Taking fish and meat by itself does not make a man become impure. A man makes himself impure by bigotry, deceit, envy, self-exaltation, disparagement and other evil intentions. Through his own evil thoughts and actions, man makes himself impure. There is no strict rule in Buddhism (according to the Pali scriptures) that the followers of the Buddha should not take fish and meat. The only advice given by the Buddha is that they should not be involved in killing intentionally or they should not ask others to kill any living being for them. However, those who take vegetable food and abstain from animal flesh are praiseworthy. On the other hand, in Mahayana scriptures Buddha categorically prohibited consumption of the flesh of any animal that was "seen, heard or suspected" to have been killed specifically for the benefit of monks.
(Jivaka Sutra, Majjhima Nikaya 55).
It should be noted that there are two main classes of scriptures in Buddhism, those of the Pali Cannon, which form the foundation of Theravada Buddhism and the Mahayana, which represents the Buddhism of China, Japan, Korea, etc. The Pali Cannon was written around 80 BC and the Mahayana in approximately 100 to 400 AD.
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