Ancient China: Chinese Buddhism

The Preparation by Neo-Daoism

When Buddhists first arrived the Chinese were quite unprepared.
The Chinese could not appreciate their beliefs.
They could not understand the philosophical expression of those beliefs.
Buddhism had provided answers to questions that the Chinese had never raised.
These notions were given in a different grammatical framework.
It was of a highly inflected Indo-European language structure.
It was quite different from the linguistic structure of the Chinese.
The Chinese did not have the vocabulary necessary to comprehend the Buddhists.
They could not translate the Buddhist text and discourse.
At the time of Buddhism's arrival the Han Dynasty was flourishing.
At that time Confucianism served as the official state ideology.
It was concerned with
a) good government,
b) sound social institutions,
c) the development of culture.
A technical vocabulary was developed
Not until the downfall of the Han and the ensuing 369 years of political and social instability that the basis for asn intellectually well-prepared groundwork for the translation of Buddhist documents took place.

there was the bankruptcy of Confucianism
this emerged from the downfall of the Han
at that time he Daoist tradition reappeared as the most popular intellectual position
it served as a reaction against the Confucianism of the Han
it was also a promising perspective
Daoism had originally tried to provide answers
these were to the same problems that were of concern to the Confucianists
they tried to how to determine the correct way of establishing a socio-political order
this had also been a concern of the Legalists and other schools of philosophy.
following the fall of the Han there was a resurgence of interest in Daoism.

the work that Daoists were doing was known as the “Dark Learning”
this was not because they were dealing with matters of the occult
it was because they were trying to shed light on the mysteries of basic reality
they did this through the understanding of the nature of the Dao.
Laozi and Zhuangzi were concerned with social, political, and ethical philosophy
the neo-Daoists of the post-Han period were grappling with ontological issues.

the revival of interest in Daoist thought was brought on by
a) disillusionment with Confucianism
b) a concern to explain the disintegration of the Han
this had been a successful and firmly grounded political structure.
the development of Daoist ontological concepts was important.
it provided a matrix of concepts and terms.
it made it possible to translate Buddhist ideas into Chinese ideas.

Mystery of Origins

the earlier introduction of Buddhism in China is shrouded in mystery
the earliest development was slow and difficult until the collapse of the Han.
an early Chinese apologetic treatise, Disposition of Error attempts to answer why.
the book explains the charges that were brought against the Buddhist movement
it reveals the problems of understanding that early period:

a) Buddhism is not mentioned in the classics.
from its beginnings Confucianists always relied on classic literature for answers
if there were any merit in Buddhism, the Chinese sages would have known it
it does not mention Buddhism in classic literature
this made Buddhism highly suspect.
b) Buddhist monks renounced worldly joys;
the idea of asceticism was foreign to the Chinese mind
he idea that the body is a prison of the soul had not appeared in Chinese tradition.
it was the neglect of duty that the Chinese frowned upon.
c) monks injure their bodies,
in this way they dishonour their parents who gave them their bodies through birth.
d) monks do not marry.
the disregard for family responsibilities was shocking to the Confucianists.
the Confucian tradition placed high value on social structures and made it a duty.

e) Buddhism teaches that human souls do not die, but return to bodily existence
it was the doctrine of samsara (cycle of rebirth) that caught their attention
it was not the concept of anatta (no self).
this assertion that there is no real self, would be absurd to the Chinese
the idea of reincarnation would appear absurd to the Chinese
their view of human nature was non-dualistic.

f) the ideas and practises of Buddhism come from barbaric lands of the west.
this was an objection that continued to be raised throughout Chinese history.
Buddhism’s origin lies in the regions of darkness, far from the light of civilization.
there was among the Chinese a deeply imbedded concept of superiority.
had it not been for neo-Daoism Buddhism might have remained foreign.

Early Translators

there is little information regarding the authorship of the Mahayana texts in India
there is plenty of information about
a) the process of translation that built up the Buddhist canon
b) about the men who translated the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese.
historians know the name of some 200 translators, not to mention their assistants
most of the translations were done in teams.

in the beginning texts were copied by hand, sometimes from dictation
printing was used from very early on which helped spread the writings.
a page would be carved out on a single block, and movable blocks,
this was a technical advance developed in the 11th century.
new books attributed to the Buddha were taken to China as soon as they were written. - this amounted to a sutra industry in India
they had to meet the demand in China for Buddhist scripture.

Dharmaraksa

after the foreign monks who knew little Chinese there came successors
one important one was Dharmaraksa (232-309), born in Dunhuang
this is on China’s western desert frontier.
he translated over a hundred Mahayana texts
often they were dictated from memory to his Chinese copyist.

The Lotus Sutra

in 286 he translated the Lotus sutra,
this was a text of great importance in the development of Mahayana
this influenced monks to travel on pilgrimages westward toward
a) Central Asia
b) India.

Vitaya Pitaka

the first of these to actually reach India from China was Fa-shien
he went in search of an original monastic code in 399.
it appears that the Vinaya Pitaka had been passed down by oral transmission
by the time he returned, the entire work had been translated by someone else.

Kumarajiva

the enterprise of translating scriptures required support of the state
and it required a certain type of genius to do this
that genius was Kumarajiva (344-413) of Kucha, located in Turkestan
he was the first of the truly great translators
his work created a tradition of Chinese Buddhist textual and linguistic study
he produced the great Chinese Tripitaka
this was the most complete of Buddhist scriptural texts and commentaries that exists,.

he was highly qualified by
a) family background,
b) linguistic abilities
c) a profound knowledge of Buddhist texts and doctrines,
Kumarajiva arrived in China as a military captive.
the translations executed under his direction remain great literature to this day
this is because of his insistence that Chinese intelligibility take precedence over literalness of textual rendition.

Mahayana Scriptures

Kumarajiva & his team retranslated the most influential Mahayana scriptures
he produced definitive editions with his assistants
their output included
a) the Amitabha sutra,
b) the text of the Pure Land School in China, the Perfection of Wisdom in 2500 lines
c) the massive treatise of the Great Perfection of Wisdom
d) two important Mahayana scriptures, the Lotus sutra and the Vimalakirti sutra.

seventy two volumes were translated under his direction
the most influential that Nagarjuna’s Middle Teaching Treatise,
it was thoroughly studied and promulgated by Kumarajiva’s colleagues and disciples,
his disciples were known as the “Ten Philosophers.”
two other works of Madhyamika school supplemented that major work:
a) Nagarjuna’s Twelve Gates Treatise
b) Aryadeva’s Hundred Verses Treatise
these three texts constituted the basic works of the Chinese Madhyamika position.
the movement came to be the San Lun (“Three-Treatise”) school of Buddhism.

Chinese Buddhist Schools

there were diverse schools that developed in China
they were trying to reconcile often contradictory teachings attributed to the Buddha.
in Chinese the term translated either as a school or a sect is tsung/zong,
this refers to a lineage – doctrinal lineage.
the Chinese term for religion is tsung-chiao/zongjiao
it literally means “the teachings of the lineages”
these are teachings of the direct line of descent from an ancestor; or ancestry)
both Theravada and Mahayana schools developed in China
the Theravada had little influence and soon disappeared
Mahayana grew and prospered
of the schools, two (San-Lun and Fa-hsiang) were basically Indian imports
they reduced everything to either Emptiness or Consciousness.

San Lun - Chinese Madhyamika

San-Lun school is the Chinese extension of Nagarjuna’s Indian Mahayana philosophy
this is known as Madhyamika (Middle Doctrine; Middle Way).
Kumarajiva introduced this teaching in China
he did this with the translation of two treatises by
a) Nagarjuna
b) his disciple or follower Aryadeva (c.300).
these became the foundation of San-Lun or the Three Treatise school.

the writings of Seng-chao (374-414), established San-Lun as the first major school of philosophical Buddhism in China.
he was one of Kumarajiva’s 10 philosophers
it is basically a restatement of Nagarjuna’s ideas
the chief teachings of the San-Lun school was that everything was empty (sunya)
nothing has any independent reality or self-nature.
an entity can be identified only through its relation to something else
only relations and dependence constitute this unreal phenomenal world.
there is a relative level of truth and understanding
this is the idea that one is as in a dream-world,

here he is making distinctions between subjects and objects, samsara and nirvana.
but the teachings maintain Buddhism leads to an understanding of this emptiness
this emptiness is intuitive wisdom (prajna),
this is a higher level of absolute truth called sunyata or Emptiness.
the great Chinese theoretician of the San Lun school was Chi-tsang (549-623)
he lived to see the reunification of China under the short-lived Sui dynasty (590-617)
he also lived to see the opening of the glorious Tang dynasty (618-906).
his commentaries on the Three Treatise school were compelling and convincing
they served as the definitive statement of the school’s position in China.

Fa-Hsiang: Chinese Yogacara

the Fa-hsiang/Faxiang (“Dharma Character”) school is also known as Wei-shih/weishi
this means “Consciousness Only” or “Merely Ideation”.
it corresponds to the Yogacara school in India
it was first introduced into China by Paramartha (499-569) in the 6th century.
Yogacara gradually it eclipsed the Sun-Lun school in popularity and influence.
Zhuangzang made this possible.

Xuanzang

Xuanzang was the most mobile of all travelling monks.
his journey of 16 years, from 623 to 645 took him across Central China & he went all the way to the Himalayan kingdoms
he went throughout the Indian sub-continent.

like the San-Lun, the Fa-hsiang school survived until the 9th century
then it declined quickly
this happened because of persecution against Buddhism,
the worst persecution took place in 845.
Fa-hsiang was too abstract to maintain long-term appeal,

T'ien-T'ai

translations of texts were proceeding at an uninterrupted and fast rate,
there was little time for reflection on these texts.
people soon realized the complexity of the doctrines,
that is when serious problems began to emerge
what to do when contradictory teachings were all ascribed to the Buddha himself?

it had a great systematic thinker in Chih-k’ai/Zhikai or Chih-yi/Zhiyi (538-597)
he enjoyed imperial patronage
he proclaimed himself a practitioner of meditation
this was instead of calling himself a philosopher.
he did leave behind a real built up synthesis in his attempt to reconcile and harmonize all Buddhist teachings.

there were translations of the two huge scriptures,
these were the Mahaparinirvana and the Avatamsaka
they presented problems of understanding
the problem was this: how to sort, organize, and systematize the new idea
these new emerging ideas were Buddhist doctrines.
the T’ien-T’ai/Tiantai school is named after its place of origin
this is on a mountain in Chekiang in southeastern China
it is also called the Lotus School
this is due the role the Lotus sutra plays in its thought and practice.

Chinese intellectuals would address themselves to the work that was needed
this was of organizing the various threads of thought into a unified whole
this was the self-proclaimed message of T’ien-T’ai
the emphasis was placed on harmony
this theme permeates all aspects of its work, theoretical and practical.

according to Chih-yi there is doctrinal divergence within Buddhism
this comes from the Buddha having taught different things at different times
each of the sutras speaks on a different level
it is because it is always addressing a different audience
Chi-yi distinguishes among 5 approaches to the Buddha’s life of preaching,
4 methods of teaching the sutras or scriptures (sudden, gradual, secret indeterminate, and explicit indeterminate)
4 modes of doctrine (Hinayana, Sunyavada (the teachings of Emptiness), Yogacara (special teaching), and the perfect teaching that is given in the Lotus and Nirvana sutras.

later Chih-yi’s five approaches became the five periods in the Buddha’s teachings
1. after Enlightenment, the Buddha remains in a ecstatic state and
he preaches first the Avatamsaka sutra
it teaches that the universe is the revelation of the Absolute
few can understand him during these three weeks;
2. the Buddha tries to accommodate his teachings to his listeners
he spends the next 12 years teaching the agamas,
this is his discourse with the Theravada doctrines of
a) the Four Noble Truths,
b) the Eightfold Path,
c) the Dependent Origination
he now gathers large crowds.

3. he then moves to another period of 8 years,
he teaches the simple Mahayana truths, especially of the bodhisattva,
4. then, comes 22 years when he discusses metaphysical problems l
5. the last period of 8 years is spent on the reconciliation of apparent contradictions, i
these are in accordance with the Lotus and Nirvana sutras.

thus, T’ien-t’ai Buddhism represents the attempt to establish a great eclectic school
this school recognizes all forms of Buddhism
this is regardless of the scriptures
they are seen as a gradual process of the Buddha’s revelation.
T’ien-t’ai harmonized the many differences found in diverse scriptures
it formulated a classification of the sutras and their doctrines.

this is an example of the natural inclination for asserting the harmony of opposites.
this is a natural inclination of Chinese culture.
T’ien-t’ai did give a place of privilege to a particular viewpoint.
it asserted the universal accessibility of enlightenment and buddhahood.
as such, it claimed that the Lotus sutra represents the culmination of the Buddha’s teachings.

Hua-Yen (The Flower Garland School)

the Hua-yen (“wreath of flowers”) school is articulated by Fa-tsang (643-712)
he worked as a translator for Hsuan-Tsang.
it is here that classic Chinese Buddhism reached its intellectual zenith.
the school is based on the Avatamsaka sutra or Flower Garland sutra,
its focus is on the conception of the dharma realm.

Hua-yen became an influential position in Japan as well.
less than 50 years after Fa-tsang’s death, it became Japan official ideology
it seemed to be a perfect concept for supporting a universal Japanese state
the state itself supported the Buddhist school which promulgated the doctrine.
the school finds in the dharma realm the two aspect:
a) li, the fundamental patterns or principles
b) shih/shi, the expressions in phenomena
it would influence the later Neo-Confucian metaphysics of li and ch’i/qi.

Fa-tsang & Empress Wu

Fa-tsang enjoyed the patronage of Empress Wu (r. 690-705)
she frequently listened to his lectures or sermons
in 704 she commanded him to lecture on Hua-yen philosophy
as he lectured he pointed to one of the pairs of golden lions “guarding” the door
this was the door to the throne room of the palace
he did this to illustrate the ten fundamental principles of his system.
he explained that li and shih interpenetrate each other
this is just like gold, which has no nature of its own,
but the gold is present everywhere in the lion.
another time he had a statue of a golden Buddha put in the middle of a palace room,
the room was filled with mirrors surrounding it on all sides, above and below
a burning torch was placed next to the statue
he then explained that the Buddha is present in all of its images and reflections
this is in the same way as it is present in the shih:
“in each and every reflection of any mirror you will find all the reflections of all the other mirrors, together with the specific Buddha image in each.”
one is in all and all is in one – similar to a hologram.

Hua-yen established a totally integrated philosophical system
in this system everything leads to the Buddha in the centre
this is as Fa-tsang demonstrated in his hall of mirrors.
T’ien-t’ai had accounted for the diversity by saying that the Buddha said essentially different things at different times,
Hua-yen asserted that the Buddha said the same essential thing in different ways.
these two were products of Chinese Buddhism intellectual labour
T’ien-t’ai and Hua-yen had no equivalents in India.
soon enough a movement emerged within popular Chinese Buddhism
it was anti-intellectual
it concentrated on practice to the neglect of philosophical theory.

Chinese Pure Land

the name Pure Land (in Chinese ching-t’u/jingtu) comes from sukhavati,
this is a Sanskrit word naming an ideal Buddhist paradise this side of nirvana.

this refers to the celestial Buddha
it is believed that he presides over the pure land
he is known in India as Amitabha (“infinite light”).
he is held to have lived earlier than the historical Buddha
he is assisted by a bodhisattva (in Chinese p’usa).
this bodhisattva is Avalokitesvara in India,
it is Kuan-yin in China,
it is Kannon in Japan.
it is based on the Shorter Sutra on the Pure Land
it states that all you need is one thing to be reborn in Amitabha’s Western paradise
you just need faith or belief in the infinite compassion of the Buddha
you show this in prayerful and in the meditative repetition of his name
Pure Land reliance is not on the self but on outside or “other” power
it is referred to in India as `cat grace.’

Pure Land Buddhism has especially appealed to the masses
it is because they only seek ultimate salvation
it is also a power that responds to their ordinary needs
in this respect the bodhisattva Kuan-yin attracts the most attention.
originally the bodhisattva was a male figure in China,
it eventually became transformed into a female religious icon
it was probably through Tibetan influences around the 10th century.

Chan: The Complete Sinicization of Buddhism

Ch’an is the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit dyana, meaning “meditation.”
this refers to the religious or spiritual discipline aimed at calming the mind
this allows the person to penetrate into his or her own inner consciousness.

Ch’an, teaches that ultimate reality – sunyata,, is inexpressible in words or concepts.
it is apprehended only by direct intuition, outside of conscious thought.
such direct intuition requires discipline and training.
but it is also characterized as freedom and spontaneity.
this caused Ch’an to relativize practices that others had taken seriously.

these other practices were
a) studying or reciting the Buddhist sutras,
b) worshipping the Buddha
c) performing rituals.
Ch’an conducts these activities
but it insists that there should be no dependence on them
there is not need to depend on them as a means to spiritual enlightenment –
in Chinese it is wu, in Japanese it is satori.

due to its dislike for “book learning” Ch’an became known as a special tradition
this was named `outside the scriptures’
it is not dependent on `words or letters.’
it is only transmitted from `mind’ to `mind,’ from master to disciple
it is transmitted without the intervention of rational arguments.
it advocates the `absence of thought’ to free the mind from external influences
Ch’an is divided into many sub-sects or branches
it depended on what was emphasized in terms of methods or techniques.

Hui-neng’s southern school focused on the abrupt character of enlightenment
it also had its critical rituals.
this contributed to the spirit of Zen in Japan.
Ch’an was an attempt to return to the sources of Buddhist inspiration
this is especially the notion of saving oneself by one’s own efforts.
during the Song dynasty (960-1269), its growth was reflected in the written word.
it did produce many recorded dialogues giving words of wisdom of its masters.

it placed less importance on the study of the sutras as a means to enlightenment
but they tried to remove any impression of being heretical.
they wanted to prove themselves the legitimate heirs of the historical Buddha
they did study the sutra
they produced numerous works
this growth of Ch’an writings was in direct contradiction to original principles
some have seen this as the beginnings of the decline of the true Ch’an spirit.

Daoism & Buddhism: Synthesis

the success of Buddhism was made possible by the re-articulation of Daoism
this was at the time of the collapse of the Han dynasty.
this renewal prepared the ground linguistically and conceptually for an intelligible translation and interpretation of Buddhism to the Chinese mind and spirit.
the high point of Chinese Buddhist development is reached with the articulation of a full Daoist-Buddhist synthesis in Ch’an thought during the 8th and 9th centuries.

in developing that synthesis, Daoism itself was transformed this was through an association with Buddhist thought and practice
this is like the way Buddhism had been transmuted into a Chinese movement
this had required a strong reliance upon Daoist words and concepts.

the impact they had on Chinese civilization has been profound and manifold. the Buddhist influence in Chinese cultural history is far-reaching
it ranges from
a) techniques and subject-matter of traditional brush-strokes painting
b) to the analysis of Chinese phonology
c) from the works for traditional woodwind and stringed musical instruments
d) to the study of logic

Religious Art

this strong Buddhist presence can be seen most clearly in the history of the arts.

Sculptures

Buddhist works make up the vast majority of existing Chinese sculpture
this is if we exclude pottery tomb figures.
the sculpture begins with the stone carvings in cave temples
these are the ones constructed in north China
they were created under the auspices of the Turkish Wei dynasties.
Central Asian pieces served as the models.

during the post-Wei period, the Gupta tradition was introduced
this further modified Chinese Buddhist sculptural style.
throughout the Tang, adaptations of these Indian styles created a unique tradition
this was a Buddhist sculptural tradition which became distinctively Chinese.
this continued with the Kuan-yin statues of the early Song
similar artistic adaptation led in the construction of temples and pagodas
they became a unique Chinese Buddhist architectural tradition.

Landscape Painting & Calligraphy

Buddhist influence can be seen in landscape painting and calligraphy.

it has been the custom to divide Tang landscapists into two schools:.
a) the Northern Schools of landscape painting
this took on a “realistic” or ‘naturalistic” appearance
this is how they depicted of “mountains and water”
b) the Southern School was ‘impressionistic”
it was concerned only with “seeing into one’s own nature”
this was by the quickly executed depiction of the painter’s initial instinctive reaction
this was a reaction to “mountains and water.”

most of the Chinese paintings of this period is characterized by subject matter
the subject matter is explicitly Buddhist
the profound influence of Buddhist mentality upon the graphic arts is in the technique.
this can be seen in
a) the principle of economy in stroke,
b) the use of a few decisive lines applied quickly, almost spontaneously
this technique became popular during the latter part of the Tang dynasty
it arose out of the Southern Ch’an emphasis on sudden enlightenment.

Poetry

a parallel development occurred in poetry.
many poets were similarly influence from Ch’an insight
they concerned themselves more with a certain technique
this was of working with words in ”spontaneous” and lyrical fashion
these words generally having little concern with the subject matter
other poets focused attention consciously on Buddhist themes.

Po Chu-i

one of the best known poets is Po Chu-i (772-846)
he was
a) a government official by profession,
b) a poet by vocation
c) a Buddhist by persuasion.
during most of his mature life he was an ardent Ch’an practitioner
in his later years became a devotee of the Pure Land School.

his poetry includes
a) works in which the essence of Buddhist doctrine is set forth,
b) works in which experience is explicitly interpreted through Buddhist eyes
c) works which do not deal directly with matters Buddhist,
yet there is continual employment of Buddhist terms, phrases, and images.

Chinese Buddhism reached its peak during the Tang dynasty
its mark was made very profoundly upon the Chinese mind and spirit
later there were efforts to weave Buddhist insights & images into a rich synthesis
this took the Confucian, Daost, and Buddhist traditions as a foundation
the Confucian tradition affected by the permeation of Buddhist ideas and concepts.
a resurgence neo-Confucianism was to become the dominating intellectual force
this was during the long-lived Song dynasty (960-1279).

Ancient China

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Chinese Buddhism

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