices were retained and reinterpreted to fit the new concern with moral behavior brought by the Axial Age. Claiming only to transmit ancient traditions, Confucius taught a comprehensive ethic of personal development that remained influential throughout Chinese history and provided the basis for the Chinese educational system. Daoism, often associated with the mythic figure of Laozi, was concerned with many of the same issues as Confucius but advocated alternative solutions. Throughout Chinese history, Confucianism and Daoism functioned as complements to one another in such a way that individuals could claim allegiance to both traditions.
Finally, the book concludes with a set of reflections on the axial transformations, emphasizing the common themes across the centers of development as well as their distinctive qualities. Only then can we consider the overall significance of this age for human history and its major contributions to human spirituality.
A Note about Terminology
The Age of the Sages uses transliterations of many technical terms from several languages, especially Sanskrit, Pali, and Chinese. I have tried to keep these terms to a minimum, but it is often helpful to use transliterations from the original languages because precise English equivalents are not always available. Keeping a word or phrase in its original tongue reminds us that sometimes much is lost in translation. Furthermore, learning the basic vocabulary is a fundamental feature of understanding any religious tradition.
Some technical terms will appear in italics and other will not. The basis of this distinction is simple: familiarity. Certain words from non-Western religions have been adopted into English and are recognizable to most English-speakers. Accordingly, words like karma, nirvana, and mantra will appear in plain type in recognition of their status as English words. Other terms, however, are not so familiar and hence appear italicized. These include words such as tianming, anatta, and li. In addition, the titles of some texts will be italicized while others will appear plain. References to collections such as the Vedas and the Upanishads are not italicized, much like similar conventions for the Bible and the Qur’an. But most texts, such as the BhagavadGitaand the Analects, will be italicized in the standard way for such documents.
The scholarly transliteration of the languages of the traditions we will cover often involves certain standard diacritical marks to indicate sounds for which there is no precise English equivalent. To avoid creating unnecessary distractions, however, I have chosen to avoid diacritical markings and use transliterations that approximate the original as much as possible. The glossary provides the full transliteration of terms including diacritics in parenthetical marks. For direct quotations from other texts, I have reproduced the transliteration and capitalization scheme of the original, even though it might be at slight odds with my own. Chinese words have been transliterated according to the pinyin system rather the older Wade-Giles method. Hence, a word that might be familiar to Western readers such as Tao has been rendered as the more phonetically correct Dao.
* * *
F. Max Müller, Introduction to the Science of Religion: Four Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution in February and May, 1870 (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1882), 13.↵
John C. Hirsh, ed., Barlam and Iosaphat: A Mi
ddle English Life of Buddha (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).↵
Acknowledgements
Although I did not recognize it at the time, this book was conceived over thirty years ago when I was a graduate student. During that time, I was fortunate to study with many brilliant theologians and religious theorists, but two teachers stand out as inspiration for this particular volume: the director of my graduate program, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and the director of my doctoral thesis, Gordon D. Kaufman.
From Professor Smith, I learned the value of thinking of religious traditions as dynamic, diverse, and mutually interactive realities. He taught his students to imagine the world’s religions developing century by century, not simply tradition by tradition. I unwittingly began the research that culminated in this volume while preparing for a question Professor Smith posed for my general examinations for the Ph.D. His question involved selecting a specific century of human history and identifying all the major religious developments—regardless of tradition—that occurred within that time frame. My particular period revolved around 500 bce, near the center of the Axial Age. Thus began my career-long fascination with what is clearly one of the most philosophically creative times in human history.
From Professor Kaufman, I gained a critical appreciation for the way religious concepts are humanly constructed by means of what he called the “theological imagination.” Rather than being realities that are sent down from the heavens, Kaufman contended that religious ideas and symbols are created by human beings for human purposes. Because religions can function to our great benefit and to our great detriment, it is essential, he argued, to exercise a critical and conscious approach to the ways we create and appropriate our concepts. Kaufman’s approach to theology, like Smith’s, has left a deep impression on my own approach to the study of religion, and both have helped shaped the way this book has developed.
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