北大语言、文学、文化通选课（二）

1. Buddhism did not originate from China even though it may seem to all of us it radiates from there. Buddhism originated from India, spread to the Middle Eastern countries which act as the middleman, and then from there to China eventually.
   



2. The Confucius' teachings which we are exposed to nowadays may not be what it was meant to be in the 1st place. A lot of times, the words spoken by him has been taken out of context to suit the purpose in which they are included. So if you want to understand them completely, you really need to study them properly.
   
   


3. There is a difference between the way Western world and Eastern world looks at things and how they work. In here, I shall narrow them down to the English and the Chinese. The English tend to theorise and give reason to things they do and observations they make, making everything a study more or less. But the Chinese tend to find ways to make things work and record down the observations, then look at the big picture from there. E.g. in medicine, Westerners look at where it is painful, find a reason why it is painful and cure it; Easterners look out for any other symptoms to lead to the main cause, solve it from there and then record it as it is.