CHAPTER 3

The Transmission of Buddhism to China

THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE TRANSMISSION

When we put aside the purely religious accounts in the Buddhist scriptures and try to find historical answers by making logical assessments and judgments, it is very difficult to ascertain the actual situation of the spread of Buddhism and the extent of its power or what territories and how many people had been reached by Buddhist influences in the period following the founding of Buddhism by Shakyamuni. We can surmise that, probably while Shakyamuni was in the world and in the one or two centuries after his demise, the territory to which Buddhism had been disseminated probably extended from the foothills of the Himalayas in the north, regions like Nepal, to the Vindhya Range in the south, and from Mathura in the west to the land of Anga in the south. In other words, Buddhism had still not spread beyond the Ganges Valley in north-central and northeastern India. But, given that probably less than a hundred thousand people had been taught in person by Shakyamuni, given the size of the population of ancient India, it could be said that Buddhism had already acquired great momentum and was capable of making an impact on the times.

Beyond the efforts of Buddha's disciples to spread the teaching, the real large-scale dissemination of Buddhism still had to depend on political power. Two centuries after the demise of Buddha, India produced a king famed in history. His heroic exploits could be matched with those of Alexander the Great. This was the world-famous King Ashoka. At the same time, he was also a fervent Buddhist, one who, in the technical language of Buddhism, is called a “great Dharma-protector.” Under the aegis of his formidable power, following the expansion of his military forces, the teaching of Buddhism naturally extended everywhere throughout his empire, which covered all but the southern reaches of the Indian subcontinent.

Indian Buddhism in the Time of King Ashoka

During the reign of King Ashoka, an assembly of a thousand bhikshus was convened at Kukkutarama Temple in Kusumapura, the imperial capital. With Moggaliputta Tissa presiding, the conclave made a new collection of the Buddhist scriptures. This was the “Kusumapura collection,” which is famous in the history of Buddhist culture.

The story goes that Ashoka also built many stupas to house the relics of Buddha. There are even legends saying that some of the stupas built by King Ashoka were later dismantled and sent to China and rebuilt there: for example, the great stupas in several temples in such places as Zhejiang and Sichuan. Even today, legends still adhere to these stupas, claiming that they are “stupas of King Ashoka” that flew here from India. This is, of course, a figment of the religious imagination, so we need not investigate it any more deeply.

As evidence of historical fact, in the text of the thirteenth of the royal edicts which King Ashoka had carved on cliff faces throughout his realm, the following is recorded: “In the ninth year of King Ashoka's reign, he conducted a punitive expedition against the Kalingas…. After his conquest of the Kalingas, he became a sincere protector of the True Dharma, and gave his allegiance to the True Dharma, and undertook to spread the teaching of the True Dharma.…” It also says: “The King felt pity for the barbarians who lived in the mountain forests of his territory, and his wish was that they would give their allegiance to the True Dharma…so that all sentient beings would be peaceful and happy. The supreme victory is the victory of the True Dharma. The victory of the True Dharma had already been achieved throughout the King's realm, and had extended to the neighboring countries for a distance of six hundred yojanas, into the lands of the Yavana (Hellenistic) kings Antiochos, Ptolemy, Antigonas, and Magas and Alexander…. This was all due to King Ashoka disseminating and following the True Dharma.”

According to what is recorded in this edict, it is obvious that Buddhism was already flourishing in the age of King Ashoka and had spread beyond India to the Hellenistic kingdoms of the Middle East. For example, the Antiochos mentioned in the text was Antiochos II (Theos), king of Syria; Ptolemy was Ptolemy II (Philadelphos), king of Egypt; Antigonas was Antigonas II (Gonatos), king of Macedonia; Magas (of Cyrene) and Alexander (of Epiros) were other Hellenistic rulers. The later part of the edict records that King Ashoka had sent out Buddhist teachers to spread the religion in Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, and Central Asia. The wide extent of his efforts to spread Buddhism are obvious from this.

Furthermore, according to what is recorded in the second of Ashoka's rock edicts, the regions to which King Ashoka sent out missionaries included Kashmir and Gandhara in the northwest, the Yavana regions of the Hellenistic kingdom of Bactria (modern Afghanistan), the Himalaya region, the Aparantaka region in western Punjab, Maharashtra, Mahisamandala (the region of modern Mysore), Vanavasi in southern India, the lands of the Cholas, Pandyas, and Kerala, Suvarnabhumi (the coast of Burma and possibly Cambodia), and Lanka (modern Sri Lanka).

In the three or four centuries after King Ashoka (who reigned 264-227 B.C.), Buddhism gradually became widespread in countries like China, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka, while in India itself, its homeland, it declined little by little. In the second century B.C., the brahman general Pushamitra usurped the throne of the Maurya dynasty, of which Ashoka had been the third emperor, and launched a great persecution of Buddhism in central India, burning temples and massacring monks and nuns. The damage and destruction was considerable. But Buddhism in northern India continued to flourish as before. Before long, thanks to the efforts of the monks and nuns who had survived the persecution, Buddhism in central India revived to some extent. But there were internal divisions that produced sectarian disputes, and more than eighteen sects formed.

The development of Buddhism in Sri Lanka began in the time of King Ashoka. Subsequently, due to a succession of enlightened monarchs, it became the state religion there. King Dutta-Gamani (r. 101-77 B.C.) began to build Buddhist stupas, and King VattaGamani (r. 43-17 B.C.) erected the vihara at Anuradhapura, the capital, and also had the oral Pali canon committed to writing. The succeeding kings all performed many services for Buddhism.

Long after King Ashoka, around the second century A.D., King Kanishka rose to power in India and Buddhism enjoyed another flourishing period. King Kanishka was a descendent of the Central Asian Kushans, who had gradually taken over northwestern India and parts of central India. After King Kanishka became a Buddhist, he vowed to invite the learned bodhisattvas Vasumitra, Ashvagosha, and Parshva to an assembly at the capital city, Kashimira, to assemble the Buddhist canon. This work took twelve years to complete. The sutras, vinaya, and shastras which the Tang dynasty teacher Xuanzang brought back from his study trip to India and transmitted in China belong mostly to the version of the canon compiled at this assembly.

Still later, in the second or third century A.D., the bodhisattva Nagarjuna rose to prominence in southern India and spread Buddhism widely. In the fourth century, the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu spread the learning of the bodhisattva Maitreya, and developed Yogacara philosophy. They were very famous at the time.

The Chinese monk Faxian, who had journeyed to India to study Buddhism and collect texts, also made his contributions, and he reached India in A.D. 411, long before Fazang.

In the sixth century, great shastra masters like Dinnaga, Dharmapala, and Bhavaviveka propagated Yogacara and Madhyamika Buddhist philosophy. In the early Tang period, the great teacher Fazang arrived in India. These teachers were dead, so Fazang studied with the Dharma teacher Silabhadra and his disciple Jnanaprabha, and with the Buddhist layman Prasenajit. Fazang plumbed the depths of Yogacara and Madhyamika theory.

During the same period, many famous Indian monks like Bodhiruci, Bodhidharma, Paramartha, Dharmagupta, and the Central Asian monk known in Chinese as Xianshou Fazang all came to China to transmit Buddhism and translate the scriptures.

Late in the seventh century, the Chinese Dharma master Yijing traveled to India to study and spend time in the various countries of Southeast Asia. He wrote many works on Buddhism when he returned to China.

In the eighth century, Indian Buddhism was gradually declining. In this period, Indian adepts like Shubhakarasimha, Vajramati, and Amoghavajra came to China and spread the teachings of Tantric Buddhism.

In the 12th century, after Islam entered India, many followers of Buddhism fled to places like southern Indian and Tibet. From this point on, Buddhism declined continuously in India, its original homeland.

The Initial Transmission of Buddhism to China in the Late Han and Three Kingdoms Periods

There are already traces of interaction between the cultures of India and China as early as the Qin dynasty and the beginning of the Han dynasty (c. 220-200 B.C.). In Buddhist annals, there is a story that, in the time of Emperor Qin Shihuang, eighteen foreign shramanas were imprisoned, but in the middle of the night a sixteen-foot tall figure made of diamond smashed into the prison and set them free. After researching the evidence for this, the general opinion of scholars is that this story is unreliable. In fact, in ancient India, the term shramana was not limited to Buddhist bhikshus. It is very probable that these men could have been followers of the brahmanical religion or of yoga.

It is probable that, in the Qin and Han periods, there had already been some intercommunication between techniques of the Taoist adepts and brahmanism and yoga. Thus, we have some proof that the cultural interchange between India and China had probably commenced far earlier than the introduction of Buddhism into China. Of course, at this initial period, contact between the two cultures was extremely sparse.

The older histories all place the beginning of the transmission of Buddhism into China in the period of the Emperor Han Mingdi (r. A.D. 58-75). Due to a dream he had of a golden man, Mingdi sent eighteen emissaries, Cai Yin among them, to travel west to the Central Asian Buddhist city-states in search of Buddhist scriptures. In the land of the Yuezhi, they encountered the two Dharma teachers Kashyapa-Matanga and Dharmaraksha. The two teachers were invited back to the Han imperial capital, Luoyang, and installed in White Horse Temple there. Working together, they translated the Sutra in Forty-two Chapters. This was placed in a stone chamber at Lantai. This was the start of the introduction of Buddhism into China.

On the basis of their researches into this matter, modern scholars all have their own accounts: they think that the previous story is unreliable and doubtful. The most trustworthy records and reliable historical sources come from the late Han and the Three Kingdoms periods.

During the time of Emperor Han Huandi (r. A.D. 147-167), a Buddhist monk from Parthia named An Shigao came to China, and a Buddhist monk from the land of the Yuezhi named Zhichan came to Luoyang. Each of them translated several dozen Buddhist scriptures, amounting to one or two hundred fascicles altogether.

During the reign of Emperor Han Lingdi (r. A.D. 168-189), an Indian monk known in China as Zhu Folang also came to Luoyang, where he did his utmost to promote Buddhism. The famous work, Mouzi Lihuo Lun, which proposes a synthesis of Buddhism and Chinese culture was written in this period.

Later on, early in the third century A.D., we find the Sogdian Buddhist monk Kang Senghui and the three famous Yuezhi Buddhist laymen Zhiqian, Zhichan, and Zhiliang. All of them were very learned and honored both at court and throughout the country. They devoted themselves to spreading Buddhist doctrines. They came to live in eastern China in the kingdom of Wu, where they were honored guests of the government of Sun Quan, the founder of the kingdom of Wu. They all mastered literary Chinese and contributed as much as they could to the work of translating the Buddhist scriptures.

In the Jiaping years (249-253), in the Wei kingdom, due to the initiative of the noted Indian monks Dharmakara and Dharmagupta, a system of procedures for Chinese Buddhism was first established, including the regulations for leavers of home to receive the precepts. This at last was the beginning of the formal introduction of Buddhism into China.

In the period of the late Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms (c. A.D. 190-265), Buddhist scriptures and Buddhism in its initial phase were continuously coming into China, and there was obviously a sharp struggle with the way of thinking of the original culture of the country and the doctrines of Confucianism and Taoism. In the history of Chinese thought, this was a great uproar brought about by the encounter with the stimulus of a way of thinking coming from outside the country. Nevertheless, among the common people acting freely on their own, belief in Buddhism was constantly increasing. Over the course of almost a hundred years, the intelligentsia also gradually came to accept the Buddhist way of thinking. This led to the formation of the abstruse philosophical style of the high culture of the period of the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties ( A.D. 265-420).

For almost two centuries during the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties (A.D. 420-580), China's culture and politics went through a period of internal contradictions and fragmentation. From the point of view of historical development, the character of this period was certainly not brought about due to the influence of Buddhism on the land. In reality, the dramatic political changes, in conjunction with the influences of warfare, made Buddhism a timely gift to the people during this period.

There were two hidden major factors underlying this, both for the common people and for the intelligentsia (including the courtiers and the landed gentry). First, faith in Buddhism among the common people was the result of a prolonged period of warfare which had left the people's livelihood precarious. Human effort offered no solution to a life of starvation and misery. The Way of Heaven offered nothing on which to rely; life was insecure and filled with fear, pessimism, and world-weary feelings. At just this time, Buddhist thought surged into China. Its teachings on the force of good and evil karma bringing about karmic retribution through a process of cause and effect extending through past, present, and future lives, and its accounts of heaven and hell and cyclical existence in the six planes enabled people to be more certain that the arrangement of their fate was created by the force of karma from past lives. Thus, in a worldly situation of disorder and chaos, Buddhist concepts spread very quickly. By believing in them, people could soothe their bodies and console their minds. They took the original Buddhist concepts of buddhas and bodhisattvas and transformed them to resemble their traditional faith in spirits.

As for the allegiances of the intelligentsia, ever since the factional struggles among the Eastern Han dynasty elite starting in the second half of the second century A.D., the influence of political and social trends had made it impossible for people to be satisfied with or fully believe in the traditional doctrines of the early Han dynasty Confucians. In the Wei-Jin period (third to fourth centuries A.D.), the intellectuals among the social elite had all been searching in a variety of ways for a new direction in thought. They pursued the study of the signs of fate and delved into the area of philosophy. Very open-minded in their thinking and valuing individual freedom, they entered the realm of abstruse discourse.

It was just at this time that the thought of the so-called three mystic doctrines contained in the Book of Changes, Laozi, and Zhuangzi, encountered the imported Buddhist theories of prajna and shunyata (transcendent wisdom and inherent emptiness). From this, there was an increased tendency among the intelligentsia to combine the indigenous mystic doctrines with borrowed Buddhist ideas. This became the style, so prevalent among the landed gentry stratum and the famous scholars among the so-called intelligentsia, of fleeing from worldly life into Buddhism.

Based on the two factors just mentioned, Buddhism spread throughout China and began its development there. But what really enabled Buddhism to lay a foundation in China were the efforts of many people, among them the famous monks from Kucha in Central Asia, Fotudeng, who was active in the Northern Dynasties in the time of Shi Le, barbarian emperor of the Later Zhao dynasty (r. 330-349), and Kumarajiva (d. 413), the Central Asian master translator who worked under the Later Qin dynasty ruled by the Yao family. Also playing key roles were the eminent Chinese monks Dao An (312-385) and his disciple Huiyuan (344-416), and Kumarajiva's disciple Sengzhao (374-414). Only the strength of people like these enabled Buddhism to establish a foundation in China that could not be uprooted.

Buddhism in the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties

When we look at the development of history, we see that, whenever there is a period of decline and the world is in disorder and people are demoralized, the result is either a turn toward immediate reality and a life of extravagant excess, or else a flight from immediate reality and the pursuit of higher realms.

When we try to observe China in the period of the Wei and Jin dynasties and the Northern and Southern dynasties, we see that the turmoil of the political situation was bringing about certain trends in society. For example, things like the invasions of alien tribes and the subsequent transformations in ways of thinking, were everywhere stimulating people's minds and sending them on the road of either positive activity or withdrawn passivity.

In A.D. 330, the tribal chieftain Shi Le, who was bloodthirsty, avaricious, and barbaric by nature, proclaimed himself monarch in northern China. But at precisely the same time, the eminent monk, Fotudeng, from Central Asia had come to China and was spreading the compassionate teachings of Buddhism within the territory of Shi Le's Later Zhao state. Besides disseminating the principles of Buddhism, Fotudeng also demonstrated many spiritual powers. This not only made Shi Le believe in him, which reduced the barbarian monarch's ferocity, but at the same time it induced many people to have faith in Buddhism.

In addition to these activities, Fotudeng also taught Buddhist techniques for cultivating realization. He promoted the method of meditative concentration that uses counting breaths (anapana) to focus the mind (becoming peaceful and quiet and tempering the breath, in order to focus the mind and enter a state of concentration). This enabled people not only to have faith in Buddhist theories, but also to have a genuine method of cultivating practice that they could follow. We can say that these Buddhist techniques and the Chinese Taoist techniques of nurturing life complemented each other; they accomplished the same results by different methods. Besides all its theoretical accounts of emptiness and existence, Buddhism also offered methods for genuine realization of spiritual powers and meditative concentration that could be relied on in actual fact. This is the major reason that Buddhism began to develop so vigorously in China with Fotudeng. Later on, his Chinese disciple, Dharma teacher Dao An, was also very learned and a master of worldly affairs, whose virtuous qualities impressed the scholars of the time. The founding patriarch of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, the great teacher Huiyuan, was one of Dao An's favorite disciples.

The Founding of Pure Land Buddhism

The great teacher Huiyuan was a son of the Jia family of Yanmen in Shanxi in northern China. As a youth he studied Confucianism and accumulated a lot of book learning. He had a particularly profound understanding of the three mystic studies, the Book of Changes, Laozi, and Zhutmgzi, and he also practiced the arts of Taoism. Later, in order to avoid the political chaos, he went to southern China and became a monk and a follower of Dharma teacher Dao An.

Since he was fond of the scenery on Mount Lu, Huiyuan sent out invitations to the famous scholars of the time, such as Tao Yuanming and Liu Yimin, and they formed the White Lotus Society there on the mountain. As their guiding standard, they adopted the Amitabha Sutra and the Sutra of Infinite Life from among the Buddhist scriptures. They devoted themselves to advocating the practice of invoking the buddha-name by chanting “Hail to Amitabha Buddha,” in order to seek rebirth in Amitabha Buddha's pure land, the land of ultimate bliss. Thus Huiyuan became the first patriarch of the later Pure Land school of Chinese Buddhism. One could say that the establishment of the Pure Land school by Huiyuan was the real beginning of Chinese Buddhism. It was also one of the most obvious aspects of the rich religious spirit of Buddhism. There were perhaps two basic causes leading to the creation of the White Lotus Society on Mount Lu and Pure Land Buddhism: the trend of the times and the choice of methods of nurturing life.

Now, as to the trend of the times, the transformation of thought—underway since the Wei and Jin dynasties—and the rise of abstruse discourse, had already gone as far as it could, but it had left those seeking knowledge with no way to satisfy themselves. The contemporary style of free and broad-minded thought had influenced the minds of people in society, and they had gone from a dejected, demoralized state to one of complete excess and abandon. This had made politics even more chaotic and society even harder to stabilize and pacify. As a result, the intellectual trend of fleeing from the world was ever increasing. This was everywhere the case with the representatives of the intelligentsia—men like Tao Yuanming and Xie Lingyun. Feeling compassion for these people, the great teacher Huiyuan invited famous contemporary literati to form the White Lotus Society.

The tendency toward eremitic retreat was also an inevitable trend of the times. An example is this sad statement from a letter by Liu Yimin in response to an invitation to come to Mount Lu: “The Jin royal house does not have the solidity of a stone chime, the feelings of living creatures are as precarious as a pile of eggs.” In this we can see the general state of mind of the literati of the period, and their desire to flee the world and take refuge in Buddhism.

Ever since the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, and through the Wei and Jin dynasties, besides the abstruse discourse at the level of philosophy, the theories of the Taoist adepts on nurturing life had also been very popular in the world. The fashion for techniques of “refining the elixir” in order to seek to become a spirit immortal, and live forever without growing old was already widespread throughout the country. Dharma master Huiyuan had himself studied these Taoist arts, but he finally came to feel that they were vague and unreliable and were not the ultimate method, and so it was still necessary to search within oneself and return to the One Mind to attain the Tao. Thus, he came to a deep comprehension of the Buddhist principle of perceiving inherent emptiness via cultivating transcendent wisdom.

Having received the theories and techniques that were the bequest of the illustrious adepts Fotudeng and Dao An and as their direct successor, Huiyuan had a deep knowledge of the difficulties that would confront future people in seeking genuine realization. Thus he advocated the-method of reciting the buddha-name as a way of elevating and sublimating the spirit, as a method of cultivating practice that included people of all capacities and levels of consciousness. Even if people did not finish with birth and death in this lifetime, this method could still enable their souls to reach a transcendent realm.

The founding of the Pure Land school established the religious spirit and style of Buddhism in China. In the present day, more than a thousand years later, the phrase “Amitabha Buddha” has become a popular expression in Chinese society. No matter whether it is recited as practice to refine the mind or uttered as a casual expression, wherever we go we can hear “Amitabha Buddha” being said by Chinese people.

Kumarajiva and Sengzhao

In the period of the Later Qin dynasty in northwest China, the famous monk Kumarajiva came to China from Central Asia. His great mission was to translate the Buddhist scriptures and to disseminate the Buddhist teaching of prajna, transcendent wisdom. This was a key event in opening a channel between Chinese and Indian culture and thought, and in developing Buddhist civilization.

Among Kumarajiva's disciples were men like Sengrui and Sengzhao, who were both figures of outstanding learning and talent in contemporary China. The deep learning and dignified bearing of this teacher and his disciples deeply influenced the learned world of the Northern and Southern dynasties, and they were held in the highest esteem by their contemporaries. Especially influential was the treatise written by Sengzhao which synthesized the thought of Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Confucius with Buddhism. Sengzhao's other works, such as the treatises titled “Transcendent Wisdom is not Ordinary Knowledge” and “Nirvana Has No Name,” also proved to be famous works whose special reputation has endured through the ages in the history of Chinese philosophy and literature. The Buddhist works of Dao An and his disciple Huiyuan were also very much influenced by Kumarajiva.

Kumarajiva's coming to China was a special event in the history of Chinese culture. But the circumstances of his coming to China were very painful and bitter. Because he admired Kumarajiva's learning, Fu Jian, the lord of the Former Qin dynasty, did not shrink from sending to the west a great army under the leadership of his general Lu Guang to attack Kucha, a Central Asian citystate which was Kumarajiva's home. Later, Lu Guang heard the news that Fu Jian's army had been defeated and he took advantage of this temporary reverse in 386 to proclaim the state of Liang with himself as the monarch. Kumarajiva was then captured by Lu Guang. During the time of the Later Qin dynasty, ruled by the Yao family, which was founded in 394 when Yao Chang overthrew his former lord Fu Jian, Kumarajiva was brought to the great city of Chang'an in China's Central Plain after Lu Guang's son, Lu Long, surrendered to the Later Qin in 403. Yao Chang's son and heir, Yao Xing, invited Kumarajiva to live at Xiaoyao Garden in 405 and made him the National Teacher.

Kumarajiva and his team translated over three hundred volumes of Buddhist scriptures. About three thousand people took part in the translation work, all supported by the Yao government. Many famous monks emerged from this project, and the reputation of Buddhism grew.

We can draw four conclusions from the circumstances of Kumarajiva's coming to China to translate Buddhist texts. First, the warlords of the time were not averse to sending out armies to conquer other states and engage in repeated conflicts, all for the sake of a single scholar. This is a highly unusual event in history. Looking at the good side, it shows they held deep respect for learning and the glory of a particular teacher. From another aspect, it is also true that this only could have been done by men of a low cultural level, because this was an act of coercion through military force. Nevertheless, down through the ages, most intellectuals have tended to look down on themselves and each other. The ones that have truly honored the intellectuals and been able to appreciate their talents have been, in general, the so-called nonintellectuals. This is almost a rule of history.

Second, Kumarajiva's work of translating Buddhist scriptures was under the control of a political power and only this enabled it to have such great success. The project had a foreigner who had mastered written Chinese as its chief translator, and he worked with the help of talented Chinese scholars. Because of this, their translations of the Buddhist scriptures not only gave Chinese Buddhist texts their special characteristics, but also added another look to Chinese literary style, the look of Buddhist scriptural literature. The language of these scriptures was the vernacular language created at that time; it is only when modern-day people read it that it seems ancient.

Third, before Kumarajiva, the dissemination of Buddhism had often depended on demonstrations of the teaching through the display of spiritual powers. Only when Kumarajiva came to China was Buddhist philosophy put on a par with Confucianism and Taoism. Only then did it become a major stream in Chinese culture and learning. Only after Kumarajiva did the learning of the three schools of thought, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, come to form the totality of Chinese civilization.

Finally, because of the influence of Kumarajiva, the number of people leaving home to become Buddhist monks and nuns increased. They varied in quality and many were unruly. This impelled the Later Qin government to establish monk-officials to oversee the congregations of monks. Later, this was taken as a precedent for the system of monk-officials instituted by the Sui and Tang dynasties and continued down through the ages in China.

Daosheng, Nirvana, and Buddha-nature

In this period, Buddhism had been transmitted into China from the northwest, via the Buddhist city-states of Central Asia. The center of Chinese civilization was still in the zone north and south of the Yellow River. Learning and thought in southern China still remained within the confines of Laozi and Zhuangzi, Confucius and Mencius. Moreover, all the Buddhist scriptures had still not been translated. For example, at this time, only half of the Nirvana Sutra had been translated.

Many contemporary Chinese adherents of Buddhism had the idea that sentient beings, with their extreme evil and serious wrongdoings, could not become buddhas. At that time the Dharma teacher Daosheng (d. 424) had studied Buddhist philosophy deeply and he thought that this idea was due to an incomplete knowledge of Buddhist principles and that it was not the complete teaching of Buddhism. He proclaimed that, even with their extremely evil and serious wrongdoings, sentient beings still possess buddha-nature and that, when they repented of their sins and renewed themselves, they could become buddhas. He was the first advocate of the idea of “becoming a buddha through sudden enlightenment.”

Because of these ideas, Daosheng was attacked by most of the followers of Buddhism. He could not remain in the north, so he went to southern China and lived in hiding on Huqiu Mountain, preaching the Dharma to the rocks. The expression, “When Master Daosheng preached the Dharma, the rocks nodded their heads,” refers to the story of Dharma teacher Daosheng explaining the sutras while alone in the mountains. Later, when a full translation of the Nirvana Sutra was completed, there was at last proof that what Daosheng had said about all sentient beings having buddha-nature was not wrong.

The source of Daosheng's thought was really still inspired by the three mystic studies of the Book of Changes, Laozi, and Zhuangzi. This also makes it obvious that, at that time, Buddhist thought and Chinese culture were drawing on each other's discoveries and that they had already reached a state of interpenetration.

THE HEYDAY OF CHINESE BUDDHISM

From the late Han dynasty, through the Wei and Jin dynasties, and into the Northern and Southern dynasties period, the fashion in learned thought turned away from the simplicity of the Han dynasty philosophy and everywhere tended toward metaphysical pursuits. Thus in this period, both Buddhist and Taoist religious learning developed more and more. Confucianism vacillated between Buddhist and Taoist influences. Moreover, because of the elevation of monarchical authority in the Northern and Southern dynasties and the fact that many of the rulers of those dynasties patronized Buddhism, Buddhism came to be held in high esteem both at court and throughout the countryside, a high esteem that could scarcely have been added to.

Nevertheless, from the time of the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties (A.D. 265-420), into the Sui and Tang period (A.D. 580-900), though Chinese Buddhism still mostly followed the patterns of Indian Buddhism, it was being subjected to the influences of Chinese civilization and was in the midst of a process of gradual transformation.

The Sui and Tang Periods

In the time of Liang Wudi (Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty who reigned over southern China from 502 to 549), Buddhism was particularly flourishing, thanks to that monarch's religious beliefs. Liang Wudi believed in both Buddhism and Taoism, but he was particularly fond of Buddhism. These Buddhist temples and monasteries sprang up in great numbers all over southern China. Buddhist temples were built at most of the famous mountains and scenic places.

Thus we read, in the Tang dynasty poet Tu Mu's verse on Spring in Jiangnan, the famous lines:

Four hundred and eighty temples in the South

So many towers and platforms in the mist and rain.

Even so, this passage is only referring to the Buddhist temples in the region around the Yangzi River; it does not include the Buddhist buildings in the Yellow River Valley. Rather than characterize the culture and thought of the Northern and Southern dynasties period according to the usual term “Dark Learning” (that is, abstruse metaphysics), it would be more accurate to say that this was a period of religious culture and thought.

In the time of Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty and Emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei dynasty (r. 499-515), the Indian monk, Bodhidharma, arrived by sea in Guangdong. Bodhidharma was the Twenty-Eighth Patriarch of Indian Buddhism's special transmission outside the scriptural teachings: the Zen school. Having come east to China, Bodhidharma had an interview with Liang Wudi, but the two did not reach accord. So Bodhidharma crossed the Yangzi River and traveled to northern China. He lived in seclusion in Shaolin Temple on Mount Song and sat for nine years facing a wall. This was the beginning of the transmission of Zen into China.

From the early Tang onward (seventh century A.D.), the Zen school flourished greatly, transforming Buddhism in China into a purely Chinese form of Buddhism. We can say that the great teacher Huiyuan's founding of the Pure Land school and Bodhidharma's transmitting of the Zen school were two great events in the history of Chinese Buddhism.

The interaction of political factors and their impact on learning and philosophical thought had plunged China's historical culture into an extremely confused situation during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. Against this background, Wang Tong, in his lectures in northern China, had propounded a system of thought that brought together Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism and established the basis for Tang culture from the early Tang period on.

In this same period, the great teacher Zhiyi (538-597) formally established the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism. He used meditative cessation and contemplation as the methods of genuine Buddhist realization. Using the systematic categories of three kinds of cessation and three kinds of contemplation, correlated with the three meditation perspectives of emptiness, provisional existence, and the mean between them, Zhiyi brought together the whole of Buddhist theory. He started the practice of categorizing and classifying the scriptural teachings and gave the first critical treatment of the Buddhist legacy of teachings. Zhiyi composed the book Moho Zhiguan, The Great Cessation and Contemplation. This great work is surely the first comprehensive guide to Buddhism written in China. The second such great comprehensive guide was the Zong Jing Lu, The Source Mirror Record, written later by Zen master Yongming Yanshou (d. 975) during the Song dynasty.

The Founding of the Tang Dynasty

The Tang dynasty was founded by the heroism and strategic brilliance of Tang Taizong, assisted by his ministers and generals at the beginning of the dynasty. Most of them were talented men of broad knowledge who had, in addition, absorbed the political experience and painful lessons of the preceding Six Dynasties period.

The attitude of the founders of the dynasty toward religion was one of uniform tolerance, no matter whether toward Buddhism, Taoism, or even Nestorian Christianity and spirit cults. They allowed everyone in the country, from high to low, freedom of religious belief. In the government's system to oversee religion, there was an officer called the seng-zheng for the Buddhist clergy and an officer called the dao-lu for the Taoist clergy. These were the Tang dynasty equivalents of the specialized oversight departments previously established for each religion.

The single greatest event in Chinese cultural history and the history of Chinese Buddhism in this period was the great teacher Xuanzang's pilgrimage to India and his return to China. Tang Taizong established a translation institute for him and gathered together several thousand learned monks and noted literati to take part in the work of translating the Buddhist texts which Xuanzang had brought back with him from India.

On one hand, Tang Taizong did his utmost to promote Taoism as a religion whose founder was a member of his own clan. (Taoists revered Laozi as the founder of their religion. Laozi's surname was Li, the same as the Tang royal family; Tang Taizong's personal name was Li Shimin.) On the other hand, Tang Taizong also had sincere faith in the message of Buddhism. He gready respected the great teacher Xuanzang and many times urged him to return to lay life so he could serve as an imperial minister, but Xuanzang always declined. The great teacher Xuanzang's work of spreading Yogacara philosophy on a wide scale caused a great dissemination of later Indian Buddhist philosophy and the Mahayana and Hinayana scriptures throughout Chinese Buddhism and Chinese culture.

At the same time, the Indian teacher known in Chinese as Xianshou Fazang reached China, and the teachings of the Huayan school were established within Chinese Buddhism and flourished greatly. Coming after the Tiantai school's categorization of the Buddhist teachings, a second classification of the totality of Buddhist principles was carried out based on the viewpoint of the Huayan school.

Soon after this, Dharma teacher Daoxuan energetically promoted the Vinaya school, and this established and strengthened the foundation of the codes of discipline and the system of regulations for Chinese Buddhism.

Following upon these developments, various Buddhist schools sprang to life, like the school based on the three Mahdyamika treatises, the school based on the Abhidharma-kosha, and the school based on the Satyasiddhi Shastra. These all vied with each other, producing many wondrous offshoots, each giving rise to its own theoretical system. Thus the ten schools of Tang Buddhism took shape, as shown on the following list.

PURE LAND SCHOOL

Indian founders: The bodhisattvas Ashvagosha, Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, and others.

Chinese founder: Huiyuan.

Date of founding: Eastern Jin period (C.A.D. 400).

Principal scriptures: Infinite Life Sutra, Contemplation of Amitabha Sutra, Amitabha Sutra, Treatise on Birth in the Pure Land, Treatise on the Awakening of Faith in Mahayana.

Main teaching: Its method of cultivating realization is to focus the mind on buddha-remembrance through reciting the buddhaname, and thus be reborn in Amitabha's land of ultimate bliss in the West.

VINAYA SCHOOL

Indian founders: The main focus is the vinaya section of the teachings spoken by Buddha, so the first patriarch of the school is considered to be the Venerable Upali, who was the foremost of Buddha's disciples in upholding the vinaya, the precepts of discipline.

Teachers in China: The start of the practice of accepting the precepts in China was when Chinese monks accepted the Dharma from the Indian monk Dharmakala (Chinese: Fashi).

Date of founding: Second year of the Jiaping era of the Wei dynasty (A.D. 250).

Principal scriptures: The Four-part Vinaya, the Five-part Vinaya, the Ten Verses on the Vinaya, etc.

Main teaching: To realize sagehood by upholding the precepts of discipline using the vinaya studies of both Hinayana and Mahayana.

TIANTAI SCHOOL

Chinese founders: Founded by Huiwen and his disciple Zhiyi.

Date of founding: The period of the Northern Qi and Sui dynasties (late sixth century A.D.).

Principal scriptures: Lotus Sutra as the main basis, The Great Perfection of Wisdom Shastra as the guide, the Nirvana Sutra as the support, and The Greater Perfection of Wisdom Sutra for methods of contemplation.

Main teaching: The One Vehicle, the vehicle of attaining buddhahood, as the main principle; the three forms of cessation and contemplation correlated with the meditation perspectives of emptiness, provisional existence, and the mean as the method of cultivating realization.

SATYASIDDHI SCHOOL

Indian founder: Harivarman.

Teacher in China: Dharma founder Kumarajiva spread it.

Date of founding: Thirteenth year of the Hongshi era of the Later Qin.

Principal scriptures: It made use of the best of the Hinayana scriptures and the Satyasiddhi Shastra written by Harivarman.

Main teaching: With the Satyasiddhi Shastra furnishing the guiding principles, it taught a progression of steps of cultivating realization through twenty-seven stations.

THREE TREATISES SCHOOL (SAN-LUN)

Indian founder: The bodhisattva Nagarjuna.

Chinese founder: Kumarajiva.

Date of founding: Later Qin period (384-417).

Principal scriptures: Madhyamika Shastra, Shata Shastra, and The Dvadashanikaya Shastra by the bodhisattva Deva.

Main teaching: Refutes clinging to the absolute and conventional truths, and reveals the truths of emptiness, existence, and non-abiding.

ABHIDHARMAKOSHA SCHOOL

Indian founders: The bodhisattva Vasubandhu and the shastra master Sthiramati.

Teachers in China: Paramartha Tripitaka and Xuanzang.

Date of founding: In the fourth year of the Tianjia period of Emperor Wen of the Chen dynasty (A.D. 563) Paramartha translated the old edition of the Abhidharmakosha, in the seventh year of the Zhenguan era of Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty (633) Xuanzang translated the new edition of the Abhidharmakosha.

Principal scriptures: The four Agama-sutras as the main texts, The Abhidharmakosha Shastra as the correct basis, and in addition, such treatises as the Vibhasha Shastra, the Abhidharma Mind Shastra, the Abhidharma Mind Shastra with Interpolated Commentary, and so on.

Main teaching: The main teaching was based on the Abhidharmakosha Shastra by the bodhisattva Vasubandhu, translated by Xuanzang, It posited seventy-five basic dharmas to encompass the principles of such phenomena as mind and form and so on.

ZEN SCHOOL

Indian founders: (Buddha's disciple) the Venerable Mahakashyapa.

Chinese founder: Bodhidharma.

Date of founding: In the period of the Liang and Sui dynasties (sixth century A.D.).

Principal scriptures: Lankavatara Sutra, and Diamond Sutra.

Main teaching: The Zen teaching was a separate transmission outside the scriptural teachings that did not posit any written texts as sacred; Zen pointed directly to the human mind to enable people to see their real nature and become buddhas.

HUAYAN / AVATAMSAKA SCHOOL

Chinese founders: Founded by master Dushun, it was spread by the great teacher Xianshou Fazang, so it was also called the Xianshou School.

Date of founding: In the period of the Chen and Sui dynasties (second half of the sixth century A.D.).

Principal scriptures: Huayan / Avatamsaka Sutra.

Main teaching: The teaching of the school was based on the four realms of reality and the ten mysterious gates set forth in the Huayan Sutra.

FAXIANG / YOGACARA SCHOOL

Indian founders: The bodhisattvas Maitreya and Asanga.

Chinese founders: Dharma teacher Xuanzang caused it to flourish in China.

Date of founding: In the reign of Tang Taizong (627-649).

Principal scriptures: Its main texts were six sutras and eleven shastras. The six sutras were: the Avatamsaka Sutra, Sandhinirmocana Sutra, Sutra of the Tathagata's Manifestation of Meritorious Qualities and Adornments, Abhidharma Sutra, Lankavatara Sutra, and Sutra of the Pure Land of Vairocana Buddha.

Main teaching: To explain the subtle truth that all perceived phenomena are only the representations of consciousness.

TANTRA / ESOTERIC SCHOOL

Indian founder: The bodhisattva Nagarjuna.

Founders in China: In the Tang period Subhakarasimha, Vajrajnana, and Amogha Tripitaka came to China to propagate it.

Esoteric Buddhism is also divided into an Eastern branch transmitted to Japan from China in the Tang period, and a Tibetan branch, which was propagated by the great teacher Padmasambhava who entered Tibet from India.

Date of founding: Early Tang period (seventh century A.D.).

Principal scriptures: The basic scriptures are the Vairocana Sutra and Diamond Crown Sutra.

Main teaching: It is also called the True Word school (because of its use of mantras). It posits ten stations of stabilizing the mind to include its various teachings, and sets up mandalas, and the three esoteric correspondences of body, mouth, and mind (with dharmakaya buddha by means of mudras, mantras, and contemplation of truth), by which practitioners can move from the state of ordinary humans to enter sagehood.

The Zen School's Change of System

Due to the breadth and vigor of culture and thought in the early Tang period, many famous monks who were Buddhist scholars appeared. They all had the talent to achieve great things, and they set to work on the task of propagating Buddhism on a wide scale. The credit for really making Chinese Buddhism develop must be given to these Tang dynasty figures. By the time of Emperor Tang Gaozong (r. 650-683) and Empress Wu Zetian (r. 684-704), just when learned Buddhist monks were reaching an impasse in their work of composing learned commentaries on the Buddhist scriptures, many noted Buddhist scholars were developing purely theoretical accounts of Buddhism and were leading each other into a labyrinth of Yogacara studies.

At that moment, the Zen school suddenly rose to prominence, taking as its standard the special transmission outside the verbal teachings, which did not establish any written texts, but instead directly pointed to the human mind to enable people to see their true nature and become buddhas. This corresponded exceedingly well to the direct simplicity of the Chinese people and to the need for genuineness and honesty in Tang dynasty thought and learning. Against a background where scholarly Buddhists were to be found everywhere, the Zen school brought forth a great adept who was an unlettered man, Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch. At Caoqi in Guangdong Province, he vigorously propagated the message of seeing true nature and becoming enlightened without setting up texts as sacred to the society of the common people.

At the same time, his fellow student Shenxiu was at Empress Wu Zetian's court, in the honored position of National Teacher, spreading the Zen school's Buddha Dharma among the social elite. Shenxiu's scholarly attainments were very good. He made gradual cultivation the main principle of his Zen teaching. Because of the high esteem he received from the Tang courtiers and grandees, the study of Zen became very widespread among the intellectuals who were part of the government.

Huineng's branch of Zen took sudden enlightenment as its main principle. Because Huineng was born among the common people and did not rely on written texts, he always used common colloquial speech when he explained the Dharma. Buddhist doctrine, which is so lofty and profound and hard to understand, he stripped totally of its pedantic trappings, transforming it into a purely popular philosophy of the common people. By this means, he enabled the influence of the Zen school to spread far and wide, with the transformative power described in the Chinese saying, “When the wind moves, the grasses bend down.”

The influence of the two brother teachers, Shenxiu and Huineng, at the imperial court, and throughout the countryside, formed two immense criss-crossing currents running up and down China through the north and south during the early Tang period. They spontaneously gave impetus to the transformation in learned thought in their own time and achieved splendid success breaking fresh ground.

The branch of Zen that came through the great teacher Huineng later became popular throughout the whole country. We can only say emphatically, quoting the famous verse:

Look at the territory of the house of Tang

The whole of it is the realm of the Zen school.

In the third generation of the transmission after Huineng, there was Zen master Mazu Daoyi and his disciple, Zen master Baizhang. These two men boldly changed the prevailing monastic system and transformed the guidelines that had been in force ever since Buddhism entered China. Thus they created a truly Chinese style monastic system. At the time, Baizhang and his disciples were reviled by other followers of Buddhism as monks who had broken the precepts of discipline, and they were bitterly slandered and criticized. Litde did their opponents know that it was because of the system devised by Baizhang that Buddhism was able to be transmitted for such a long time thereafter. This system of guidelines has been handed down through time to the present and is followed by Buddhist temples and monasteries both within China and abroad. Moreover, this system influenced later Chinese society and its political system, and played a very great role in both.

There are four special characteristics of the Zen monastic system:

1. It transformed the Buddhist sangha from a dependent community that lived by begging, to a self-sufficient economic system of collective agricultural production.
2. It focused on the cultivation of practice and used a system of teachers to lead and guide students so that they worked on a Buddhism of genuine realization in which knowledge and practice were unified.
3. It eliminated stiff and inflexible superstitious religious formalism. Its goal was a collective process of teaching and learning, using real practice with body and mind to seek realization in order to achieve the equality of mind and buddha and complete both human nature and buddha-nature.
4. It replaced the Indianized forms of discipline with a set of rules, the Pure Rules of Baizhang, which suited Chinese culture and Chinese conditions and set moral standards for both collective and individual conduct.

Thus the great Song dynasty Confucian, Cheng Yi, acclaimed Baizhang's Pure Rules, saying: “The rites and music of the Three Dynasties [which Confucians consider the paradigm of correct culture] are all in this.” The general opinion is that the rise of Huineng's school of Zen was a revolution in Buddhism. In reality, the honor of a truly revolutionary event in Buddhist history must be assigned to Zen master Baizhang's changing of the monastic system.

The Rise of Esoteric Buddhism

The rise of the Zen school made Tang-period Buddhism become a purely rationalistic religion and changed it into a mighty current within Chinese civilization. But beyond this, in the early Tang period, Esoteric Buddhism, that is, Tantric Buddhism, was transmitted from northern India into Tibet. In the middle Tang period, Esoteric Buddhism was transmitted to China from southern and central India. This too represented a major change in Chinese Buddhist history.

Based on comparatively reliable historical facts, the rise of Tantra within Indian Buddhism was really a teaching that belonged to the late period of Buddhism there. It synthesized the Madhayamika school's contemplation of the mean between emptiness and provisional existence by means of prajna (transcendent wisdom), with the theories of Yogacara Buddhism, and fused this with the techniques of cultivating practice of Brahmanism and Yoga that were already present in India. The religious sect that was formed in this way, by combining ancient and modern methods of cultivating realization, was very different from the method of cultivating realization that Shakyamuni Buddha had taught when he was in the world.

The development of Tantric Buddhism is an extremely complex and intricate issue that is impossible to address fully in a few words. The development of Tantra in Tibet can be summarized as follows. In the period when Tang Taizong was founding the Tang dynasty, the king of Tibet, Srongtsen Gampo (617-698), wanted to spread civilization within his territory. Due to a momentary lapse in judgment by Tang Taizong's state minister, Fang Xuan-ling, the Tibetan king's request for instruction in Chinese culture was not granted. Other than the few Buddhist scriptures and images that the Chinese Princess Wencheng brought with her when she was sent to marry the Tibetan king, and the several Taoist priests and others who accompanied her to Tibet, the Chinese never gave the Tibetans any instructions in their civilization.

A political measure is not only a “grand strategy for a hundred years.” Policy makers must at the same time take note of the effect their decisions will have down through the ages. Only then can they make an objective judgment of the results in terms of success or failure that historians and the readers of history in later generations will see from their policies.

Due to this decision by the Tang government not to instruct Tibet in Chinese culture, Tibet turned toward India and asked the Indians to spread their civilization to Tibet. First, the Tibetan king invited several famous Indian monks to come to Tibet. They began to spread Buddhist civilization and devised a system for writing Tibetan based on Sanskrit. After this, the great Tantric teacher Pad-masambhava (eighth century) came to Tibet and propagated the teachings of Tantric Buddhism there. Thus, from the Tang period onward, Tibet became a totally Tantric Buddhist land. It also developed into a special country where politics and religion were joined together.

Through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing periods in China (10th to 19th centuries), the transmission of Tantric Buddhism in Tibet never declined. Although in all this time, there were inevitably sectarian divisions within Tibetan Buddhism, nevertheless its wholly Tantric form was never altered very much. This high plateau north of the Himalaya Mountains thus became Buddhist civilization's Shangrila for more than fourteen hundred years. This must be considered a unique event in the history of the East.

Tantric Buddhism in Tibet started with the Nyingmapa, the Red Hat School. Later it split into the Kagyudpa and the Sakyapa sects. Around the turn of the 14th century, Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) appeared. He was a native of the northern area of the Tibetan world, known in Chinese as Qinghai. In his youth, he became a monk in Tibet and, after he completed his studies, he founded the Gelugpa, the Yellow Hat School. Later, his four great disciples and their reincarnated successors down through the generations were active in the various regions of Mongolia and Tibet and spread their teaching there. The Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama both became Dharma Kings, who combined both religious and political authority and guided the government in Tibet with religious teachings. In Inner and Outer Mongolia, the reincarnated lamas known as the Jangjia and the Jebtsundampa continued the same Dharma tradition through the generations by the system of succession through reincarnation. But they also received tides from the Chinese imperial house down through the generations and were honored as khutughtu, which has the meaning of great teacher and living buddha.

Now let us turn toward the development of Tantric Buddhism in China itself. During the time of Tang Xuanzong (r. 713-755), the Indian Tantric teachers Subhakarasimha, Vajrajnana, and Amogha Tripitaka brought the Tantric teaching to China. Through the ages, they have been called the three inahasattvas of the Kaiyuan period (Xuanzong's reign period). They all had certain spiritual powers which aided them in spreading the teaching. At that time, apart from the Zen school, esoteric Tantric Buddhism was the richest in mystical coloration and the most novel and stimulating form of the teaching. Therefore, both at the capital and in the countryside, people eagerly practiced it and, before long, it had become popular in the various regions of China.

Khubilai Khan (r. 1277-1294), of the Yuan dynasty, the Mongol dynasty that ruled China, revered as the National Teacher Phagspa (1235-1280), a great Tantric Buddhist teacher of the Tibetan Sakyapa sect. At the time, Phagspa was only a youth of fifteen. Not only was he very learned, but he also worked many striking miracles. Based on the Tibetan script, he devised a writing system for the Mongolian language. When Khubilai ruled China, he made Tantric Buddhism the national religion. This went so far that all the Yuan dynasty emperors after Khubilai had to undergo a rite of being initiated by Tibetan lamas before their coronation.

Given the imperial Mongol patronage of Tibetan lamas, corrupt forms of Tantra became popular at court and among the people, and spread everywhere. Both the Zen school and the other sects of Buddhism in China were greatly influenced by this. It was for this reason that the famous Zen master of the late Song dynasty, Gaofeng Miao, publicly announced that he was going into seclusion until his death and would never set foot again outside his mountain retreat. During the Yongle period (1403-1424) at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, which had overthrown the Mongol Yuan dynasty, the Chinese government decided that esoteric Tantric Buddhism was not an orthodox path and adopted the policy of expelling all Tibetan lamas from the court.

The Tantric teaching that the three mahasattvas of the Kaiyuan period had brought to China was then spread to Japan. In China, this is usually called “Eastern Tantra.” The Japanese term for esoteric Buddhism is Mikkyo. Because of the reform of Tibetan Tantra carried out by the great teacher Tsongkhapa, the guidelines of the Yellow Hat School were established throughout Tibet. The original form of the Tantric teaching was still widespread only in the border region between Xikang and Tibet. In China, this is usually called “Tibetan Tantra.”

The Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Periods

In the period from the middle Tang to the Five Dynasties (c. 750-960), Chinese philosophical thought, literary style, arts, and Chinese life itself, were all molded by the pattern and flavor of the Zen school.

As for the Zen school itself, in the middle and late Tang and the Five Dynasties periods, the Five Houses of Zen were established, each with its own method of teaching. The Five Houses were the Linji school, the Caotong school, the Yunmen school, the Guiyang school, and the Fayan school.

During this period, the Zen school's spirit of learning and the influence of its thought was on a par with that of the Dark Learning philosophy of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. Many of the most talented people went into Zen and studied Buddhism. Naturally, there was a background of many political and social factors that produced this trend at that time.

When the Song Confucian savant Ouyang Xiu was passing judgment on the Five Dynasties period (c. 900-960), his opinion was that there were no men of talent at that time. Ouyang Xiu's contemporary, the great reformer Wang Anshi, on the other hand, thought that Ouyang Xiu's viewpoint was incorrect. He said that the talented people of the Five Dynasties period had all become enmeshed in Zen. This is closer to the truth.

Given this background, during the period of the founding and consolidation of the Song dynasty late in the 10th and early 11th centuries, Confucianism underwent a major transformation. This was promoted by such figures as Zhao Kuangyin, the founder of the dynasty known to history as Song Taizu, and his state minister Zhao Pu, and later by men such as the noted scholar-official Fan Zhongyan. The 11th century witnessed the rise of such men as the five great Neo-Confucian philosophers Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Shao Yong, Cheng Hao, and Cheng Yi. All this signified the reversal of a long-standing accumulation of defects in a tradition of culture and thought.

The Confucianized Buddhism of the Song Period

The Song dynasty Neo-Confucians had been inspired by such figures as Han Yu and Li Ao in the Tang dynasty, and been guided by Ouyang Xiu and others. They emerged suddenly, claiming to be the direct heirs of the essential teachings on mind of Confucius and Mencius after an interval of more than a thousand years. They raised their own standard apart from the Confucianism that had existed from the Han through the Tang periods. We need not hesitate to state that the Song Confucians had been subjected to the influences of the Zen school and had absorbed a portion of the thought of Laozi and Zhuangzi: only in this way could the new face of Song-dynasty Confucianism have been created.

To put the matter another way, Song-period Buddhism had already entered Confucianism via Zen. To produce Neo-Confucian-ism, known in Chinese as Li-xue, “the Study of the Inner Design,” on the basis of Zen, was a necessary development in the history of Chinese culture and the result of the fusion between Buddhist civilization and Chinese civilization. Although Buddhism had already become Chinese Buddhism over the centuries from the late Han period, through the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties, Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties, nevertheless, throughout this historical process, there had been ceaseless competition among Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism for position in the learned world and a continuous development of the way of thinking that recognized that all three teachings had a common source. By the late Southern Song period (13th century), the great teachers of the Zen school often discussed Confucian principles, and the signs of the Confucianization of Buddhism and the Buddhization of Confucianism were already extremely obvious. Thus we can say that the creation of Song-dynasty Neo-Confucianism had already been coming for a long time. Its inauguration by the five great Confucian philosophers of the 11th century was only its formal beginning.

Tantric Buddhism in the Yuan Dynasty

The influence of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism was extended by the military and political power of the Yuan dynasty, and it penetrated everywhere throughout China. Possessing special powers over religion, the Tibetan lamas, patronized by the Mongol nobility, dreamed of a situation where politics and religion were merged. All the other sects of Buddhism in China were greatly demoralized by this. From this point on, the various sects of Buddhism lost much of their original energy and were almost unable to recover. Only the Zen school, under the aegis of its monastic system, was still able to keep an enfeebled version of its traditional succession going.

Buddhism in the Ming Dynasty

The Ming dynasty inherited the remnants of the Yuan dynasty system in many areas: military, political, and religious. In the Yongle period (1403-1424), the Emperor ordered the expulsion of the Tibetan lamas and their version of Tantric Buddhism. But ever since the Song dynasty, Neo-Confucianism had entered deeply into the intellectual stratum. Moreover, the Ming dynasty political authorities promoted Confucianism and the anti-Buddhist Song Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi's commentaries on the Confucian classics, and made this the route of advancement for the gentry, via the official examinations. During the three centuries of the Ming dynasty, it was hard for the Zen school, which was the only form of Buddhism with any authority and prestige, to compete with Neo-Confucianism on even terms. The Zen school stayed complacent in its old ways and its traditions remained unbroken. In the later years of the Ming dynasty, the Wang Yangming school of Neo-Confucianism became very popular. Buddhism was weak in talented people and the Buddhist sangha was of uneven quality. Thus, it was impossible for Buddhism to regain the prestige it had had in the Tang and Song periods.

Then in the Wanli years (1573-1619), four illustrious Buddhist monks appeared one after another: Hanshan, Zibo, Zhuhong, and Ouyi. In Buddhist circles, these men are known as the four great teachers of the late Ming. All of them were deeply versed in Confucian learning. The Buddhist thought that they promoted stressed the joint study of Confucianism and Buddhism as teachings that mutually reinforced each other.

The great teacher Hanshan became too eminent and got dragged into the controversy within the imperial family over the installation of the crown prince. He was defrocked and sent into exile in Chaozhou, on Hainan Island. His disciples collected what he had written over his lifetime and made an edition of his complete works, entitled The Dream Wanderings Collection. In it, there are things like Buddhist commentaries on Confucian classics such as The Great Learning and The Doctrine of The Mean, and on Taoist classics like Laozi and Zhuangzi.

The great teachers Zhuhong and Ouyi devoted themselves to propagating Pure Land Buddhism. Among Ouyi's works, there are also Buddhist commentaries on Confucian classics like The Analects and the Book of Changes. As to the monk, Zibo, he was implicated in the factional conflict that arose over the issue of installing the crown prince and died in prison.

The fate of Buddhism in the late Ming period was that of continual decline, which went along with the decline of the imperial house. In the transition between the Ming and Qing (in the mid-17th century), there was a monk named Cangxue who was a famous poet. He became a secret friend outside official circles to many of the Ming loyalists at the end of the dynasty who refused to switch allegiance to the new masters, the Manchu founders of the Qing dynasty, and secretly aided their movement to reorder and restore the Ming ruling house.

The Decline of Buddhism in the Qing Period

When the Manchu founders of the Qing dynasty first entered China proper, the patriarch of the Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Tantra, the Fifth Dalai Lama, had already made a secret pact with them. In order to immobilize the Mongols and unite the power of the Mongols with their own, the Manchus had already professed their adherence to the Jangjia Khutughtu, one of the principal leaders of Mongol Buddhism. Thus, when the Manchus came into China, from 1644 on, they enfeoffed both the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama and venerated the Fourteenth Jangjia as their National Teacher. The first two Qing dynasty emperors, the Shunzhi Emperor and the Kangxi Emperor who reigned from 1644 to 1722, both had close links with the Tantric Buddhism of Mongolia and Tibet. Though the Shunzhi Emperor also studied Zen from the National Teacher Yulin, this did not make him change his policy of maintaining close ties with the lamas and venerating Tantric Buddhism. Regardless of whether it was out of political necessity or religious conviction, the early Qing rulers were inclined toward Tantric Buddhism.

When the third Qing emperor, the Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723-1735), was in the border regions, before he ascended the throne, he had had contact with Zen master Jialing Xingyin and others, and he had intently studied Zen for quite a while. Thinking that he was already greatly enlightened, the future emperor decided that Xingyin's Zen was not good enough and he transferred his allegiance to the Fourteenth Jangjia, the National Teacher. He said that Jangjia was a man who had seen the Path, a man who had true wisdom and clear perception.

When he came to the throne, the Yongzheng Emperor used his venerated status as imperial monarch to lead Buddhist monks and Taoist priests to study Zen inside the imperial palace. The Emperor gave himself the sobriquet of “Buddhist Layman of Perfect Illumination” and acted as the great Zen teacher of the age. Several times, he issued edicts to promote the Linji school of Zen, and he ordered the abolition of the Dharma line of Zen master Hanyue Cang, which was an offshoot of the lineage of Zen master Miyun Wu of the late Ming. The Yongzheng Emperor issued a command stating that all the Zen teachers in the empire could freely seek him out to discuss the Zen path, and that he would not rely on his imperial status in his dealings with them. At the same time, he sent down another edict stating that Buddhist monks should not study literary composition or poetry, and that their duty was to devote themselves wholeheartedly to cultivating the Path.

The story goes that it was the Yongzheng Emperor who instituted the practice by which Chinese Buddhist monks burned a scar to symbolize discipline on the top of their heads when they accepted the precepts. Because the Yongzheng Emperor believed in Buddhism, he exercised his compassion and permitted anyone in the empire, whether gentry or commoner, to leave home at will to become a monk. But he was afraid that people still loyal to the Ming dynasty would hide in the Buddhist sangha and inevitably persist in their efforts to revive the fallen Ming dynasty. So he instituted the practice of having would-be monks burn a scar on their heads, so monks could truly be recognized as such, and so to prevent people from entering the sangha under false pretenses, thus bringing confusion to the source. Whether this was deliberate or not is hard to determine at present from the textual evidence. But this lifted the strict early Qing prohibition on Buddhists leaving home to become monks, so at least it can be said that the Yongzheng Emperor was being strict with the sangha out of his love for it.

In the Qianlong period (1736-1795), continuing the traditional practice of the Qing imperial house, the Emperor sincerely believed in Buddhism and specialized in cultivating the techniques of Tantric Buddhism. When he abdicated the throne and went into retirement, his zeal for Tantra increased even more and he kept on chanting mantras right up until his death.

During the Jiaqing period (1796-1820), with the gradual spread of European influences in East Asia, Western culture, thought, and religious groups all arrived together. Under the impact of the trends of the times, the fate of Buddhism was greatly transformed.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

The three centuries after Buddhism entered China, from the late Han dynasty through the Wei and Jin dynasties and the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties, can be called a time when Chinese learned thought began to flow in new channels. It could also be said that this caused Chinese learned thought to undergo a rather long period of dissension and dispute. But throughout Chinese history, Buddhism never functioned as a direct influence on politics.

During the Sui-Tang period, there were many disputes over the learned standing and dignity of Buddhist teachers. The outcome was that it was acknowledged by the imperial political authorities that Buddhist monks, by virtue of their religious status, would always be treated with the etiquette due to teachers, so that, in audiences with the emperor, they could present their salutations and carry on dialogues without kneeling and bowing down. This tradition continued until the end of the Qing dynasty in the early 20th century.

In the early period of Buddhism in China, many talented people came forth from the Buddhist ranks. This was especially true in the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, and Song periods, when, generation after generation, the eminent monks were all outstanding figures with broad learning and deep comprehension. At the height of the Tang dynasty, there were several times when official examinations were held on the Buddhist sutras and shastra in order to select monks. The historical records that tell how such and such a monk was ordained because of his success in examinations on the scriptures reflect this system. Thus, the Buddhist sangha was of comparatively excellent quality.

But during the time of Empress Wu Zetian (r. 684-704) and Emperor Xuanzong (r. 713-755), the imperial government resorted to the sale of ordination certificates (credentials that gave permission to become monks and nuns) to supplement its finances and meet expenses. This was like the granting of official rank in return for “contributions” during the late Qing dynasty.

To sum up the role of Buddhism in Chinese political history, because the eminent monks emphasized their work of religious teaching, they never meddled in politics. Thus they were always honored and respected and the government allowed the people freedom of religious belief.

Although four brief but intense government campaigns against Buddhism occurred in Chinese Buddhist history, during the Northern and Southern dynasties and the Tang dynasty, if we carefully study their history and assess them in all fairness, these were not due to the political considerations of the monarchs who launched them, nor were they purely religious conflicts. Rather, there were indeed many problems among the Buddhists themselves at the times when these persecutions occurred. For example, the famous Tang dynasty Confucian Han Yu attacked Buddhism. But if we carefully investigate the historical facts and the thoughts expressed in the essays he left behind, rather than say that Han Yu's idea was to rigorously eliminate Buddhism, it would be better to say that his anti-Buddhist feelings had been aroused by the way in which the Buddhists themselves were acting. Of course, this misconduct by Buddhists was one of the major factors behind the political measures he advocated. But Han Yu had friendships with famous Buddhist monks like Zen master Dadian and others. This, too, is a fact. It is obvious that, in assessing events and people, it is very hard to pass judgment lightly, and we cannot be in a hurry to follow received opinions.

On the other hand, when Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty persecuted Buddhism in 1119, this was indeed entirely due to the influence exercised over him by certain Taoists. But apart from this, throughout Chinese history, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism waxed and waned in complementary cycles, with one rising as the other two declined in vigor. Together they formed the mighty current of Chinese culture and thought, which included all three teachings.

As for Buddhist thought, it was the style of the Zen school above all that made the greatest contribution and had the greatest influence on Chinese civilization. Its achievements were too numerous to count and its beauties were utterly dazzling. In politics, in social organization, in philosophy, in literature, in architecture, in painting and sculpture, and even in the art of living of the Chinese people, the traces of Zen Buddhism are everywhere. The influence of Zen in Japan was even greater.

Let us mention a few of the contributions of Buddhism to learning and literature in China:

During the Wei dynasty, ruled by the Cao family, in the third century A.D., Cao Zijian heard the sounds of Sanskrit and this caused him to write Yushan Fanchang, a work that broke fresh ground in the Chinese study of phonology and music.

The Buddhist translator Kumarajiva's Chinese disciples, early in the fifth century, created the Chinese Buddhist literary style.

In the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties (fifth and sixth centuries), eminent Buddhist monks engaged in the task of translating the Buddhist scriptures invented the fan-qie method of indicating the sounds of Chinese characters by combining the initial sound of one already known character with the final sound of another already known character. This was the start of Chinese phonology, and the fan-qie method continued in use for over a thousand years. The present method of phonetic transcription for Chinese developed from this.

In the Liang dynasty (early sixth century), the phonological studies prepared by Shen Yue and Liu Xie's great contributions to literary criticism and his work on literary theory, Wenxin Diaolong, both had their source in Buddhist influences.

The Classic of Tea, by the Tang dynasty scholar Lu Yu, the great Tang dynasty teacher Yixing's Yinyang Shushu, and the Song dynasty Confucian philosopher Cheng Yi's Taiji Tu, all have great affinities with Buddhism.

The martial arts developed by Buddhist monks at the Shaolin Temple aided the founder of the Song dynasty, Song Taizu, in pacifying the empire. In the Yuan dynasty, the Buddhist adept and statesman Yelu Chucai contributed to medical science. Liu Bingzhong worked behind the scenes to influence the Mongol rulers to implement humane policies and avoid slaughter. In the Ming dynasty, Yao Guangxiao counseled the Yongle Emperor against tyranny. All these were historical contributions.

As for Buddhist contributions to Chinese art, to mention only the most glorious ones, there are the Yungang caves, the Dunhuang wall paintings, and so on. All these are world famous.

In sum, because of the outstanding level of learning and cultivation of its leading exponents down through the ages, Buddhist thought was able to exercise a great influence on Chinese learning and culture. If we try to observe China's literary people and scholars down through the generations, we see that there were very few indeed who had no relations with Buddhist monks, or who had not absorbed a little bit of Buddhist thought. As the Qing period poetess Cai Jiyu wrote in a famous verse:

Slaying the whale barehanded, a deed that will be famous for a thousand years

Returning to Buddha when old, the intent of a lifetime.

This verse reveals what the intellectuals of old China in general wanted, the most lofty orientation of their thought, and the ultimate realm of human life: naturally, it is filled with the echoes of Zen Buddhism. This is an authoritative representation of the significance of Buddhism in Chinese cultural history.