M06.2 Buddhism, Daoism and the state

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Из курса от партнера The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Religious Transformation in Early China: the Period of Division

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The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Religious Transformation in Early China: the Period of Division

1 оценки

This sequence of four courses will propose a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of Chinese cultural history conceived of as a succession of modes of rationality (philosophical, bureaucratic, and economic). The focus will be on the moments of paradigm shift from one mode of rationality to another. For each of these moments, cultural facts and artifacts—thought, literature, ritual—will be examined in relationship to changing social, political, and economic systems. The first two courses will cover the periods of the Warring States (481-256 BCE) and the Period of Division (220-589 CE), with a brief excursion into the Han (206 BCE-220 CE). The Warring States laid the social and cultural foundations for the emergence of the imperial mode of rationality; the Period of Division saw the Buddhist “conquest” of China and the emergence of a rationality defined by the opposition of the Three Teachings to shamanism, that is, of a clear contrast between elite and popular culture. The third and fourth courses will focus on the emergence of modern China in the Song-Yuan (960-1368) and of today’s China 1850 to the present. We will see how the modern attack on religion, redefined as "superstition", led not only to religious reform movements but also to a society in which science and the nation became the primary value systems promoted by the state. The courses are listed below: A Critical Cultural History of China - Early China I: Intellectual Change in the Warring States and Han (481 BCE-220 CE) A Critical Cultural History of China - Early China II: Religious Transformation in the Period of Division (220-589 CE) A Critical Cultural History of China - Modern China I: Religion and Thought in the Song, Jin, and Yuan (960-1368) (To be launched in late 2018) A Critical Cultural History of China - Modern China II: Structuring Values (1850-2015) (To be launched in late 2018)

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MODULE 06 Religious Transformation in the Period of Division (220-589 AD)

This module presents the relationship between the elite attack on shamanism and their promotion of a cosmology that transformed medicine and laid the foundations for both self-cultivation and a bureaucratic empire.

M06.2 Buddhism, Daoism and the state13:04

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Prof. John Lagerwey
Research Professor
Centre for China Studies

So we just started talking about Buddhism

and I think this is a good time to point out

that the images on this second set on <i>Early Chinese Religion</i>, on the Period of Division,

contain images—sculpted images— from the Northern Wei period that we just talked about.

So what I'd like to do now is talk about Buddhism, Daoism, and the state.

We just saw how Buddhism in fact supports the state and the role of the emperor. Daoism does too.

In the south, starting with Song Wendi, who reigned from 424 to 454, a whole series of emperors,

including Liang Wudi that we'll talk more about in a moment,

were given "bodhisattva ordination."

They were transmitted the <i>pusajie</i> 菩薩戒. <i>Pusa</i> is the Chinese word for bodhisattva.

Bodhisattvas are people who could have become buddhas

but decide to stay behind in order to <i>pudu zhongsheng</i> 普渡眾生, help to save all creatures. Okay?

And so some of the most important—what shall I say?—divinities

in fact in Buddhism—Chinese Buddhism, such as Guanyin 觀音 or Wenshu 文殊,

they are in fact bodhisattvas, not buddhas. Okay.

So these bodhisattva rules or commandments— that is how one became a Buddhist.

So by ordaining the emperor with these <i>pusajie</i>, they were in fact making him a Buddhist.

But the same emperor built a temple called the Chongxuguan 崇虛館, Veneration of the Void,

for the Daoist reformer Lu Xiujing 陸修靜, whose dates are 406 to 477.

He's not the only emperor to have done it.

Chen Wudi did it. He reigned from 557 to 560.

Xiaowen of the Northern Wei that we just talked about did it in the year 491

and then the Northern Qi did it in the period between 550 and 577.

So here we have four cases—two in the North, two in the South—

of emperors founding for a Daoist priest the Chongxuguan. Why?

In my view, there's a text from the Tang dynasty

but which quotes one that dates in fact back to the early fifth century

in which it says that "[every early] Heavenly Master diocese, " the <i>zhi</i> that we just talked about,

"was supposed to have a temple [with] that name."

So this suggests that the Heavenly Masters,

even though we can't really follow their succession of one Heavenly Master to another—

between the third Heavenly Master Zhang Lu and I think it's the thirteenth or the fourteenth,

we have no knowledge of anything about the successors to Zhang Lu—

but the Heavenly Master Daoism was clearly continuing to function in society

and even at political levels.

So we just saw that Buddhists <i>shou</i>, transmitted, <i>pusajie</i> —bodhisattva rules, commandments—

to make an emperor a Buddhist.

What did the Daoists do?

They <i>shoulu</i> 授籙; they transmitted "registers." Registers of what?

Registers of all of the spiritual powers over which you had control.

And so in the early Heavenly Master church, you started with the <i>yi jiangjun lu</i> 一將軍籙

then the <i>shi jiangjun lu</i> 十將軍籙 and so on.

The register of one general, then ten generals then 75 and finally 150. Okay?

And with these 150 generals, you've reached the end of what I call the lay ordinations,

but then you could go on and receive many many other registers.

So of course the emperors were always given the highest registers

so that they were Daoists of the highest degree. Okay?

So both of them are going about ordaining emperors to the highest status.

"In return, in [the year] 431, Taiwu, " who reigned from the years 424 to 452,

so "Taiwu [emperor] of the Northern Wei," still the Northern Wei,

"created the first state- sponsored national network of Daoist altars (<i>tan</i> 壇)."

Notice it's the same word as Tiantan,

that is to say the platform where the sacrifice to Heaven was performed.

That's not just a haphazard convergence of the vocabulary

and the ritual practices of Daoism and the state.

So he created a national network of Daoist altars "with one in each provincial capital."

"He also built a 'ritual space for the Heavenly Master, <i>tianshi daochang</i> 天師道場',

southeast of his capital."

That is to say in the southern suburbs, <i>nanjiao</i> 南郊,

which you may recall is where the sacrifice to Heaven was performed from Wang Mang on.

But it says "southeast of his capital."

Then we have a text by Li Daoyuan 郦道元 called the <i>Shuijing zhu</i> 水經注,

which is a commentary of this fellow who died in the year 527— the early sixth century,

a commentary on the Water Classic—about all of the rivers of China.

And Li Daoyuan says that this ritual space for the Heavenly Master

was in fact "modeled on the Hall of Light," the Mingtang

that we saw was so central to the definition of imperial legitimacy in the Han dynasty.

And you may recall that Wang Mang also placed his ancestors in that hall,

so it was a combination of being in conformity with the <i>jieqi</i>, with the cycle of the seasons,

but also incorporating, associating the ancestors with this law, these laws of the universe. Okay?

So it's very interesting that it seems like the Daoists here are literally taking over

one of the key imperial institutions of sacrifice.

And "then he 'abolished Buddhism'." Yes! You heard me!

He abolished Buddhism—<i>miefo</i> 滅佛.

And he's considered to be one of <i>sanwu</i> 三武, the three Martial Emperors.

So Northern Wei Taiwu—greatly Wu, greatly military,

and then we'll have in a moment Beizhou 北周 Northern Zhou dynasty Wudi,

and then it will be another, Wuzong, Martial Emperor in the Tang dynasty

in the, I think it's 840s, who will also <i>miefo</i>, who will forbid Buddhism

for usually a very brief period,

because their successors always restore Buddhism.

In other words, Buddhism could not be abolished.

But anyway, "he 'abolished Buddhism' and made Daoism the state religion."

The Martial Emperor of the Northern Zhou who reigned from 561 to 578 did exactly the same thing.

The successor of Northern Zhou Martial Emperor, Xuandi,

reigned just for two years—579 to 580— reversed the elimination of Buddhism,

but above all a very very interesting detail is recorded in history about him.

It says: "The images of the Buddha and the Celestial Worthy were restored to their places."

Now, Buddha Okay. Celestial Worthy? What are we talking about?

That's <i>tianzun</i> 天尊 in Chinese.

<i>Tianzun</i> for anybody who knows anything at all about this period

immediately sounds like something Buddhist, <i>shizun</i> 世尊—the world honored one,

which was a standard epithet for Buddha.

And indeed to associate the two is absolutely right. Why?

Because <i>tianzun</i>—the Celestial Worthy—is a deity who is primordial in a series of scriptures

called the Lingbao scriptures that we'll talk more about later,

that were revealed in southern China— in the native dynasties in other words—

around the year 400, around the year 400.

And then precisely under Zhou Wudi these Lingbao scriptures arrive in the north.

They arrive before that of course

but they came to be accepted by Zhou Wudi as central to his definition of power

and he in fact then held debates between the <i>sanjiao</i>, between the three teachings,

classified Daoism as first and then set Daoists to produce an encyclopedia

called the <i>Wushang biyao</i> 無上秘要, "The Secrets of the Supreme than which there is nothing higher."

And in this text, this huge encyclopedia of originally 100 <i>juan</i> 卷 100 chapters

that starts with the <i>dadao</i> 大道—the Great Dao—

and ends after a long long progression through the entire cosmos —Daoist cosmos—

including all of its practices, ritual practices,

ends by the return to <i>jiji</i> 寂寂, back, the return to silence, the silence of the Dao. Okay?

So <i>tianzun</i> had come to be central, not only to practices among the people,

but also to practices on the highest level of the state

and to the definition of Daoism by the time.

So Xuandi (579-580), he sits down with the images of the Buddha

and the Celestial Worthy being restored to their places.

"The Emperor sat together with the two images facing south."

That's what we've already seen is the position of the emperor— <i>nanmian erzuo</i>, sits facing south.

"Grand performances of various kinds were put on,

and the officials and common people alike were invited to watch."

So this becomes a festive display, of what?

A display of <i>sanjiao heyi</i> 三教合一.

So now we can see: we're on the threshold,

580-581, the Sui will conquer all of North China, 589, all of South China.

So we're on the cusp of the reunification of China,

but look what happened before political reunification: ideological reunification.

So now we can talk about <i>sanjiao</i>, now we can talk about the "three teachings."

And we can also see that they are the state-sponsored

and approved definition of legitimate religious and political authority.

So we can imagine that the emperor sat in the middle—

we wouldn't expect him to sit off on the side, would we?

He's sitting in the middle and let's imagine for a moment

that he had Buddha on his right and the Celestial Worthy on his left.

I don't think the text tells us but we can be quite sure that that's the way it was,

because throughout this period, during the debates,

there are texts which emerge and which the Daoists say polemically

that we are the religion of life—the left, the <i>yang</i>—

and Buddhism is the religion of death.

We'll come back to this theme later in a different context. Okay?

Why did they say that? Well, at least

because Buddhism is about <i>mie</i>, that is to say Nirvāṇa.

But Nirvāṇa is conceived of as the elimination of everything

and the return to this emptiness where karma no longer has its hold on people. Okay?

So it's a total <i>jiefang</i>, a total liberation, from the attachments of this world.

So it's associated with <i>mie</i>—with elimination of attachments,

which characterize us as human beings in this world. Okay?

Many other reasons that lead to this association of Buddhism with death including the fact

that they become the primary purveyors of funeral rituals right down to this day,

even when Daoists, Lingbao Daoists, right down to the present date,

do funeral rituals, they're called <i>gongde</i> 功德, just like the Buddhist rituals,

and they're full of Buddhist elements. Okay?

So we can imagine like I say that the Buddha —the image of the Buddha—sat down on his right hand

and the image of the Celestial Worthy—who has now replaced Taishang Laojun, the Most High Lord Lao—sitting on his left.

Be that as it may, this is a festive occasion in which the public participates.

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