Source: TW
until early 20th cent Chinese had a strong taboo against beef (including male buffaloes), especially in southern China. To quote Mao on this …
This is because oxen helped the Chinese peasant plough & came to be seen as family. The 2 groups most strongly associated with beef in 19th cent Qing were Mohammedans & Westerners.
You will still find remnants of this taboo in Taiwan, old Chinese songs against beef eating.
Late Joseon Korean intellectuals argued for a ban on beef in Korea citing Qing laws as a model on both ethical & agricultural grounds.
This comes from late Qing stelae of 1877 found in Yunnan:
Discussing the protection of farm cattle based on the “Stele Record of the Eternal Ban on Slaughtering Cows” 2022-10-16
sohu.com/a/593159687_12… 从《永禁宰牛碑记》谈对耕牛的保护_人们_农业_丙吉 《永禁宰牛碑记》碑文共分两部分，第一部分记载了光绪二年(1877)，严禁宰杀或卖与他人宰杀耕牛处予律法一事。在《战国策》就有"秦以牛田"的记载，当时秦国制定了保护耕牛、鼓励养牛的法律"厩苑律”，法律… https://www.sohu.com/a/593159687_121124429
Tasan is probably the most well known late Joseon Korean intellectual, note the sentence:
‘Is it right to eat both the grain produced by the strength of oxen and the meat of the oxen themselves?’ How true this is!
On the remnants of this taboo in Taiwan
The divine bovine - Taipei Times Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2021/03/17/2003753975
& attached is one of the many critiques of Christianity offered in late Ming & early Qing.
Many among the Chinese Muslims-the Hui-made a living from the bovine slaughter which caused tensions and even conflicts throughout China… The beef-eating habits of Westerners, notably in Shanghai, caused outrage among Chinese observers.
The oldest and most influential among these is a long ballad, entitled “The Bovine Crying for Justice” (Niu siu yuan), in which a slaughtered buffalo recalls his life of toil and curses the farmer who sold him to the butcher.
It is doubtful that it had much to do with Indian Buddhism as it extended to buffalos, was geography specific (stronger in southern China), was cited as a model in early 1800’s on y a similar ban needs to be there in Korea by a Confucian like Tasan who cited agricultural reasons as well as moral.
Convergent evolution
Rather the East Asian beef taboo should be seen as a case of convergent evolution, not much to do with India or Buddhism.
Malthus also argued against beef eating for similar reasons & in Plato’s Republic the coveting of meat along with other luxuries is noted as a cause of war as raising animals needs more land & land is fixed. The attached dialogue is between Socrates & Glaucon …
Furthermore in a more modern context it may be noted that in Cuba there were restrictions on cattle slaughter in a nod to their reliance on cattle for agriculture. This was after Cuban agriculture collapsed due to Soviet collapse & consequent halt to cheap oil.