<P> These spiritual foundations were laid by individual thinkers within a framework of a changing social environment . Jaspers argues that the characteristics appeared under similar political circumstances : China , India , the Middle East and the Occident each comprised multiple small states engaged in internal and external struggles . The three regions all gave birth to , and then institutionalized , a tradition of travelling scholars , who roamed from city to city to exchange ideas . After the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period , Taoism and Confucianism emerged in China . In other regions , the scholars were largely from extant religious traditions ; in India , from Hinduism , Buddhism , and Jainism ; in Persia , from Zoroastrianism ; in The Levant , from Judaism ; and in Greece , from Sophism and other classical philosophies . </P>
what were the main areas of axial age thinking in eurasia
China India Persia The Levant Greece