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Indian preaching: *
Initially, after the Buddha’s death in 400 BC his message spread only slowly. This changed in 268 BC when Ashoka (304–232 BC) became the Mauryan emperor; he was a convert & public supporter of the religion. The remains of the Buddha had been held in 8 stupas (tumuli containing relics); AÅ›oka & his descendants built a multitude of stupas each with a small relic of the Buddha. He built many temples & was instrumental in spreading of Buddhism throughout his Empire & to neighbouring lands in Central Asia. Buddhist missionaries travelled to China, Thailand & even Greece. Buddhism became a major world religion. In the south Ashoke’s missionaries established the Buddhist Theravada school of Sri Lanka. This became a launch pad for its later spread to SE Asia after the 5th century AD (Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia & coastal Vietnam). Theravada Buddhism was the dominant religion in Burma during the Mon Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1287–1552).
While the elevation of Buddhism in India owes much to Ashoka, its spread in NW India & the Deccan region was probably more about merchants, traders, landowners & artisan guilds who supported Buddhist establishments. The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China started in the late 2nd century AD; the first documented translation efforts by foreign Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century AD, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim Basin. During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia.
Classical rhetoric (Classical): *
The Sophists developed techniques & strategies for speakers; they claimed their methods made the students better; they claimed to teach virtue & argued excellence (virtue) was not an accident of fate or birth but an art that could be taught (by them for a price). The most famous Sophists were Protagoras (481–420 BC), Gorgias (483–376 BC) & Isocrates (436–338 BC). Sophists were the first agnostics, many questioned the received religious wisdom & argued morality could not be judged outside its cultural context (from this came "Man is the measure of all things" by Protagoras ). Their most controversial idea had to do with technique: that every argument could be countered with an opposing argument, & that an argument's effectiveness came from how "likely" it appeared to the audience; any probability argument could be countered with an inverted probability argument. Many Sophist claims were controversial & their assertion that their techniques made weak argument stronger was parodied by Aristophanes in his play The Clouds.
The Sophist Isocrates (436–338 BC) did not claim to teach virtue but argued it was but a single aspect of a complex whole in the process of self-improvement. This relied on native talent & desire, but also needed practice & the imitation of good models. He provided model speeches to inspire his students & argued that practice in rhetoric (addressing noble themes & important questions) improved the character of the speaker & audience & served the polis. He established the first permanent school in Athens. Plato's Academy & Aristotle's Lyceum were in part reactions to his school.
Socrates was no friend to the Sophists. Sophists commonly charged money for their education & were typically employed by wealthy people. Socrates (who claimed to be poor) did NOT charge for his services & he condemned this practice. This aroused Sophist hostility & (according to Plato) they plotted his death. At his trial he faced prosecutors who charged him with corrupting the youth of Athens & impiety against the Gods. One of these prosecutors was Lycon, who represented the professional rhetoricians as an interest group. Socrates defends himself with parody & imitation & asks the jury to judge him by the truth of his statements, not by his oratorical skill, a clear dig at the the Sophists. However the Socrates/Sophist divide is not black & white. Socrates refutes some Sophists in Plato’s dialogues, depicting them in an unflattering light. But is this Socrates or Plato speaking? Elsewhere he portrays the Sophists Protagoras & Prodicus in a positive light & stated the Sophists were better educators than himself, sending a students to study under a Sophist. Some historians classify Socrates as a sophist himself.
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Plato was less ambivalent. He established his Academy in reaction to the Sophist school of Isocrates. He denounces them in general terms for their inflated claims to teach virtue & their reliance on appearances. He also condemns them on personal grounds as he blames them for the death of Socrates. In the Gorgias dialogues he argues against rhetoric (which he calls persuasion & flattery) & promotes his dialectic (or logic). He tempers this in the Phaedrus suggesting a true art wherein rhetoric is based on dialectic. His own rhetoric was Philosophy and not Sophistry.
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Aristotle in The Art of Rhetoric takes a middling approach. While dialectical methods are necessary to find truth in theoretical matters, rhetorical methods are required in practical matters such as adjudicating guilt or innocence in a court, or adjudicating a course of action to be taken in a deliberative assembly.