By Shelton A. Gunaratne

Professor of mass communications emeritus at  Minnesota State University Moorhead

I begin this essay with an attempt to document how Buddhism itself experienced the three features of existence—anicca (impermanence), anatta (no self/interdependence) and dukkha(unsatisfactoriness)—over the last 20 centuries from the time of its introduction to China in the 1st century. To do so, I examine Buddhism as a force that became interdependent, interconnected and interactive with Confucianism and Daoism, the two major thought patterns, as well as the minor ones like Mohism and Legalism, prevalent in China.