The origin of Chinese Buddhism?

Chinese Buddhism (中国佛教) Buddhism began to be introduced to China from India around the beginning of the Gregorian calendar, and after a long period of spreading and development, Chinese Buddhism was formed with Chinese national characteristics. Due to the different time, way, region, culture and social history, Chinese Buddhism has formed three major systems, namely, Han Buddhism (Han Chinese system), Tibetan Buddhism (Tibetan system) and Theravada Buddhism (Pali system) in the Yunnan area. Han Buddhism The Buddhism introduced into the Han area of China, after a long period of classical translation, study and melting, combined with the traditional Chinese culture, thus forming various schools and sects with national characteristics; and spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam. History The date of the introduction of Buddhism into Han China has not yet been determined by academics. In ancient Chinese historical records, there are records of 18 people coming to China, such as Shamen Muri Defense, during the time of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. According to the Shanmilu Vipasha, in the time of King Ashoka, after the third gathering of Buddhism, the great Buddhist monk Mahakala was sent to the world of Yana (original note: Han); and Mādhyamika was sent to the bordering country of Xueshan. According to the Tibetan Doronatha History of Indian Buddhism, the monk Shanmai traveled to Dajina to propagate the Dharma at the time of King Dharma Ashoka. According to the Buddhist History of South China, the monk Shanmai went to Dajina to propagate the Dharma at the time of Dharma Ashoka. The above activities cannot be confirmed because there are no translations of the remains of these teachings. The first transmission of Han Jianyuan two years to Yuan Shuo three years (139 ~ ~ 126 BC), Zhang Qian mission to the Western Regions, had seen in Daxia from the bream trafficked Shu cloth, Qiongzhu staff, indicating that at that time there was a civil traffic between China and India, and may be Buddhism has been introduced into the Han Dynasty. Han Wu Di also opened up the sea channel and the east coast of India, such as the Yellow Branch to establish contact. In recent years, archaeological discoveries, the Eastern Han Dynasty in Sichuan Pengshan tombs have been Buddha, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, Kongwangshan Buddhist cliff carving preliminary confirmation also belongs to the Eastern Han Dynasty. Ming Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Yongping eight years (65) gave Chu Wang Ying edict that it "Shang Fudu's benevolent shrine, clean fasting for three months, and the gods for the oath", it can be seen that at that time there has been the introduction of Buddhism. The introduction of the classics, according to legend, began in the first year of the Han Yuan Shou (2 BC), the king of the Dayuezhi made Icun oral teaching doctor disciple Jinglu to Faudu Sutra (Buddhist scriptures), but to find out what the scriptures, has been lost. It is said that the 42 Chapters of the Sutra were sent to the Western Regions during the Yongping period (58-75 A.D.), and that this was the first time that Buddhism was introduced to China. Whether this is a historical fact or not is quite controversial in recent times. Because of the war in the Western Regions at that time, transportation was cut off, and it was not until the 16th year of Yongping that the area was opened. Therefore, it can only be assumed that Buddhism began to spread into the Han areas around the beginning of the Gregorian calendar. The spreading area was centered on Chang'an and Luoyang, and spread to Pengcheng (Xuzhou) and other places. At that time, some people thought that Buddhism was a kind of fairy magic, so Emperor Huan sacrificed the Yellow Emperor, Laozi and Buddha together, "reciting Huanglao's micro-phrases, and Shangfudu's benevolent shrine", and regarded Shamen as the same as Fangshi. Three Kingdoms Period After the succession of the Han Dynasty, Shamans from Tianzhu, Anshi, and Kangju, such as Tanko Kara, Tanti, and Kang Shengjia, came to the capital of Wei, Luoyang, to engage in the translation of sutras; and Zhiqian went to the capital of Wu to propagate the Dharma in Jianye (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu Province). Zhi Qian was honored by Sun Quan and made a doctor; he also built a pagoda for Kang Sheng Hui. Tanko Kara and Tanti were excellent in legal studies and translated a volume of precepts of the Mahabharata, the Heart of Precepts of Monks and Goddesses. He advocated that monks should follow the Buddha's system and be endowed with the precepts, which was the beginning of the precepts and precepts in Chinese Buddhism. Tantui also translated a volume of Tammu De Karmapa at the Baima Temple. In addition, Kang Shengjia also translated the "Yu Jia elder asked the sutra" and "immeasurable life sutra" and so on 4 parts. The translation of sutras in Wu began in Wuchang and flourished in Jianye. Zhiqian specialized in translating sutras as a business, the translation of canonical books widely involved in the large and small sections of sutras and laws, ****88, 118 volumes, the existing 51, 69 volumes; Kang Sheng will be translated the "six set of sutras," such as 9 volumes. At that time, the translation of the sutras, both large and small, was carried out. The Hinayana classics emphasized Zen, focusing on guarding the spirit and nourishing the mind ("guarding the mind"); the Mahayana favored prajna. The translation of sutras and the propagation and study of doctrines at this stage laid the initial ideological foundation for the development of Buddhism during the Wei, Jin, and North-South Dynasties. In addition, the temple and pagoda buildings and sculptures of the Buddha in this period were also of various scales, but very few of them exist today. The emperors of the Southern Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen Dynasties all believed in Buddhism. Emperor Wu of Liang was a great believer in Buddhism and called himself "Three Treasures Slave". He sacrificed his life to the temple four times, and all of them were redeemed by the state at his own expense. He established a large number of temples, personally preaching, holding a grand fast. Liang Dynasty, there are 2,846 temples, monks and nuns more than 82,700 people, in Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province), there are more than 700 large temples, monks and nuns often have ten thousand people. Although there were incidents of banning Buddhism in the Northern Wei Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Taiwu and Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, in general, the successive emperors fostered Buddhism. Emperor Wencheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty excavated the Yungang Grottoes in Datong; after Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, he began to create the Longmen Grottoes in honor of his mother. At the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were 415 Buddhist scriptures*** in circulation, 1,919 volumes, and there were about 30,000 monasteries, with about 2 million monks and nuns. Under the jurisdiction of the monk officials of the Northern Qi Dynasty, there were more than 4 million monks and nuns and more than 40,000 temples. In the Southern Ming in the North and South, a large number of foreign monks traveled to China to propagate the Dharma, among them the famous ones were Chonavarman, Chonavarman, Zhenshi, Bodhidhuryuzhi, and Lenamurti. China also had a group of believers who traveled to India, such as the famous Fa Xian, Zhi Mang, Song Yun, Huisheng, etc. had gone to North India on a tour, bringing back a large number of Buddhist scriptures. Sui and Tang Dynasty The development of Buddhism through the Wei, Jin and North and South Dynasties created conditions for the creation of Buddhist sects with Chinese characteristics during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, both ideologically and economically. After the unification of the North and South Dynasties, Emperor Wen of Sui issued an edict to build a temple in each of the five mountain resorts, and restored the statues of Buddha in the temple that had been destroyed during the ban on Buddhism in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. In the capital city of Daxing City (southeast of Chang'an City in Han Dynasty), the Daxingxian Temple was established as a state temple to carry out the Buddhist policy. During the period of Renshou (601-604), 111 stupas of relics were built in the whole country, and translation centers were set up extensively to invite Chinese and foreign translators and famous monks to translate and explain Buddhist classics. Emperor Yang followed Emperor Wen's policy of protecting Buddhism and established the famous Huiridaochang in Yangzhou as a stronghold for spreading Buddhism, and continued to develop the scripture translation business of his predecessors, and Buddhism flourished. During the Renshou period, there were 3,792 important monasteries, 230,000 monks, 328,616 volumes of 46 collections of scriptures, 3,853 repairs of old scriptures, and 1,508,940 stone statues of large and small statues repaired. The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of Buddhism in China. Although the Tang emperors claimed to be the descendants of Laozi, the founder of Taoism, and honored Taoism, they actually adopted a policy of parallelism between Taoism and Buddhism. When Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was clearing out the sects and calming down the riots, he had the help of monks and soldiers; after his accession to the throne, he issued an edict to establish monasteries and temples in the country's "warring places" and set up a scripture translation institute in the Daci'en Temple, which invited famous monks both at home and abroad to carry out the translation of scriptures and propagate the cause, and trained a large number of senior monks and scholars. After Emperor Gaozong succeeded to the throne, he set up official temples in the imperial capital and various states to pray for the peace and prosperity of the country; Wu Zetian even ordered various states to set up the Dayun Temple. During the Tang Dynasty, Buddhist monks were highly honored and rewarded. The monk Bukong worked for Emperor Xuanzong, Emperor Suzong, and Emperor Daizong, and was given the title of Duke of Su Guo; after his death, Emperor Daizong abolished the court for three days to show his condolences. During the Tang Dynasty, there were many famous Buddhist monks in China, and their interpretation of Buddhist doctrine exceeded that of the previous generation in both depth and breadth, thus laying the theoretical foundation for the establishment of many sects with national characteristics. Moreover, Buddhist beliefs penetrated into the folklore, creating popular popular sermons, changing texts and other forms of literature and art. In architecture, sculpture, painting, music, etc., it made great achievements and enriched the treasury of Chinese national culture and art. In the Tang Dynasty, there are a large number of foreign monks, scholars to engage in missionary work and translation of the scriptures in China, China also has a lot of monks (such as Xuanzang, Yijing), not to spare the hardship to support the Indian study tours. Chinese Buddhist sects began to spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Hualing (present-day Indonesia), strengthening the religious, cultural and commercial relations between China and other countries in the Crooked Continent. However, by the fifth year of Huichang (845), a large-scale ban on Buddhism occurred for various social and economic reasons. Wu Zong ordered the confiscation of monastery land and property, the destruction of Buddhist temples and statues, the elimination of Shamen, and the ordering of monks and nuns to return to secularism. According to the records of Tang Hui Yao, there were more than 4,600 temples demolished, more than 40,000 Buddhist buildings such as Zhaoti and Lanruo, confiscation of temple properties, and forcing monks and nuns to return to secularism amounted to 260,500 people. Buddhism suffered a great blow. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, Buddhist doctrine flourished, leading to the establishment of various Mahayana sects. Important ones were the Tiantai Sect founded by Zhiyi; the Sanlun Sect founded by Jizang; the Dharma Sang Sect founded by Xuanzang and Peugeot; the Ruling Sect founded by Daoxuan, Fadong, and Huaisu, with the Nanshan, Sangbu, and Dongtajia sects; the Pure Land Sect founded by Tanluan of the Northern Wei Dynasty, succeeded by Daoxue of the Sui Dynasty, and integrated by Shandao of the Tang Dynasty; and the Ch'an Sect founded by Shenxiu and Huineng, the disciples of Hongneng, with the North Sect and South Sect, and then the "Five Schools of Ch'an" that emerged after the middle of the Tang Dynasty. The "Five Schools of Zen", i.e., Weiyang, Linji, Caodong, Yunmen, and Fayan; the Avatamsaka Sect founded by Fa Zang; and the Tantric Sect laid down by the Indian monks Shan Wufei, Vajra Zhi, Bukong, and Huiguo. After the founding of these sects, they soon spread overseas with the opening up of China's foreign transportation in the Sui and Tang dynasties. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the imperial court adopted a protective policy toward Buddhism. In the first year of the Jianlong era (960), 8,000 monks were sent to India to seek the teachings of the Dharma, followed by 157 people, such as Xingqin, who were sent to India to seek the teachings of the Dharma. Taiping Xingguo first year (976) and the universal monks 170,000 people, five years to set up the translation of the Scripture Institute, resumed from the Tang Dynasty Yuan and six years (811) since the interruption of the translation of the Scriptures of the 170-year-long period. At the same time, monks from the Western Regions and Ancient India brought scriptures to China in an endless stream, and by the beginning of the Jingyou period (1034-1037), there were already more than 80 monks. The scale of scripture translation exceeded that of the Tang Dynasty, but the achievements were slightly less. The Zen sects, especially Linji and Yunmen, were the most prevalent, followed by Tiantai, Huayan, Ruling, and Pure Land sects. Because of the mutual integration of the various sects, they provided "consistency in teaching (Tiantai and Huayan) Zen" and "consistency in purifying Zen", and thus Huayan Zen, Nenbutsu Zen, and so on, became widely popular. In addition, the Tiantai Sect was divided into the Shanjia and Shanwai sects, and the Nenbutsu associations in the private sector were particularly prosperous and influential. In the fifth year of Tianxi (1021), there were nearly 460,000 monks and nuns in the world, and nearly 40,000 monasteries, which was the peak of the development of Buddhism in the Northern Song Dynasty. Huizong (1101-1125), because of the court's strong belief in Taoism, once ordered the merger of Buddhism and Taoism, change the temple for Taoist temple, Buddhism once suffered a blow. In the Southern Song Dynasty, although Buddhism in the south of the Yangtze River still maintains a certain prosperity, due to the official restrictions on the development of Buddhism, in addition to Zen and Pure Buddhism, the other sects have been increasingly declining and far from what they used to be. Ch'an Buddhism did not emphasize scripture and theories, so it was less affected by the ban on Buddhism in Huichang and the Five Dynasties' military turmoil. Pure Land Sect emphasized the Buddha's name and chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha, which was simple and easy to implement, and after the Northern Ning Dynasty, most of the Zen monks returned to the Pure Land, so it was able to continue until the recent times, and is still based on the prevalence of the Pure Land. Song Confucianism, on the one hand, draws on the Buddhist Huayan, Zen thought, thus enriching the content of the scriptures, on the other hand, criticized and rejected Buddhism. Ouyang Xiu was the most famous of the excluders of Buddhism, but Ouyang Xiu's exclusionary ideas were opposed by the monk Qisong, the Song chancellor Zhang Shangying, Li Gang, and Liu Tranquillity, etc. Zhang Shangying wrote The Essay on the Protection of the Dharma. Zhang Shangying's "Treatise on the Protection of the Dharma" created the theory of reconciling the three religions, arguing that the way of Confucius and the way of knowledge of the heart and the supreme bodhi advocated by Buddhism were no different from the way of Confucianism to cure the disease of the skin, the way to cure the disease of the blood, and the way of Buddhism to cure the disease of the bone marrow, and that there was no contradiction in the original purpose of the three religions. Liu Tranquillity's The Three Teachings on the Equalization of Minds also played out the same purpose. Yuan, Ming, and Qing The rulers of the Yuan dynasty revered Tibetan Buddhism, but also adopted a policy of protection for Chinese Buddhism. The Ch'an and Ruling sects of Buddhism continued to spread and develop, with numerous monasteries and 213,000 monks and nuns. The central and local governments had a strict system of monastic officials to supervise the work, and issued the Royal Edicts of the Hundred Taichung Rules and Regulations, and engraved and printed the famous Puning Monastery version of the Da Zang Jing (Great Tibetan Sutra). After the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the four great masters, namely, Dihong, Zhenke, Deqing, and Zhixu, further developed the internal integration of the doctrines of Zen, Buddhism, and Law, and the external integration of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and were therefore very popular with the scholars and commoners' beliefs, and made Buddhism more characteristic of China. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the royal family worshiped Tibetan Buddhism and adopted a restrictive policy towards Chinese Buddhism. Kangxi when the ban slightly relaxed, welcome Qing Ming end of the reclusive monks returned to the capital, so that the decline of Buddhism has been a moment and Wu now active weather. Yongzheng although attach importance to Tibetan Buddhism, but advocates Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and the same body, parallel and not contradictory, to provide the integration of various schools of Buddhism. He personally produced the book of "picking the devil to identify the difference" and "the imperial selection of the discourse", which provided that regardless of the differences and similarities of the sects, they should all recite the Buddha's name, which had an important influence on Buddhism in recent times. During the Qianlong period, he published the Dragon Collection and edited the Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan Mantras, which played a role in promoting the development of Buddhism. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, Yang Wenhui, Ouyang Jingwu and others, driven by the study of Buddhism in Japan and Western Europe, founded scripture-carving offices, Buddhist colleges, Buddhist societies and so on, opening up a new period for the study of Buddhist doctrine. Modern Chinese thinkers such as Kang Youwei, Tan Sitong, Zhang Taiyan and Liang Qichao were all influenced by Buddhism. Buddhist thought had been one of the ideological sources of the Renxue system established by Tan Sitong. In addition, a group of famous monks such as Yuexia, Shime Xian, Yuan Ying, Taixu, Hongyi, etc. also rose to engage in the revitalization and promotion of Buddhism, so that Buddhism has produced a new weather.