The Spread of Buddhisms, Part 1 From South Asia to China Tansen Sen Baruch College, The City University of New York
The Spread of Buddhisms, Part 1
From South Asia to China
Tansen Sen
Baruch College, The City University of New York
Key Issues
Many Buddhisms and piecemeal transmissions
The economics of Buddhisms State formation and Buddhisms The hopping and circulatory itineraries The Buddhist cosmopolis: multiple centers
and peripheries
Basic Timeline
c.1500-1000 BCE: Formation of Brahmanism
c.1000-500 BCE: Migration towards Ganges, followed by urbanization around River
Ganges, and the formation of jatis.
c. 400 BCE: Buddha and other critics of Brahmanism
c. 3rd century BCE: Reign of King Ashoka and the spread of Buddhism in southern Asia
1st century BCE-1st century CE: spread of Buddhism to Han China
c. 1st-3rd centuries CE: Kushans and the creation of Buddhist networks; spread to Burma
c.280-550: The Gupta Empire, deurbanization, revival of Brahmanism; spread to Korea
5th century: The establishment of the Nalanda University
c. 7th century: The emergence of vajrayana (esoteric Buddhism); spread to Japan and Tibet
12th century: Destruction of Buddhist institutions in parts of India
13th century: Localization in all part of Buddhist world; spread to Iran
The Early Spread of Buddhisms
Missionary work
State patronage
Links to merchant communities
The urban-monastic connections: A Parasitic relationship?
Caratha bhikkhave carikam bahujanahitaya bahujanasukhaya lokanukampaya ... Ma ekena dve agamittha. Desetha bhikkhave dhammam ... Aham pi bhikkhave yena Uruvela yena Sananigamo…
Go ye now, O Bhikkhus, and wander, for the gain of the many, for the welfare of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the good, for the gain, and for the welfare of gods and men, Let not two of you go the same way, Preach, O Bhikkhus, the doctrine which is glorious in the beginning, glorious in the middle, glorious at the end, in the spirit and in the letter; proclaim a consummate, perfect, and pure life of holiness. There are beings whose mental eyes are covered by scarcely any dust, but if the doctrine is not preached to them, they cannot attain salvation. They will understand the doctrine. And I will go also, O Bhikkhus, to Uruvelā, to Senāninigama, in order to preach the doctrine.
Mahavagga 1.11.1
“A hundred years after my nirvana, there will be a king by the name of Aśoka in the city of Paṭaliputra. He will be a cakravartin king and rule over one of the four continents, and he will construct eighty-four thousand stupas for the enshrinement of my relics.”
我入涅槃百年後。於波吒利弗多城當有王。名阿輸柯作四分轉輪王。於我舍利廣作供養。起八萬四千塔。
Ayuwang jing (T. 2043) c. 184BCE/Tr.506-524CE
Buddhisms and Trade Routes
Buddhisms and Trade
Urbanization in the Gangetic region, c. 600 BCE
The Buddha’s association with traders and wealthy individuals
Interdepended relationship: donations, spiritual support, transportation, commercial enterprise, trade routes and monastic institutions
The development of Avalokitesvara (later, Guanyin) cult, popular among the merchant communities/travelers
Place of Birth
Place of Enlightenment
Site of First Teaching
Site of Nirvana
Buddhisms in Foreign Lands
Royal/ “Official” Transmissions to Sri Lanka and China ◦ King Devanampiya Tissa in Sri Lanka
◦ Emperor Wu of Han China
The Contribution of Itinerant Traders
The Role of Images and Misperceptions
Missionary and Translation Work
The Children of Ashoka and the Conversion of Tissa (c. 250 BCE)
The Mahavamsa
• THE great thera Mahinda, of lofty wisdom, who at that time had been twelve years (a monk), charged by his teacher and by the brotherhood to convert the island of Lañkä, pondered on the fitting time (for this) and thought: `Old is the king Mutasiva; his son must become king.’
• The great Indra sought out the excellent thera Mahinda and said to him: `Set forth to
convert Lanka; by the Sam buddha also hast thou been foretold (for this) and we will be those who aid thee there.’
• ‘So truly as the great Bodhi-tree shall go hence to the isle of Lañkä, and so truly as I shall stand unalterably firm in the doctrine of the Buddha, shall this fair south branch of the great Bodhi-tree, severed of itself, take its place here in this golden vase.'
• Then the great Bodhi-tree severed, of itself, at the place where the line was, floating above the vase filled with fragrant earth. Above the line first (drawn) the ruler of men drew, at (a distance of) three finger-breadths, round about ten (further) pencil-strokes. And ten strong roots springing from the first and ten slender from each of the other (lines) dropped down, forming a net.
• Thus with a hundred roots the great Bodhi-tree set itself there in the fragrant earth, converting the people to the faith. Ten cubits long was the stem; five lovely branches (were thereon), each four cubits long and (each) adorned with five fruits, and on these branches were a thousand twigs. Such was the ravishing and auspicious great Bodhi-tree.
Not only “Theravadin” Sri Lanka
Issue Two: Diffusion or Long-Distance Transmission?
Problems with Contact Expansion
Evidence for Buddhist practices in China predates the evidence from Central Asia
Evidence for Buddhist practices in China predates the evidence from Southeast Asia
Evidence of transmission from China to Central and Southeast Asia
Networks and …
Segmented and/or long-distance (trading, migratory, financial, etc.)
Circulatory, never unidirectional or “one-off”
Depended on modes of transportation, geographical terrains, navigational knowhow, political patronage, economic feasibility, social or cultural relationship, and other factors
Often overlapping with other networks, connected to feeder and auxiliary routes, local and overseas markets, etc.
Must be seen as having multiple identities, with regard to people involved, commodities traded, and ideas transmitted
…Buddhist Networking
Use of existing networks, both segmented and long-distance, by monks
Facilitated the creation of new networks
through pilgrimage, monastic-building, and political/diplomatic activities
Supported networks of learning and
knowledge May not have received universal support from
every network operator
BUDDHISMS IN CHINA
HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN CHINA: QUESTIONABLE ISSUES
The dream of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, leading to the arrival of the first Indian monks, and the establishment of the first Buddhist monastery in East Asia (the White Horse/Baima Monastery)
The Role of Central Asia as the staging point of Buddhist transmission to China
The use of Daoist terminology in early
Buddhist translations
The “decline of Buddhism” in China after 845
Emperor Wudi Worshiping Buddha
White Horse Monastery
EMPEROR MING’S DREAM: A LATER FABRICATION
Linking “India” and “China” through Buddhisms
The early connections between urbanization, trade, and
the spread of Buddhisms (artifacts as well as ideas)
Translation, compilation, reinterpretation activities
Pilgrimages and missionary work Networks facilitating long-distance transmission of
Buddhism Creating a Buddhist identity for Asia
Buddhisms in Han China
1st Century BCE?: Transmission of images directly from southern Asia to China (“long-distance” rather than “contact expansion”), in disorganized instead of in an organized way, and perhaps before the chaos marking the end of the Eastern Han dynasty in late-2nd-early 3rd century or dissatisfaction with Confucian teachings.
65 CE: Buddhist terms known to the Han court
c. 65 CE: Possible presence of Buddhist monks and laypeople in Pengcheng/Luoyang
Han China (by the third century CE): Early amalgamation of indigenous and Buddhist ideas, especially at the folk level (Mount Kongwang, Han Tombs)
Interior of Cave IX, Ma Hao, Sichuan Province
Seated Buddha in Cave IX, Ma Hao, Sichuan Province. Dated to the late 2nd-first half of 3rd century
Seated Buddha and two attendants, Late Han Tomb at Pengshan, Sichuan Province
Buddhist engravings on Mount Kongwang
Donor figures, Mount Kongwang
The parinirvana of the Buddha,
Mount Kongwang
Early Buddhist Sites in China
The Maritime Buddhist Network: The Land-Sea Connections
Mount Kongwang evidence (2nd-3rd century CE)
Kang Senghui (d. 280), grew up and became a monk in Jiaozhi, and travelled to the court of Sun Quan (222-52). Father a Sogdian seafaring trader who migrated to the Jiaozhi region from “India.”
Travels of South Asian, including Kashmiri, monks to China (Guangzhou and Nanjing): Jivaka and Kumara in the 3rd century, Buddhajiva, Gunavarman, Gunabhadra and others in the 4th-5th century.
The pilgrimage of Faxian to India in the 5th century (and the role of Southeast Asia in the Buddhist interactions between India and China)
Factors Contributing to the Successful
Spread of Buddhist ideas to China
Misconceived notion of the Buddha and Buddhism
Early amalgamation with folk beliefs and art
Political support by rulers such as Liang Wudi
Flexibility with which Buddhism could be practiced and the doctrines modified
The multiethnic nature of transmission and amalgamation
Timing and circumstances: Long-distance trade and interest in immortality
Timeline: Buddhisms in China
1st century BCE-1st - Century CE: Introduction of Buddhist images and ideas
3rd Century CE-581CE: Translation of Buddhist texts, missionary work of foreign monks, Chinese pilgrimage to southern Asia, political support for Buddhism by rulers in China (Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty), popularity of apocryphal texts
6th century onwards: Domestication/sinification/localization of Buddhism, founding of Chinese schools, Chinese pilgrimage sites, the emergence of China as one of the central realms of Buddhism, reverse transmission of Buddhism (Manjusri on Mount Wutai)
18th-19th centuries: Spread of “Chinese” Buddhism to India with Chinese immigrants
Early Translation and Translators
Recitation of Buddhist Text
Oral Translation
Writing Down of the Chinese Translation
Editing of the Chinese Translation
• Parthians: An Shigao & An Xuan
• Indo-Scythians: Zhi Loujiachen (Lokaksema?) & Zhi Qian
• Sogdians: Kang Mengxiang & Kang Senghui
• Indian: Zhu Shuofo
• Chinese: Yan Fotiao
Problems with Geyi
the English translation of geyi as “matching the meaning” is incorrect since the Chinese character “ge” 格rather than meaning “matching” stands for “lattice”;
geyi was meant to deal with the numerical categories of Buddhist doctrines (shishu事數), lit. “enumeration of items”);
geyi was not a translation technique but an exegetical method; and
geyi was an extremely short-lived phenomenon.
----Victor H. Mair
Daoist Terms in Buddhist Translations
…[T]here is no indication that this was a part of a
systematic, conscious policy to appropriate Daoist
terminology that was allegedly known as geyi.
Furthermore, wuwei is used to render more than half a
dozen different Sanskrit terms, and the negative wu is
used at the beginning of more than two thousand
words translated from Sanskrit. It would be ludicrous
to insist that any Buddhist text which used the terms
wu or wuwei be branded as Daoistic simply because
they also occur in Daoist texts.
---- Victor H. Mair
POWER OF IMAGES
AND ARTIFACTS
Dunhuang Cave Painting
Yungang Caves
Buddhist Relics and Images in China
From (a male) Avalokitesvara to the (female) Guanyin
Emperor Wu and East Asian Buddhism
Reign: 502-549 (Liang Dynasty)
First powerful Chinese ruler to employ Buddhism for political legitimacy
The Chinese Ashoka
Buddhist contacts with India, Southeast Asia, and Korea
Model for later Chinese rulers interested in employing Buddhism for political legitimacy
The development of Chan Buddhism
Faxian and the Land-Sea Connection
Faxian’s Pilgrimage to India
Dates of Travel: 399-412
Route: Land route from China to India
Maritime route from India to China
Translations: Legge, Li Rongxi
Annotation: Max Deeg’s Das Gaoseng-Faxian-Zhuan als religionsgeschichtliche Quelle.
Faxian: Significance First Chinese monk to provide eyewitness account of the Buddhist
holy land
Search for Vinaya texts, indicating their importance for Chinese Buddhism
Contributions to the development of relic and Asoka cults in China
The notion of borderland complex
Routes to India, overland and maritime
Decline of Buddhism in India?