Buddhism in China

Introduced in China in the middle of Ier century of the Christian era, the Buddhism became there starting from the end of the 3rd century one of the three principal ideological and spiritual currents (Three schools) with the Taoïsme and the Confucianisme, while continuing its evolution there. Except for certain influences Vajrayana (Buddhism Tibetan) or Hinayana (Vietnam), the principal current currents of Buddhisms Japanese, Korea N and Vietnam IEN come from schools Mahayana which were born or took their rise in China.

Introduction

The opening of the Chinese end of the Silk route by Zhang Qian between -138 and -126 is undoubtedly the decisive event which started the introduction of Buddhism in China by supporting the exchanges with the Central Asia. It is indeed more often of these areas, and not directly of India, which monks and Soutra S. will arrive a legend probably without base made of the emperor Wudi one of the first adore the Bouddha.

The first historical testimony of its presence in China comes from the Livre of Han posterior which mentions envoys Yuezhi taking a pupil with the capital in -2. The same source mentions the interest of the emperor Mingdi (58 - 75) for Buddhism. He would have dreamed of a gilded man with the luminous head. An adviser having said to him that it was there the description of a Western god named Bouddha, Mingdi dispatched envoys towards Tianzhu (North-western of India) to bring back effigies of them.

The adviser will be appointed like Zhong Hu, and the delegation, composed of 18 people, would have been carried out by Cai Yin, Qin Jing and Wang Zun. According to certain sources, it would be them which would have brought back in 67 of Afghanistan the two monks Kasyapamatanga and Dharmavanya /Dharmaraksa (or Moton/ Jiashe Moteng and Chufarlan/Zhu Falan) with effigies and forty-two Buddhist texts constituting the Sūtra in forty-two sections . First Buddhist text arrived to China according to the tradition, it is regarded as apocryphal book by the specialists.

In 68, the Mingdi emperor sponsored the foundation of the Temple of the white Horse, first Buddhist temple in China, that Yang Xuanzhi (6th century) locates at the south of the imperial avenue of Luoyang, with three lily of the doors of Xiyang. The legend claims that the habit wanted that will soutras them are carried by white horses, and that the site of the temple was decided by the animal which stopped Net little before the capital, refusing to go front.

Buddhism starts to be propagated in the north of Huai, and is immediately mixed with the policy, prince Liu Ying, brother of Mingdi, first eminent Chinese Buddhist, having been banished for its ambitions with respect to the capacity.

Towards the end of the 2nd century, an important community existed in Pengcheng, current Xuzhou, Jiangsu. The first Chinese statue of Buddha, in which one recognizes the influence of the style of the Gandhara, comes from a tomb Han (IIe century) to the Sichuan. The other preserved representations are in general the pendentive ones hung to the “money trees”, decorative object.

First translations

The first attested translations take place towards 148 under the direction of the missionary Parthian An Shigao, captured, said the legend, during a forwarding kouchanaise in the Tarim. It translates in Luoyang 35 texts théravada. Kouchanais Lokaksema arrives in its turn at the capital in 150 and translated there between 178 and 189 several texts mahayana.

Newcomer vis-a-vis the Confucianism and with the taoism

This new religion showed characteristics in dissension with the moral and social ideal worked by the Confucianism. Thus, the monastic celibacy adopted for individual spiritual improvement contravened the duty to contribute productivement to the family and the empire, with the detriment of the personal achievement if necessary. He answered while putting forward the Indian sources, at the origin minor, having his social utility and promoting the filial devotion. One praised the effectiveness of the prayers of the monks to deliver, if necessary, his parents of the hell, concept that Buddhism equipped with Indian elements and a rich person iconography. Consequently, in the syncretic whole of the Chinese religion, the funeral rites will often call upon him.

With the taoism it offered external similarities. In the beginnings, he was sometimes regarded by it as a form, and the vocabulary taoist was used to translate that of the Soutra S. Certaines concepts merged so much so that it is sometimes impossible to disentangle the two influences precisely. An old tradition applicant that Lao Zi left towards the west at the end its life gave rise to the legend taoist which affirms that it is in fact the Bouddha; it will be used as propaganda when the two currents become competitor. The taoism developed its monachism to emulate the large Buddhist monasteries. Nevertheless, the contacts and exchanges between the two religions never ceased; one finds them joined together in the popular religion, certain forms of the Chan, the syncretistic currents born under Song and the new currents religious appeared at the 19th century.

Of IIIe to the Life century

The history especially kept the trace of its relationships to the capacity and its penetration in the roadbases of the company. Undergoing sometimes rejections violent one, it made there more and more followers, who besides do not give up inevitably for as much their other religious practices. It allures according to various methods according to the circumstances: innovation compared to the usual religious offer, personal talent or know-how of the monks, philosophical interest of the theories. Under Han and the Three kingdoms, in spite of its slow progress, Buddhism missed institutional support. The advent in the North of China, particularly as from the 4th century, of kingdoms known as dynasties of North founded by nonHans or old Hans " barbarisés" , less attached to the Confucianism or the taoism that the kingdoms of the South, gave to monks the opportunity to become advisers - even magicians with the service of the sovereigns, sometimes considered as Bodhisattva S. Some, foreign missionaries, were in charge of translations. The kingdom of Wei of North (386 - 534) was the first to make Buddhism a religion of State, except it is true of an episode (446 - 452) of prohibition for support for a rebellion, ordered by Taiwudi, during which monks were carried out (it will be only bloody repression). Its successor abolishes measurement and Buddhism found its position; the Xianwendi emperor abdicated even in 471 to devote himself to his study.

Nevertheless, the South was not completely in remainder. Mingdi (322 - 325) of the Eastern Jin was even the first officially converted sovereign. The Wu emperor of Liang of the South (502 - 549) was also a burning promoter of Buddhism. Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism mixed already without clash in the aristocratic families, as the example of CAT Hongjing shows it. The famous monks of the South, more often Chinese than foreign missionaries contrary to North, held with their independence and were in general not members of the administration. The beginning of Ve century, Huiyuan, founder of Jingtu, answered a question of the emperor about the position of the monk with respect to the capacity by an epistle entitled “a monk is not inclined in front of the sovereign”.

The monasteries, of which some are immense, as Jingming de Luoyang which contains 1000 cells, profit directly or indirectly from favorable tax measures and thrive, the more so as they are also used of banks and warehouses, or refuge during the periods of disorder. The donations confer social prestige. The cliffs of the Henan and the Shanxi are covered with an incredible quantity of sculptures paid on public funds or by gifts. In 420, one counts 1768 monasteries and more than 24.000 monks and nuns in the South; with the Life century one finds 1367 monasteries with Luoyang.

Success has also its reverses. The richness of certain institutions irritates, the more so as everyone does not appreciate this still foreign religion; the emperor Wu (561 - 578) of Zhou of North prohibits it at the same time as the taoism starting from 574. It is the second blow since the interdition of Taiwudi. These crises feed the thought millenarist which envisages the decline of Buddhism for one period often evaluated at ten thousand years, until the transmission of the Dharma stops completely. It will be then the time of the advent of Maitreya, the next Buddha, one of the recurrent themes of the iconography of medieval Buddhism.

Study translations and trips

From the 5th century, many monks of Central Asia or India come to China to spread the doctrines, bringing with them of new texts. Some are put at the head of teams continuing an intense work of translation financed by the sovereigns. Most known are Fotucheng (232 - 348) under the posterior Zhao and Kumarajiva starting from 401 under Qin posterior. This last will direct many translations, of which there remains around fifty which still makes authority. The Chinese monk Faxian starts in 399 a pilgrimage towards India which will last 15 years, of which it left the account in charge of invaluable information.

Birth of the first schools

From the Eastern Jin, schools are born around the first will soutras translated. The Transmission and the Propagation of Buddhism in the three regions , (India-China-Japan) written in 1311 by the monk Kegon Gyonen, mention of them thirteen of Ve at the 9th century. The first born will disappear from China or will be supplanted by new currents proposing of the more complete theories.

School Sanlun (Sanlunzong 三論宗) or of the Three treaties, based on the Shatika will sastra (百論), the Madhyamika will sastra (中論) and the Dvadashamukha will sastra (十二門論) translated by Kumarajiva. Founded by its disciples, it constitutes the Chinese branch of the madhyamika. She will experience a certain development in Korea and in Japan (Sanron). A school Silunzong (四論宗) of the Four treaties, which had added at its Canon the Mahaprajnaparamita upadesha (大智度論), had a short existence.
School Chengshi (Chengshizong 成實宗) or Perfection of the truth, based on the treaty of the same name of Harivarman. Attached to the hinayana, it gave the Japanese school Jojitsu.
School Jushe (Jushezong 俱舍宗) or Kosa; it seems to have belonged to the current hinayana.
School Pitan (毘曇) or Abhidharma, based on the Treasure of the abhidhamma of Vasubandhu.
School Shelun (Shelunzong 摂論宗), based on the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha commented on by Vasubandhu; this text will be retranslated under Tang by Xuanzang, whose disciple will found the Faxiang school which will replace Shelun.
École Niepan (Niepanzong 涅槃宗) or Nirvana, based on will soutra same name presented as the ultimate teaching of the Buddha until Tiantai imposes the Sutra of the Lotus and supplants it.
School Dilun (Dilunzong 地論宗) or Daśabhūmikā based on the Treated of the ten grounds of Vasubandhu; it will be supplanted to the VII ((E)) century by Huayan, of which will soutra it of reference ( Avatamsaka ) includes/understands the Traité of the ten grounds like one of its chapters.
School Lu or Vinaya (Lüzong 律宗); it maintains that the strict observance of a monastic life is paramount.

Certain schools will experience a great development:

School Huayan based on the Sutra Avatamsaka ; the bodhisattva Manjusri, one of its principal figures, becomes object of devotion, particularly with the kingdom of IQ (551 - 577) where a prince S `immole in its honor. The Wutai mount with the Shanxi, where it appears, becomes place of pilgrimage, Buddhist first mount.
School of the Pure Ground or Jingtu (Jingtuzong 淨土宗), based on the Sutra of the infinite life ; it is especially remarkable by its practices of recitation and devotion to the boudha Amitabha. This current remained one of principal contemporary Buddhism.

Dynasties Sui and Tang

The period extending from the beginning of VIIe century with 845 is regarded as the golden age of Buddhism. The first known specimen of impression to the block is a Sutra of the Diamond going back to 868 discovered in the Grottes of Mogao in 1907. Under the Sui (518 - 618), Buddhism becomes religion of State. Chang' year replaces Luoyang and Jiankang like the greatest Buddhist center of China. The emperors Tang (618 - 907) adopt the taoism, but Buddhism preserves their support and the theories of the various schools impassion the cultivated aristocracy. The imperial support implies a certain control on the work of the institutions.

Oppositions to the new religion remain nevertheless. The financial costs and social of the maintenance of the monks and nuns are regarded as prohibitory by some. The empress Wu Zetian, who tries to establish her own dynasty, makes blow the heat and the cold, supporting Buddhism or confiscating her goods according to the political interest. In 845 the emperor Wuzong, strongly hostile with the foreign religions (Buddhism, Nestorianisme, Zoroastrisme), will prohibit them completely. 4600 monasteries and 40.000 temples will be confiscated, 260.500 monks and nuns returned to the civil life. Measurement will be raised at the end of one year but will carry a fatal blow to many schools.

Schools and currents

One attends the development of new currents, whereas Chinese Buddhism are diffused towards the Korea, the Japan and the Vietnam. An important corpus having already been translated, the Chinese seeks to solve contradictions between the various texts of geographic origin, time and different schools, endeavouring to erect scaffolding of the coherent systems integrating the philosophical and religious concepts local. The two principal syntheses are proposed by the schools Tiantai and Huayan, whose thought will exert a great influence. The interest of the aristocracy with respect to Buddhism is partly related to the passion of the classes cultivated for these brilliant and new theories.

Five new currents appear:

the school Sanjie (Sanjiejiao 三階教) occupies a special place; it is not entitled to the sizeable title of zong because it was put at the index starting from 600, before being definitively prohibited. Born at the end from the Dynasties from North and the South, it is under Sui that it takes its rise. Its name, " three stades" , means that the transmission of the doctrines must take account of the three factors of time, the place, and the person. It is current charismatic influenced, like many others at that time, by the theory of the decline of Buddhism. He considers that the nature of Buddha exists of each one, opinion shared in a form or another by all the currents Mahayana. He promotes the charitable activities for which kinds of bank-warehouses are founded the " stores inépuisables" . The movement knows at the beginning of the dynasty one boom during which it collects important funds and has five temples. Various factors will end up causing its loss: richness and opinion by principle negative of the government considered as inevitably unable and declining, to which are added a constant competition with Pure Ground which proposes Amitabha as help whereas Sanjie advances Ksitigarbha.
the school Tiantai, based on the Sutra of the Lotus, proposes like Huayan a synthetic theory of Buddhism, which will exert a great influence on the whole of Buddhism native of the Far East. It will inspire the current Tendai Japanese.
the Semi school (Mizong 密宗) or of the Secrecies is the general term given to Buddhism Vajrayana which penetrates at the beginning of the 8th century, in particular thanks to the missionary and Indian translator Amoghavajra. The school Zhenyan which it contributes to found will disappear quickly, but will be established in Japan under the name of Shingon, with will soutras Mahavairocana and Vajrasekhara ; it will influence also Tendai.
the school Weishi or Faxiang which develops the theory Yogacara is founded by Xuanzang and its Kuiji disciple. Xuanzang leaves in 629 to India to the sources the tradition Cittamatra; it there studies in the prestigious university of Nalanda and returns charged with texts about fifteen years later. Its tour will inspire by works of fiction, of which the Voyage in Occident .
the school Chan known as " of Sud" appears starting from the medium of VIIIe century. It is about a current sometimes iconoclast, which claims to do without textual support contrary to the other currents. Always important in XXIe century, it is at the origin of the schools Zen.

In addition, the Huayan schools and Pure Terre continue on their impetus. The Nanshan branch of the school Lu (Vinaya) is most flourishing.

This phase of multiplication of the schools is completed into 845 with total ban of the foreign religions, which in spite of its short duration will change the Chinese Buddhist landscape definitively.

After 846

After persecution, in a visible way only the currents Chan and Pure Terre remain. The schools famous for their brilliant theories did not find their public. Their mode near the intellectual elites always in search of innovation would probably not have lasted in any case, the more so as their decline has as a backdrop that of the whole dynasty. The practitioners isolated or in small group, many in Chan, resisted better than the large monasteries. When with the current Pure Ground, it since its beginnings was centered less on the theory than on practices which were borrowed very early by monks of other currents, even of the laymen; it thus had a broad establishment.

The brutal reduction in the number of schools testifies more than one regrouping that of an ideological reduction because the thoughts Tiantai and Huayan preserve an unquestionable influence, their often basic treaties being used for teaching in the Chan monasteries. According to the Chinese religious tradition where the genealogy takes precedence over the ideology for the determination of the denomination, any abbot which can make go up his line with a Chan Master, whatever the nature of his practices, is in right to claim itself of this current, where dominate after 846 two branches: Rinji (臨濟) which goes back to Rinji Yixuan (? - 866) and Caodong (曹洞) which goes back to Dongshan Liangjie (? - 869). They will become in Japan Rinzai and Sōtō.

For the disturbed period (907 - 960) extending from Tang to the Song, the kingdom of Wuyue （893 - 978), small island of prosperity covering the Zhejiang, the South of the Jiangsu and the North of the Fujian, played a big role in the transmission of Buddhism. It was in particular a hâvre during the persecution of Shizong (954 - 959) of the posterior Zhou; its sovereigns made seek will soutras lost or destroyed. As under Tang, the emperors exerted an important control on the religion, of which they influenced the practices by imposing the association of the ancestral temples on the Buddhist temples.

When China is reunified, to avoid the drifts of the dynasties Sui and Tang, the Song government does not grant a freedom from tax to the Buddhist institutions. At the beginning of the dynasty, the Tiantai school, reinvigorated by the sovereigns of Wuyue, tries last once, but in vain, to compete with the Chan school.

With the advent of the Yuan (1234), Chan, represented by Zhongfeng Mingben (1263 - 1323), enjoys a time the favors of Khan, the Mongolian emperor, but in 1269 Kubilai grants the control of the whole of the Buddhists to the chief of the line Sakyapa, one of the four schools of the Bouddhisme Tibetan. The position being transmitted of uncle to nephew, spangled them ended up being interfered with the intrigues court. The Vajrayana (Mizong), almost disappeared at the end from Tang after a first attempt at establishment, thus remade its appearance among Chinese not Hans of North (Mongolian , or Manchu ?), while Chan and Jingtu (Pure Ground) continue to dominate the Han unit. It will have also the favor of the court of the Qing.

Syncretism and popular Buddhism

From Song (960 - 1279), the tendency to syncretism Confucianism-taoism-Buddhism, which had appeared as of the beginnings, spreads. The exchanges between Chan and Pure Terre also intensify and will be still reinforced as from the 16th century (Ming). Four eminent Masters encourage the bringing together: Yunqi Mohong (1535 - 1615), Zibo Daguan (or Zibo Zhenke) (1544 - 1604), Hanshan Deqing (1546 - 1623) and Ouyi Zhixu (1599 - 1655).

This tendency is accompanied by sinicization, popularization and increased laicization of Buddhism. Under Song École from the white lotus is born the , which will give birth in the following centuries to a multitude of sects more really Buddhist. Under Ming the Wuwei movement (or sect Luo appears) rested by the monk Chan Luo Qing (1443 - 1527). From the syncretic start since it révère a divinity Taoist, it is at the origin of the zhaijiao , laic Buddhism already recommended besides by the white Lotus. The popular religion continues to absorb Buddhist elements; Avalokiteshvara, Ksitigarbha and even Yama is also popular divinities.

Rebirth of the Buddhist studies

While Buddhism confirms its place in the Chinese culture, of aucuns deplore the slow decline of the Buddhist studies. A reaction takes place towards the end of the Qing, in which also take part of the laymen like Yang Wenhui (1837 - 1911) resulting from a family of mandarins. It founds the printing works of will soutras of Jinling and encourages the international exchanges. One makes come from many texts of Japan where they had been preserved, and the interest reappears with respect to currents disappeared or little developed like Sanlun, Weishi or Buddhism tantric. This rebirth will be stopped by the wars and the come to power of the Communists.

After 1949

popular China

Patriotic Buddhist Association was founded in 1953 with Beijing with for president Maitre Yuanying, and objective to facilitate the control of the communist authorities on the whole of Buddhism. After one period of increased restriction of the religious activities starting from the end of the Hundred flowers, followed by a complete stop during the Cultural revolution. Thus, at the 20th century, between the Fifties and Sixties, the Buddhist orders disappeared almost completely from China. Since end of the year 70, Buddhism knows, like the other religions, a phase of expansion under a narrow control of the state of the Popular republic of China.

There would currently exist in popular China from 70 to 150 million Buddhists belonging to the three currents, the vast majority being attached to the Mahayana. According to a census carried out in the Nineties, the Vajrayana (Buddhism Tibetan) would include/understand more than seven million practitioners, living primarily with the Tibet, the areas Tibetans (Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu), the Mongolia-Interior and also with the Xinjiang. It is the most widespread religion at the nationalities Mongolian Tibetan, , Yugur, Monba, Lhoba and You; the school most present is Gelugpa whose Dalaï LAMA was exiled in India in 1959. The Chinese government currently controls both Panchen LAMA S, that of its choice and its competitor, a child chosen by paved LAMA removed in 1995.

Buddhism Hinayana account for its part more than one million practitioners living in Yunnan: ethnos groups Dai, Achang, Blang, Wa, Derung and Jingpo.

Before 1949, there were large public temples accommodating all those which came to be devoted to the study and the practice with the variation of the world, and of the private temples often sheltering other gods, whose monks or nuns provided many religious services to the population. Nowadays, all the temples must provide for their needs, thanks to tourism for example, and be useful for the company. Some were restored using gifts coming from Japanese temples.

Taiwan

In Taiwan where forever repressed Buddhism, one recentrement notes one on the study of will soutras and a certain orthodoxy, as well as the desire to dissociate popular religion to be recipient of the international Buddhist community. These tendencies are supported by the general rise in the level of education. According to the review Jesuit Clouded News analysis , the number of those which choose the monastic life is in increase, particularly among the graduates of the university. It would have increased by 700% during the Eighties according to an estimate communicated in 1992 with the ministry for the Interior by Zhaohui Master. As example, the community which surrounded Maitre Weijue in 1995 was made up of 264 people including 67% women; 40% had at least a license; 37 members had less than 21 years, 174 between 21 and 40 years, and 53 have more than 40 years.

One counted in 1989 four million and half of Buddhists in the island, is 20% of the population. These statistics are nevertheless difficult to interpret, of many practitioners of the popular religion being counted among the Buddhists.

From the Eighties, the current encouraging the implication of Buddhism in social activism, heir to the reformer Taixu (1890 - 1947), took importance. Maître Hsing-yun (xingyun) founds Fokuangshan (Foguangshan), large cultural, educational and charitable organization; Master Sheng-yen (Shenyan) militates for environmental protection; Master Cheng-yen (Chengyan) founds the ONG Tzu Chi.

Artistic contribution

Buddhism left in China an important artistic heritage of which a part belongs to the World heritage of UNESCO: Caves of Mogao, Longmen and Yungang, rupestral Sculptures of Dazu, giant Buddha of Leshan dating from VIIIe the century, largest in the world. The Palais of Potala builds by the {{5}} Dalaï Lama is an example of architecture specifically Tibetan.

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