Chinese praise of India's Buddhist impact

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Chinese praise of India's Buddhist impact

Excerpt from the writings of Henry C K Liu is chairman of the New

York-based Liu Investment Group

 

....Buddhism (Fo Jiao) first appeared in China officially in AD 65.

Some evidence suggests that it might have been imported to China from

India as early as 2 BC. Since its introduction, Buddhism has

permeated Chinese society and its economic life, despite periodic

suppression by the state. It had affected the customs of all levels

of society by the time of the Tang Dynasty some six centuries after

its introduction. Buddhist temples, monasteries and shrines had been

established in every part of the empire. The services of sengs

(Buddhist monks) became indispensable for all social events,

performing religious ceremonies for funerals and weddings, blessings

for newborns, administering temples for the faithful and attending

family shrines for the elite. Sengs functioned as preachers,

teachers, scribes, artists and even doctors. Often they would become

top advisors to the huangdi (emperor), and many sengs would even

become powerful political figures both at court and at the local

level.

 

The name Buddha (Fo) is a Sanskrit word meaning Enlightened One. It

is the appellation conferred by the faithful on Indian Prince

Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 BC), who came from the southern foothills

of the Himalayas.

 

Buddhism originated at the end of 5th century BC in the valley of the

middle Ganges in India. The religious sect first rose as a plebeian

reaction to claims of spiritual and social supremacy by Hindu Brahman

priests who were the ruling elite of the Indian caste system. Since

that time, Buddhism has spread across political, social and ethnic

boundaries as one of the three great religions of the world, the

other two being Christianity and Islam.

 

Curiously, acceptance of Buddhism remained sporadic in India, its

birthplace. The incorporation of Buddha by Hinduism as the ninth

incarnation (avatar) of its god, Vishnu, seriously adulterated the

autonomous uniqueness of Buddhism in India. The Muslim invasion of

India from the 11th century gradually but effectively obliterated

remaining Buddhist communities there. Similarly, Christianity remains

a minority religion in the Middle East, its holy place of origin.

 

Kanishka, an ardent patron of Buddhism, was king of the Kushan

Empire, which dominated northern India during the 2nd century AD. He

was also known in history as the sponsor of a Greco-Buddhist style of

sculpture, labeled by art historians as the Gandhara school, typified

by curly-haired seated Buddha statues, which became the dominant

Buddhist art form in East Asia. A gilded bronze Buddha of the

Gandhara school is on display at the Harvard Fogg Art Museum in

Cambridge, Massachusetts. More significant, Kanishka was instrumental

in introducing Buddhism into Central Asia, whence it spread first to

China, then Korea and finally Japan.

 

The branch of Buddhism that diffused into East Asia would take on

different characteristics from the early sects of Buddha's own time.

It would come to be known as Mahayana (Dasheng, meaning major

vehicle), the scripture of which is written in classical Sanskrit,

distinguishing itself from the older Hinayana (Xiaosheng, meaning

minor vehicle), the scripture of which is written in a vernacular

dialect (Prakrit) known as Pali. Hinayana Buddhism, remaining closer

to ancient Buddhism, is practiced widely in Southeast Asia today.

 

The Sermon of the Turning of the Wheel of the Law, delivered by

Buddha at Sarnath around 500 BC, elucidates the secret of a happy

life by means of the Four Exalted Truths:

Truth I: Existence encompasses sorrow.

Truth II: Sorrow emanates from desire.

Truth III: Sorrow subsides when desire wanes.

Truth IV: Desire can be alleviated by following the Gracious Eight-

Spectrum Path.

 

This Gracious Eight-Spectrum Path consists of:

Spectrum 1: Virtuous conviction.

Spectrum 2: Virtuous resolution: to renounce sensual pleasure, to

harm no living creatures and ultimately to achieve salvation.

Spectrum 3: Virtuous speech.

Spectrum 4: Virtuous conduct.

Spectrum 5: Virtuous involvement.

Spectrum 6: Virtuous effort: to keep the mind free from evil and

devoted to good.

Spectrum 7: Virtuous contemplation.

Spectrum 8: Virtuous meditation: to achieve an awareness of internal

selflessness and external detachment.

 

Buddhist concerns are more ethical than metaphysical, focusing on

human suffering, which is considered as inherent in life itself.

Suffering can be dispelled only by abandoning desires such as

ambition, selfishness, envy and greed. This approach to life is the

diametrical opposite of the Western concept of modernity.

 

Detachment is key. Buddhists take vows against killing, stealing,

falsehood, unchasteness and intoxication. They practice self-

confession and try to live austere, ascetic lives with the objective

of achieving nirvana, a state of blissful detachment that, when

attained permanently, known as pari-nirvana, brings an end to the

otherwise never-ending cycle of earth-bound rebirths through

transmigration of the soul. The Four Exalted Truths of Buddhism have

helped devotees deal with the tribulations of life. The Third Exalted

Truth, sorrow subsides when desire wanes, has application to modern

market economy. A basic Buddhist tenet: the secret of happiness is

not getting what you want, but wanting what you get. So much for the

concept of the pursuit of happiness in Western modernity. For the

Buddhist idea of happiness, if you have to pursue it, you have lost

it.

 

The reasons for China's popular embrace of Buddhism are complex and

have been subject to constant reassessment. One commonly acknowledged

reason is that Buddhism, while of foreign origin, shares commonality

with both Taoist and Confucian concepts that are indigenous to

Chinese culture. The passive side of Buddhism is Taoism, which

practices contemplation and promotes self-awareness. And the active

side of Buddhism is Confucianism, which advocates respect for

authority and submission to propriety. Furthermore, Buddhism has

provided, as it has evolved in China, elaborate, colorful ceremonies

welcomed by one aspect of the collective Chinese character, hitherto

suppressed through centuries of Confucian social restraint and Taoist

self-denial.

 

Most of all, Buddhism fills a void left by traditional ancient

Chinese religious concepts, which are centered rigidly around the

trinity: 1) Heaven (Tian) - God. 2) Son of Heaven (Tianzi) - Emperor

(sovereign). 3) The Hundred Surnames (Baixing) - People.

 

Heaven (Tian) is the abstract symbol of all things supernatural and

authoritative, much like the manner in which the imperial court is

referred to as the authoritative and decision-making body of the

secular empire. God, a term that has no exact equivalent in the

language of polytheistic Chinese culture, has its closest translation

as Tiandi (King in Heaven), who is the highest god. Heaven as a realm

is believed to be inhabited by a clan of gods and spirits (shen-gui),

with hierarchical ranks, headed by Tiandi, similar to the Greek

hierarchical community of gods headed by Zeus.

 

The secular huangdi (emperor) is the Son of Heaven (Tianzi), and the

people, known as the Hundred Surnames (Baixing), are wards of

huangdi. The people do not enjoy the privilege of directly

communicating with Heaven, the domain of gods headed by Tiandi. The

people's duty is to pay homage to the Son of Heaven, who alone

possesses the privilege of communicating with and thanksgiving to

Heaven. The most solemn ritual in Chinese feudal culture is the

fengshan rites. It is a ritual that confers Heaven's abdication of

authority on secular affairs in favor of huangdi.

 

Thus religion in China, before the arrival of Buddhism, had merely

been a spiritual subsystem of the secular world. It was a spiritual

extension of the rigid hierarchy of the ancient Chinese socio-

political realm. Buddhism provided a previously unavailable outlet of

direct religious expression for the common people. It introduced

participatory religious experience into Chinese society. Whereas, in

the context of the rigid Confucian social structure, Taoism (Dao Jia)

provides the Chinese people with introverted individual spiritual

freedom, Buddhism provides them with extroverted collective spiritual

liberation, independent of communal hierarchy. Taoism allows the

individual to contemplate privately, freeing him from the mental

tyranny of an all-controlling culture, while Buddhism allows the

people to worship independently, freeing them from the pervasive

control of a rigid secular socio-political hierarchy.

 

Religion in China has a different meaning than in the West. The

term "religion" in the Chinese language is composed of two

characters: zong-jiao, literally meaning "ancestral teaching". Until

the spread of Buddhism, religious experience for the Chinese people

had been limited to reverence toward the spirits of their departed

ancestors. Buddhism provided the average devotee with direct access

to God without requiring a denial of reverence for ancestral spirits.

Until the introduction of Christianity, the Chinese were not required

by religion to deny the spirituality of their ancestors. This demand

for the rejection of ancestor worship was a key obstacle preventing

Christianity from becoming a major religion in China. Incidentally,

even in Christian theology, "God" is translated in Chinese as

Shangdi, meaning "The King Above". It is a celestial echo of the

supreme ruler in the secular political system.

 

>From its beginning, Buddhism took on an anti-establishment posture,

which it moderated as it developed in China but never totally

abandoned. Traditionally, in the early part of an emperor's reign, as

soon as his rule was firmly established, he would perform the

elaborate and formal fengshan rites. These Confucian rites of

theocratic feudalism involve the paying of tribute by Tianzi (Son of

Heaven) as huangdi (emperor), on behalf of his baixing, namely the

people, to Tian (Heaven) where the head god Tiandi (King in Heaven)

reigns. Through the fengshan rites, the huangdi received tribute and

accepted loyalty pledges from his vassal lords on behalf of their

many minions and subjects throughout the empire. Anyone besides the

huangdi performing religious rites directly to Heaven would be

committing forbidden acts tantamount to treasonous usurpation.

Buddhism broke the monopolistic hold of the huangdi on religious

celebration and opened it to all for the taking. Little wonder

Buddhism spread like wildflowers.

 

By breaking down the hierarchical religious monopoly implied by

Confucian fengshan rites, Buddhism in its early history in China

unwittingly contributed to the crumbling of the foundation of a

feudal hierarchy already in decline. Buddhism's populist theology

bolstered the emergence of a secular structure in the form of a

centrally managed empire, replacing autonomous local authority. In

this new secular structure individuals could participate more freely

in social functions, unrestricted by traditional local hierarchy.

 

The Buddhist notion of nirvana runs parallel to the concept of the

Mandate of Heaven (Tianming). Ironically, by claiming that a state of

nirvana could be earned through religious devotion by any deserving

member of society, it implies that the Mandate of Heaven can also be

earned by any deserving hero. Thus Buddhism invited periodic and

recurring suppression from paranoid emperors who felt obliged to

adopt anti-subversive measures against Buddhism, in order to defend

the imperial claim on the Mandate of Heaven from challenges by

ambitious members of the aristocracy who were Buddhist devotees.

 

While Buddhism serves as the fountainhead of the idea of open access

for all to spiritual salvation, such universal access is dependent on

the grace of detachment as exemplified by Buddha. This idea is akin

to the detached central authority in an empire structure with the

grace of a distant emperor who is less involved with the details of

daily living of his subjects. It is less akin to the archaic

hierarchical feudalism of autonomous local lords who control every

detail of the lives of his fief. Thus Buddhism facilitated its own

growth at the same time that it provided the philosophical

justification for the flowering of a distant centralized political

order in a complex, multi-dimensional society. The development of

such a benign centralized political structure, first budding in

imperial China in the 5th century, gathered unstoppable momentum

around the 7th century.

 

The Buddhist concept of universal open access to nirvana had socio-

political implications. It helped shift politics from being a contest

among competing feudal lords refereed by an arbitrating huangdi to

the beginning of an empirewide power struggle based on class

interests. Since people were no longer dependent on their feudal

lords for achieving the state of nirvana, they no longer felt

inseparably bound to their lords in secular life. Gradually,

merchants in the service of a particular feudal lord found stronger

common interest with other merchants in the service of competing

lords than their traditional commitment to clannish feudal loyalty.

Before long, the same became true for farmers, scholars, artisans and

other tradesmen. And with the tacit encouragement of expanding

central power, people began to look to the huangdi as a higher

authority to champion universal justice and to protect their separate

class interests. They also looked to Buddhism to enhance the moral

posture of class solidarity against the Confucian demand for absolute

hierarchical loyalty toward their local lords. Thus the spread of

Buddhism ushered in an age of strong central imperial authority on

top of traditional feudalism with local autonomy. Through the spread

of Buddhism, an empirewide standard now overshadowed fragmented local

autonomy on basic issues of proper human relationship, justice and

social order.

 

Simultaneously, however, Buddhist insistence on a clear separation of

ecclesiastical authority from secular control caused constant

conflict between the central authority of the dragon throne and

independent-minded Buddhist fundamentalists. This conflict was

exploited by freewheeling members of guizu (the aristocracy) for

secular political purposes, particularly those in the south, where

greater physical distance from the capital translated into greater

local autonomy.

 

The intellectual role of Buddhist institutions grew increasingly

significant and pervasive in Chinese culture. Sengs (Buddhist monks)

of various sects, in addition to their religious undertakings, took

to routinely writing philosophy, conducting schools and keeping

libraries. The independence of Buddhist teaching from forbidding

Confucian scholasticism was an important factor in Buddhism's popular

flowering in China. Buddhist curricula were admittedly overburdened

with time-consuming, mind-boggling theological studies, but the

discipline acquired from such study methods more than compensated for

the heavy investment in time and effort. Excellence in exegesis

requires scholarship, research methodology, creative logic and

secular evidential verification, qualities that learned sengs

cultivated. Buddhist seng-scholars soon dominated the fields of

mathematics, alchemy, medicine, astronomy and engineering. Buddhist

impact on Chinese philosophy was fundamental, introducing new

concepts, abstract terms and new words for the description and

manipulation of previously unfathomable ideas. Buddhism's influence

in Chinese art, architecture and literature was undeniably crucial.

Such influence in Tang helped liberate Chinese culture from

Confucianism's stultifying repression, particularly on new and

creative ideas, much as Western scientific methods would 12 centuries

later.

 

In literature, Buddhist sutras (fojing), which were more widely

circulated and popularly read than abstruse and elitist Confucian

classics, paved the way for other new and lengthy secular literary

works, and prepared the reading public for acceptance of mixing prose

with verse, for handling of multi-dimensional themes and, ultimately,

for the birth of new literary genres such as the novel and drama.

 

Buddhist understanding of history and of the art of statecraft

challenged the staid monopoly of orthodox Confucianism on politics.

And Buddhists were increasingly recognized for relative objectivity

in their judgment of history and for innovative originality in their

approach to secular problems. In both military strategy and political

theory, Buddhist intellectual contributions played major roles in a

fragmented China's quest for reunification. In return, Buddhism

flourished under those rulers, such as those of the Sui Dynasty (581-

618), who were wise enough to employ universally potent Buddhist

ideas and apply them to political advantage, let alone exploiting

ready-made, broad-based support of mushrooming Buddhist communities

all over the fragmented political landscape.

 

The development of China's culture, politics and spirit cannot be

fully understood without taking into account the influence of

Buddhism since its importation around 2 BC. From the 5th century AD

on, Buddhists both contributed to, and in turn were affected by, the

historic polarization in China during the era of North-South

Dynasties (Nan-Bei Chao 420-589), a period spanning the late phase of

Six Dynasties (Liu Chao 220-589) that emerged after the fall of the

glorious Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) four centuries previously.

Buddhism adapted itself during this period in the south to a society

characterized by the independence of a transplanted guizu

(aristocracy), with large estates of client groups. Its

ecclesiastical structure developed into a network of loosely

connected, but individually autonomous, monasteries.

 

It was therefore not surprising that the great southern seng

(Buddhist monk) Huiyun (334-416) wrote an anti-Confucian essay

titled "Treatise on the Exemption of Religious Institutions from

Monarchial Authority" (Shamen bujing Wangzhi Lun). Written in 404,

the treatise asserted the independence of religion from secular

control. It was among the earliest intellectual treatises on the

principle of separation of church and state.

 

During the era of North-South Dynasties, traditional central

political authority in the north forced Buddhism to seek support from

the ruling sovereign, who tended to be the sole source of secular

favors.

For example, with transparent motive and shrewd purpose, Seng Fakuo

(died 420) of the Bei Wei Dynasty (Northern Wei 386-534), leader of

the Buddhist clergy in the north, claimed Emperor Daowu (reigned 386-

409) as the living reincarnation of Buddha. Seng Fakuo was bestowed

high secular titles during his life, culminating with a hereditary

rank of lord.

 

Buddhists of 7th-century China sought favoritism from the secular

state at the same time they asserted their independence and

separation from traditional imperial institutions by calling for

Buddhist exemption from taxation, military service and the long arm

of secular law. This inherently contradictory posture still would not

have brought the wrath of the dragon throne on Buddhists if they had

not been simultaneously engaged in secular factional intrigues and

class politics.

 

Furthermore, growing abuse of religious privileges and laxity in

monastic discipline inevitably forced the dragon throne to adopt

intrusive measures of control on theology, and secular supervision of

ecclesiastic establishments. Also, proliferation of clerical

ordination and monasterial founding, much of which was less than

legitimate if not outright fraudulent, began to deprive the state of

much-needed manpower and tax revenue. The removal from the economy of

large tracts of prime land that would be donated outright, or under

formulas of deferred giving, or sometimes through fraudulent, tax-

evading schemes, caused serious economic imbalance in many areas. The

sanctuary provided by Buddhist monasteries to the lawless, to tax

evaders and conscript dodgers, as well as to political dissidents,

also threatened the totalitarian authority of the dragon throne and

security interests of the secular order.

 

The huge expense of Buddhist temple construction, the costly

maintenance of an ever-expanding clergy population and its associated

lay communities and the drain on the scarce supply of metal caused by

the casting of ever larger and larger Buddhist statues and bells

interfered with the secular state's own increasingly ambitious plans

for domestic capital construction and for arms production needed by

foreign conquest.

 

The growing economic power of Buddhist monasteries, often the main

socio-economic institutions in many regions, also had destabilizing

political implications. While Buddhism was repeatedly sponsored by

secular authorities for political purposes, official anti-Buddhist

pogroms, known as shatai (ecclesiastical cleansing), systematically

recurred throughout the long history of China. This continued up to

the Christian-supported 1911 Democratic Revolution that established

the Nationalist Republic, not to mention the subsequent Marxist-

Leninist People's Republic, particularly during the Cultural

Revolution of 1966-76.

 

The distressing phenomenon of shatai became even more complex when

other issues, such as xenophobia, backlash from social reform, and

preventive suppression of political revolts mingled with traditional

socio-political pressure for curbing Buddhist expansion into the

secular world. State persecution and state sponsorship of religion

proved always to be two sides of the same evil coin.

 

Gunnar Myrdal (1898-1984), Swedish sociologist-economist, in his 1944

definitive study The American Dilemma, for which he received the 1974

Nobel Prize for Economics, having declared the "Negro" problem in the

United States to be inextricably entwined with the democratic

functioning of American society, went on to produce a 1976 study of

Southeast Asia: The Asian Dilemma. In it he identified Buddhist

acceptance of suffering as the prime cause for economic

underdevelopment in the region. Myrdal's conclusion would appear

valid superficially, given the coincidence of an indisputable

existence of conditions of poverty in the region at the time of his

study and the pervasive influence of Buddhism in Southeast Asian

culture, until the question is asked as to why, whereas Buddhism has

dominated Southeast Asia for more than a millennium, pervasive

poverty in the region only made its appearance after the arrival of

Western imperialism in the 19th century.

 

Marxists and nationalists, many of both professing no love for

Buddhism, suggested that Myrdal had been influenced in his convenient

conclusion by his eagerness to deflect responsibility for the sorry

state of affairs in the region from the legacy of Western

imperialism. As theological apologists tried to rationalize social

misery with an accommodating theology to capture the appreciation of

the secular polity, Myrdal, social scientist, tried to blame

indigenous religion for the sins of secular geopolitics.

 

That which Western scholars identify as the process of modernity

appears to have occurred in China's history more than once.