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Buddhism and Chinese Culture: Phases of Interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Arthur F. Wright
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En chine, depuis les seconds Han (25–220 A.D.), en Corée, depuis le VIe siècle, au Japon, depuis Shōtoku (593), le Bouddhisme est partout: doctrines, systèmes croyances, institutions politiques, architecture, sculpture, peinture, sur tous les domaines il est un facteur capital; sans lui, rien ne s'explique; autour de lui, tout s'éclaire et s'ordonne.”—Sylvain Lévi.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , November 1957 , pp. 17 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1957

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References

1 Despite their use of modern methods, Dr. Hu Shih's studies in Chinese Buddhist history are not unmarked by this attitude. See his “The Indianization of China: A Case Study in Cultural Borrowing” in Independence, Convergence, and Borrowing, Harvard Tercentenary Publications (Cambridge, 1937), pp. 219–247Google Scholar. The last sentence of this essay reads: “With the new aids of modern science and technology, and of the new social and historical sciences, we are confident that we may yet achieve a rapid liberation from the two thousand years' cultural domination by India.”

2 Robert Redfield, in his Peasant Society and Culture (Chicago, 1956)Google Scholar, has suggested a number of ways of looking at the relation between elite and peasant culture in a single society. See particularly the chapter “The Social Organization of Tradition,” pp. 67–104.Google Scholar

3 The first date is conventional—that of the Buddhist observances of Ying, Prince of Ch'u, brother of Han Ming-ti, recorded in the Hou-Han shu. See Maspero, H., “Le songe et l'ambassade de l'Empereur Ming,” BEFEO, X (1910), 95–130CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Wada Sei, in a recent article, expresses doubts—which I do not share—concerning this account written down by Fan Yeh in a much later and strongly Buddhist age. Wada believes that the first incontrovertible evidence of the presence of Buddhism in China is that given by the references to Buddhism in Chang Heng's (78–139) “Hsi-ching fu” [“Rhyme-prose on the Western Capital”]. See Sei, Wada, “Bukkyō tōden no nendai ni tsuite”Google Scholar [“Concerning the Date of the Eastward Transmission of Buddhism”] in Sasaki kyōju koki kinen shukuga rombun bunshū [A Collection of Essays in Honor of Professor Sasaki's Seventieth Birthday] (Tokyo, 1955), pp. 491–501.Google Scholar

4 See Balazs, Etienne, “La crise sociale et la philosophie politique à la fin des Han,” TP, XXXIX (1949), 84–87Google Scholar. Balazs, , p. 86Google Scholar, cites the account of Hou-Han shu, ch. 8, which records that the five eunuchs who assassinated the head of one of the Empress' family cliques were ennobled by the grateful monarch, given a marquisate which entitled them to income from 76,000 families and, in addition, the sum of fifty-six millions.

5 See Levy, Howard S., “Yellow Turban Religion and Rebellion at the End of Han,” JAOS, LXXVI (1956); 214–227.Google Scholar

6 Balazs, , p. 91.Google Scholar

7 See Balazs, Etienne, “Entre révolte nihiliste et évasion mystique, les courants intellectuels en Chine au Hie siècle de notre ère,” Études Asiatiques, II (1948), 27–55.Google Scholar

8 Waley, Arthur, “The Fall of Loyang,” History Today, No. 4 (04 1951), p. 8.Google Scholar

9 This does not mean that there was no interest whatever. We know, for example, that the Han Emperor Huan (ruled 147–167), on the recommendation of the sorcerer Hsiang Chieh, paid homage to a Buddha image (Hou-Han shu [T'ung-wen ed. of 1884], 60B.23a), that at that time “there were a few believers among the common people” (Hou-Han shu, 118.12b), etc. Yet the interest that did exist seemed, on the one hand, rather idle curiosity about an exotic form of Taoism and, on the other, a desire to acquire and exploit its alleged magical power. This slowly changes towards the end of the period we are considering.

10 Pien-cheng lun, ch. 3 (Taishō Vol. LII), p. 502c.Google Scholar

11 Figures from Daijō, Tokiwa, Yakugyō sōroku [General List of Translated Scriptures] (Tokyo, 1938), pp. 11–17.Google Scholar

12 See Yung-t'ung, T'ang, Han Wei Hang Chin nan-pei ch'ao Fo-chiao shih [History of Buddhism in the Han, Western and Eastern Chin, and Nan-pei ch'ao periods] (Ch'ang-sha, 1938), pp. 71–73Google Scholar. H. Maspero suggested that this community may have been historically linked to the early Taoistic-Buddhist community at P'eng-ch'eng fostered by Prince Ying of Han who died in A.D. 71. See “Les origines de la communauté bouddhiste de Lo-yang,” JA, CCXXV (1934), 91–92.Google Scholar

13 See Demiéville, Paul, “La pénétration du Bouddhisme dans la tradition philosophique chinoise,” Cahiers d'histoire mondiale, Vol. III, No. 1 (1956), pp. 19–38.Google Scholar

14 I accept Pelliot's dating. See his “Meou-tseu ou les doutes levés,” TP, XIX (1920), 255–433.Google Scholar

15 Waley, , p. 10Google Scholar. The translation from the Sogdian is by W. B. Henning.

16 Shih-shuo hsin-yü (Ssu-pu pei-yao ed.), lA.22b. At the end of his speech Wang Tao says, literally, “Why should we sit looking at one another like [so many] prisoners of Ch'u?” The allusion is to a prisoner from Ch'u state whom the Marquis of Chin took pity on, released, and sent back to Ch'u as a peace envoy. See Legge's translation of the Ch'un-ch'iu and Tso-chuan, Vol. I, p. 371.Google Scholar

17 Demiéville, , pp. 23–24Google Scholar, suggests that this pattern of progression from Confucianism through neo-Taoism to Buddhism was typical for educated Chinese converts from the 4th to the 7th century.

18 For the reflection of the vogue of Vimalakirti in Buddhist art, see Davidson, J. LeRoy, “Traces of Buddhist Evangelism in Early Chinese Art,” Artibus Asiae, XI (1948), 251–265CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Vimalakirti figures prominently in the cave-temples of north China, but the meaning of his cult in the north would be differently interpreted in relation to a different clientele.

19 See Gernet, Jacques, Les aspects économiques du Bouddhisme dans la société chinoise du Ve au Xe siècle (Saigon, 1956), pp. 245–269Google Scholar. I have reviewed this important study in JAS, Vol. XVI, No. 3 (05 1957), pp. 408–414Google Scholar, under the title “The Economic Role of Buddhism in China.”

20 See Nan-Ch'i shu (T'ung-wen ed. of 1884)Google Scholar, 53.3b; also Miyakawa Hisayuki, “Rikuchō jidai jin no Bukkyō shinko” (“The Buddhist Faith of the People of the Six Dynasties Period”), Bukkyō shigaku, Vol. IV, No. 2 (1955), pp. 1–17.Google Scholar

21 On this ruler, see Mikisaburō, Mori, Ryō no Butei [Emperor Wu of the Liang] (Kyoto, 1956)Google Scholar, especially pp. 134–169.

22 Edict of the Later Chao ruler Shih Hu, c. 335. See Wright, , “Fo-t'u-têng, A Biography, HJAS XI (1948), 356.Google Scholar

23 Miyakawa, , p. 8Google Scholar, cites the case from Wei shu, ch. 73, of a Northern Wei general who suffered remorse for the ferocious slaughters he had perpetrated, and donated his own houses for the building of temples in all the provinces in which he had held office. This means of expiating mass violence was to persist in the Sui and T'ang.

24 See Gernet, passim.

25 See, inter alia, Link, Arthur E., “Shyh Daw-an's Preface to Saṅgharakṣa's Yogacārabhūmi-sūtra and the Problem of Buddho-Taoist Terminology in Early Chinese Buddhism,” JAOS, LXXVII (1957), 1–14Google Scholar. Ōchō Enichi has recently suggested the three pre-conditions for the development of a matured theory of translation. These pre-conditions, which were fulfilled by Tao-an's time, were: 1) opportunities for sustained contact with foreigners which deepened the consciousness of the differences between Chinese and foreign languages; 2) availability of multiple translations of the same texts which made comparative study possible; 3) development of a demand, not for paraphrase and general interpretation, but for faithful and carefully modulated translations. See “Chūgoku Bukkyō shoki no honyakuron” (“Discussions concerning the Method of Translation in the Early Chinese Buddhism”), Yamaguchi hakushi kanreki kinen Indogaku Bukkyōgaku ronsō [Symposium of Indian and Buddhist Studies in Honor of Dr. Yamaguchi's Sixtieth Birthday] (Kyoto, 1955), pp. 221–232.Google Scholar

26 See Gernet, , pp. 240–250.Google Scholar

27 See Miyakawa, , p. 8Google Scholar. He cites the instance from Wei shu, ch. 22, of a Northern Wei official who, besides supporting famous monks and financing sixty copies of the Buddhist canon, built seventy-two temples. A monk criticized him for causing the death of men and oxen in his extravagant building activities. He replied—with scant piety and much cynicism—that posterity would see and admire the temples and would know nothing of the men and oxen which had perished.

28 See Wright, , “Fu I and the Rejection of Buddhism,” Journal of the History of Ideas, XII (1951), 34–38 and p. 34Google Scholar note 1 for references to Tsukamoto Zenryū's three important studies of the Northern Chou suppression.

29 Some of the following is drawn from my forthcoming paper, “The Formation of Sui Ideology,” in Fairbank, John K., ed., Thought and Institutions in China (Chicago, 1957).Google Scholar

30 Reischauer, Edwin O., Ennin's Travels in T'ang China (New York, 1955), p. 165.Google Scholar

31 On Amoghavajra, see Yi-liang, Chou, “Tantrism in China,” HJAS, VIII (1945), 284–307Google Scholar. On the powerful clerics of the Sui and T'ang, see Giken, Takao, Chūgoku Bukkyōshiron [Essays in Chinese Buddhist History] (Kyoto, 1952), pp. 51–53.Google Scholar

32 Hsü kao-seng chuan, ch. 21 (Taishō Vol. L), p. 610b–c. Gernet, p. 33 and passim, points out that the Vinaya rules were favored by secular authority as a means of keeping the numbers and activities of the Buddhist clergy within strict limits.

33 Takao, , p. 47.Google Scholar

34 Ibid.

35 The percentage is based on the figure of approximately 48,000 poems in the Ch'ūan T'ang-shih and on the number of titles in the index to Buddhist-related titles in that collection compiled by Reiichi, Kasuga in Nikka Bukkyō kenkyūkai nempō [Annual of the Sino-Japanese Buddhist Research Society], Vol. II (Kyoto, 1937).Google Scholar

36 See Reischauer, , pp. 164–216.Google Scholar

37 The most comprehensive study of this movement is Keiki, Yabuki, Sankaikyō no Kenkyū (Tokyo, 1927)Google Scholar. The sect later revived and had a large following in the T'ang, but its fanaticism and exclusiveness brought on four further suppressions.

38 On Pure Land Buddhism in the mid-T'ang, see Zenryū, Tsukamoto, Tō chūki no Jōdōkyō (Tokyo, 1933).Google Scholar

39 See Demiéville, , “La pénetration du Bouddhisme,” pp. 33–35.Google Scholar

40 Gernet, Jacques, Entretiens du Maitre de Dhyāna Chen-Houei de Ho-tsö (Hanoi, 1949), p. ivGoogle Scholar. This applies, of course, more to the “subitist” school of Ch'an than to the “gradualist.” At the risk of pushing an analogy too far, one might suggest that the “gradualist” viewpoint, whether in Ch'an, Confucianism, or neo-Confucianism, reflects the strong persisting Chinese interest in heredity, status, and hierarchy which is perenially in conflict with ideals of mobility. That the Ch'an Buddhism of the T'ang struck contemporary Indian Buddhists as outlandish and heterodox is attested by the eighth-century Sino-Indian debates at Lhasa. See Demiéville, Paul, Le concile de Lhasa (Paris, 1952), pp. 348–50 and passim.Google Scholar

41 Tsukamoto Zenryū, chapter on Chinese Buddhism in Shina shūkyōshi [History of Chinese Religions], Vol. XI of the Shina chiri rekishi taikei (Tokyo, 1942), p. 195.Google Scholar

42 See Gernet, , Les aspects économiques, p. 298.Google Scholar

43 Sargent, Galen Eugene, Tchou Hi contre le Bouddhisme (Paris, 1956), pp. 7–8.Google Scholar

44 Levenson, Joseph R., “The Amateur Ideal in Ming and Ch'ing Painting,” to appear in Fairbank, John K., ed., Thought and Institutions in China (Chicago, 1957).Google Scholar

45 Grootaers, William A., “Temples and History of Wan ch'üan, Chahar,” MS XIII (1948), 314Google Scholar. A total of 851 temples and shrines were studied.

46 Hsü, Francis L. K., Under the Ancestors' Shadow (New York, 1948), p. 173.Google Scholar

47 Shih, Hu, “The Conception of Immortality in Chinese Thought,” The Peiping Chronicle, 02 12, 1947Google Scholar. It should be pointed out that tripartite immortality (literally “nondecay”)—of virtue, service, and wise words—was specified by an official of the State of Lu as early as 549 B.C. See Legge, , The Chinese Classics, V, 507Google Scholar. But two elements in Hu Shih's statement show the absorption of Buddhist ideas: the idea of the chain-reaction (karma) and the un-Chinese notion of infinite time and space.

48 Shao-ch'i, Liu, Lun kung-ch'ang-tang-yüan ti hsiu-yang (Hongkong ed. of 1949), pp. 30–32Google Scholar. Discussed by Nivison, David S. in “Communist Ethics and Chinese Tradition,” JAS, XVI (1956), 60.Google Scholar

49 This approach has been extensively used by Nakamura Hajime in his Tōyōjin shiihōhō [Ways of Thinking of East Asian Peoples] (Tokyo, 1948)Google Scholar. Nakamura's methodology was discussed at length by him and a Stanford University faculty seminar in 1951–1952.