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With [BLANK-1], Mauryan Emperor Ashoka (referring to himself as “the Beloved of the Gods”) detailed his regrets about the violent conquest of Kalinga and used the document to denounce all violence and to promote the righteousness of Buddhism. He referenced spreading the news of Buddhism for hundreds of miles and even delivering news of his Buddhist righteousness to far-flung rulers like the Hellenistic kings, including Alexander the Great, Ptolemy, and Antigonus. This document was part of a series of pillars that were displayed throughout India in order to promote Buddhism and legitimize Ashoka’s rule

The Upanishads described [BLANK-1] as the unchanging, ultimate reality and claimed that an individual’s soul was ultimately the same as this cosmological concept (unchanging and real in contrast to the ephemera that people consider important in everyday life). One’s soul was the same substance as the ultimate, unchanging reality in the same way that an individual spark is the same substance of a large fire. This concept was central to the Aryan religion in Ancient India, and later became a central concept of Hinduism. The goal for Hindus is to reach union with that ultimate, unchanging reality.

China’s Warring States Period brought tragedy, famine, destruction, and death; but, it also inspired Chinese intellectuals to propose new ways of organizing society and living morally. This intellectual flowering was known as the Hundred Schools of Thoughts. Many ideologies were reactions against Confucianism, but others simply proposed new ideas. [BLANK-1] was among the ideas discussed by Chinese intellectuals of the era. It proposed that human beings should pursue pleasure as the chief aim of their life.

During the New Kingdom, Amenhotep IV and the Great Royal Wife, Nefertiti, ushered in religious revolution in Egypt. Upon assuming the throne, the pharaoh changed his name and commanded that all Egyptians must only worship a new Sun God called [BLANK-1]. It is doubtful that all Egyptians heartily embraced this top-down religious revolution, and they likely continued to worship the traditional gods of Egypt secretly; however, at least nominally this marks the foundation of the world’s first (albeit brief) monotheistic religion. After the pharaoh’s death, his son came to the throne, changed his name to Tutankhamen (the famed King Tut) and rejected his father’s religious revolution, returning Egypt’s worship to the traditional pantheon of gods.

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[BLANK-1] developed in the western part of Japan ca. 300-600, formalizing in many ways in the fifth century. It was heavily influenced, particularly early on, by Korean culture, technology, language, and trade goods. A Chinese historian described the early people of this region as liking liquor, eating with their fingers, using body paint, and selecting female rulers. By the fifth century, the chief of the ruling clan claimed to be descended from the Sun Goddess and became monarch. This gave rise to the Japanese native religion of Shintoism. A sixth century reformer-king of this group named Prince Shōtoku strengthened the state by adopting Chinese-style bureaucratic practices, opening direct diplomatic relations with China, tightening his control of the nobility, and making a committed adherence to Buddhism.

From ca. 800-200 B.C.E., intellectuals, moral thinkers, religious leaders, and philosophers from diverse areas in Mesopotamia, Greece, India, China, and other regions began to think deeply about how to live a moral life. These individuals (such as Vardhamana Mahavira, Sidhartha Gautama, Moses and other prophets of the Hebrew scriptures, Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Han Feizi, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, Aristarchus, Euclid, Zeno, and others) had a tremendous impact on later intellectual, social, and religious developments. While many of these thinkers from different regions did not have contact with one another, the parallels between them are hard to ignore. Some historians have termed this period of time [BLANK-1] due to the profound, and nearly global, sense that new ways of understanding the world and approaching moral philosophy were possible. They argue that there was a fundamental pivot to how human beings would interact with the world that began at this time

[BLANK-1] is an important and sacred body of water in India that is fed by the snowmelt from the Himalayan Mountains. It is located in the Northeastern region of the Indian subcontinent and it empties into the Bay of Bengal; it was one of the two first locations of Indian civilization. The body of water routinely floods, which provides rich, fertile soil for farming, but the flooding can be unpredictable and deadly. The region surrounding this body of water was dense jungle populated by “forest people” during the Aryan Age. By the sixth and fifth centuries, B.C.E., the Kingdom of Magadha came to dominate the region through military superiority, with the use of catapults and war elephants.

China was split into two factions from 220-559 – north and south – during [BLANK-1] that followed the collapse of the Han Dynasty. The Northern Dynasties during this period marked the first case of alien rule in China, as non-Chinese groups such as the Xianbei established hereditary dynasties throughout large parts of China. Huge cities in the north (with populations exceeding one million) fell into slavery from conquering northern pastoral tribes. In the south, the Great Families (elite noble families) intermarried with one another and held local control in the hopes of keeping Han traditions alive during this period of political fracturing. This period ended with the establishment of the Sui Dynasty in 581, when both north and south China was once again united.

After the Protestant Reformation began in 1517, a number of new Protestant sects formed on the heels of Lutheranism. Many were heavily influenced by the theology of John Calvin. One group, called [BLANK-1], originated in Scotland and was founded by a protégé of Calvin named John Knox.