Editing Veganism (section)

===Historical background===
{{further|History of vegetarianism|Vegetarianism and religion}}

<!--NOTE: The following is a selection of the most notable only. Every name needs a modern secondary source.-->
[[Vegetarianism]] can be traced back to the [[Indus Valley civilization]] in 3300–1300&nbsp;BCE in the [[Indian subcontinent]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bajpai |first1=Shiva |title=The History of India – From Ancient to Modern Times |date=2011 |publisher=Himalayan Academy Publications |location=Hawaii, US |isbn=978-1-934145-38-8 |oclc=1076542872}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Spencer |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Spencer |title=The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism |publisher=Fourth Estate Classic House |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-87451-760-6 |oclc=31934191 |pages=33–68, 69–84}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Tähtinen |first=Unto |title=Ahiṃsā: Non-violence in Indian tradition |date=1976 |publisher=[[Rider (imprint)|Rider]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-09-123340-2 |oclc=2637827}}</ref> particularly in northern and western [[ancient India]].<ref name="Singh2008">{{cite book |last=Singh |first=Upinder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC |title=A History of Ancient and Early medieval India: from the Stone Age to the 12th century |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-81-317-1120-0 |oclc=818846242 |location=New Delhi |page=137}}</ref> Early vegetarians included Indian philosophers such as [[Parshvanatha|Parshavnatha]], [[Mahavira]], Acharya [[Kundakunda]], [[Umaswati]], [[Samantabhadra (Jain monk)|Samantabhadra]], and [[Valluvar]], as well as the Indian emperors [[Chandragupta Maurya]] and [[Ashoka]].<ref>For Valluvar, see Kamil Zvelebil, [https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA155 The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India] {{ISBN|978-90-04-03591-1}}, E. J. Brill, 1973, pp. 156–171.{{pb}}P. S. Sundaram, ''Tiruvalluvar Kural'', Penguin, 1990, p. 13. {{ISBN|978-0-14-400009-8}}{{pb}}A. A. Manavalan, Essays and Tributes on Tirukkural (1886–1986 AD) (1 ed.). Chennai: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 2009, pp. 127–129.</ref> The earliest recorded vegans, who predated the term "vegan" but were explicitly vegan as opposed to vegetarian, include [[al-Ma'arri]] (who predated the word vegan by a millennium)<ref name="vegan">{{cite web |title=Do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals |website=Humanistic Texts |url=http://www.humanistictexts.org/al_ma'arri.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010305091340/http://www.humanistictexts.org/al_ma'arri.htm#:~:text=do%20not%20desire%20as%20food%20the%20flesh%20of%20slaughtered%20animals |archive-date=2001-03-05}} In poem #14</ref> and [[Lewis Gompertz]].<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-10934|title=Gompertz, Lewis (1783/4–1861), animal rights campaigner and inventor|last=Wolf|first=Lucien|last2=Marsden|first2=Ben|editor1-first=Ben|editor1-last=Marsden|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/10934|access-date=2020-04-22}}</ref>

The term 素 (sù) is the most commonly used word for "vegetarian" or "vegan" in China. This character is first seen in bronze inscriptions from the [[Western Zhou|Western Zhou Dynasty]] (1027–771&nbsp;BCE), though it is likely older.  It originally meant "undyed silk", but evolved to refer to simplicity more generally, and then to the humble diet of the poor, and then to [[Buddhist]] diet which requires abstinence from meat and animal products.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How do you say "vegan" in Chinese? |url=https://www.chinavegans.org/news/how-do-you-say-vegan-in-chinese| author=China Vegan Society}}</ref>  The Buddha stated that monks could eat meat so long as they had no reason to believe the animal was killed in order to feed them.<ref name="welch">{{Cite book |last=Welch |first=Holmes |url=https://archive.org/details/practiceofchines0000welc/page/112/mode/2up |title=The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950 |date=1967 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-69700-3 |page=112 |oclc=39088631}}</ref> In [[Theravada]] countries, monks given meat while begging were permitted to eat it; however in China monks did not beg, and dietary restrictions on meat eating predated Buddhism.<ref name="welch"/> By itself, the term does not distinguish between vegetarian and vegan diets, and has many other meanings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chinese character translation |url=https://www.zihuzhe.com/index.php?m=content&c=content_s&a=view&id=2466&isen=1}}</ref> In modern Chinese the terms 纯素 (chún sù, "pure vegetarian/vegan") or 全素 (quán sù, “totally vegetarian/vegan”) are used to mean 'vegan', especially when referring to non-food vegan goods, and 纯净素 (chún jìng sù, "pure Buddhist vegetarian/vegan") is used to refer to the Buddhist diet, which is more restrictive than the vegan diet.<ref>{{cite web | title=Why do many Chinese vegans and vegetarians also abstain from garlic and onions? |url=https://www.chinavegans.org/news/ask-mang-why-do-many-chinese-vegans-and-vegetarians-also-abstain-from-garlic-and-onions| author=China Vegan Society}}</ref> Initially centered on abstaining from meat, this concept evolved to include the exclusion of all [[Animal product|animal by-products]], such as clothing, household items, and medicinal remedies, and extends to doing no harm in thought or action towards all sentient beings, natural habitats or ecosystems.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greenwood |first=Gesshin Claire |title=Just Enough Vegan Recipes and Stories from Japan's Buddhist Temples |publisher=New World Library |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-60868-583-7 |oclc=1078971986}}</ref>

Greek philosophers associated with the practice include [[Empedocles]], [[Theophrastus]], [[Plutarch]], [[Plotinus]], and [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]], along with the Roman poet [[Ovid]] and the playwright [[Seneca the Younger]].<ref name="Dombrowski1984">{{cite journal |last1=Dombrowski |first1=Daniel A. |date=January 1984 |title=Vegetarianism and the Argument from Marginal Cases in Porphyry |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=141–143 |doi=10.2307/2709335 |issn=0022-5037 |jstor=2709335 |pmid=11611354}}{{pb}}
Daniel A. Dombrowski, ''The Philosophy of Vegetarianism'', University of Massachusetts Press, 1984, 2.</ref> The Greek sage [[Pythagoras]] may have advocated an early form of strict vegetarianism,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kahn |first=Charles H. |author-link=Charles H. Kahn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GKUtAwAAQBAJ&q=Pythagoreanism&pg=PA72 |title=Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans: A Brief History |date=2001 |publisher=Hackett Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-87220-575-8 |oclc=46394974 |location=Indianapolis, Indiana and Cambridge, England |page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cornelli |first1=Gabriele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p0ihjZufKncC&q=Pythagoreanism&pg=PA50 |title=In Search of Pythagoreanism: Pythagoreanism as an Historiographical Category |last2=McKirahan |first2=Richard |date=2013 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-030650-7 |oclc=851970297 |location=Berlin, Germany |page=168}}</ref> but his life is so obscure that it is disputed whether he ever advocated any form of vegetarianism.<ref name="Zhmud">{{cite book |last=Zhmud |first=Leonid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=of-ghBD9q1QC&q=Pythagoras |title=Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-928931-8 |oclc=764348689 |location=Oxford, England |pages=200, 235 |translator1-last=Windle |translator1-first=Kevin |translator2-last=Ireland |translator2-first=Rosh}}</ref> He almost certainly prohibited his followers from eating beans<ref name="Zhmud" /> and wearing [[Wool#History|woolen garments]].<ref name="Zhmud" /> [[Eudoxus of Cnidus]], a student of [[Archytas]] and [[Plato]], writes, "Pythagoras was distinguished by such purity and so avoided killing and killers that he not only abstained from animal foods, but even kept his distance from cooks and hunters".<ref name="Zhmud" /> One of the earliest known vegans was the Arab poet [[al-Maʿarri|al-Ma'arri]], famous for his poem "I No Longer Steal From Nature". ({{c.|973|1057|lk=yes}}).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Margoliouth |first1=D. S. |date=15 March 2011 |title=Art. XI.—''Abu'l-'Alā al- Ma'arrī's Correspondence on Vegetarianism'' |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1428642 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=289–332 |doi=10.1017/s0035869x0002921x |jstor=25208409 |s2cid=163229071}}</ref>{{efn|name=Gelder2016|"[Al-Maʿarri's] diet was extremely frugal, consisting chiefly of lentils, with figs for sweet; and, very unusually for a Muslim, he was not only a vegetarian, but a vegan who abstained from meat, fish, dairy products, eggs, and honey, because he did not want to kill or hurt animals, or deprive them of their food."<ref name=Gelder2016>Geert Jan van Gelder, Gregor Schoeler, "Introduction", in Abu l-Ala al-Maarri, ''The Epistle of Forgiveness Or A Pardon to Enter the Garden'', Volume 2, New York and London: New York University Press, 2016, xxvii. {{ISBN|978-1-4798-3494-5}}</ref>}} Their arguments were based on health, the [[transmigration of souls]], [[animal welfare]], and the view—espoused by [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]] in {{lang|la|De Abstinentia ab Esu Animalium}} ("[[On Abstinence from Eating Animals|On Abstinence from Animal Food]]", {{c.|268|270|}})—that if humans deserve justice, then so do animals.<ref name="Dombrowski1984" />