Old Takes on Giving: Charity in Ancient China

A world where the widowed, disabled and anyone in need are all cared for was an ideal envisioned by Confucian scholars during the Warring States period from the fifth to third century BCE. Their writings make up the earliest recorded ideas about charity in China’s history. Government-sponsored charity mainly included disaster relief. This falls far short of modern Western charity, a virtue that has roots in Christian ethics. Buddhist temples provided alms to the poor. This marked ...