LESSON 2: HISTORY OF BUDDHISM OF CHINA

UNIVERSAL BUDDHISM 2

SRAMANA=THICH THIEN HOA.

COURSE V:  HISTORY OF BUDDHISM,

10 RELIGIOUS AND UNIVERSE OF CHILDREN

Lesson 2: HISTORY OF CHINESE BUDDHISM.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

A. OPENING 

As we have learned in the first lesson, the root of Buddhism in India, while maturity has divided into two large trunks, one trunk facing south, which is the South religion, one body. the tree faces north, which is northern Buddhism. 

When it comes to North Buddhism, the largest national level and has a decisive influence on the surrounding countries is China. So if we want to know the history of spreading Buddhism in the North or Mahayana Buddhism, we cannot help but study the development, ups and downs of Chinese Buddhism, when Buddhism was first introduced. the largest mass in the world until modern times.  

Once we have realized the main contours of Chinese Buddhist history, we will also have acquired some of the main concepts and colors of Buddhism in Vietnam in the past: 

B. BACKGROUND 

I. FIRST TIME STARTING 

According to historical records, the Chinese people had heard about Buddhism for a long time and scattered among people in the West, and some people were already following Buddhism. But until the time of the Dong Han Dynasty, in the tenth year of Vinh Binh (TL67), Emperor Minh De sent Thai Ham and Vuong Tuan, a total of eighteen people to Dai Nhàn Chi (a country in the West, on the way from India to China) to welcome the Buddha to worship and have invited two monks, Ca-Lettuce Ma Dang (Kersoapa Matanga) and Truc Phap Lan (Falan) through China-China. Emperor Han Ming De set up the White Horse Temple to worship Buddha and gave them there to translate the scriptures. They translated the Sutta of the Four Deces and the other sixteen. Buddhism was recognized by the government in China, built a temple, translated the business is from there. Gradually, Buddhism expanded and the missionaries from West-Continent continued to move to China, among which the most famous ones were An The Cao, Chi Lau Ca Thunder, Chi Dieu, Truc Buddha Soc. The number of Sanskrit scriptures translated into Chinese characters in this early period also increased to three hundred. 

II. THE PERIOD OF HUNG THINH 

During the period of more than two thousand years from the beginning of the introduction of China to modern times, Buddhism has prospered and declined many times with the times. Just meticulously describe that success and decline, then write countless pages of new ones, and it will be difficult for the readers to remember. So to help you remember, we just point out the main points, the most prominent in the changing schedules of Chinese-Chinese Buddhism. We must first list the periods of greatest prosperity, then record the darkest periods, so that you have a fairly clear concept of the history of Chinese-Chinese Buddhism. 

Regarding prosperity, we can note the following four main periods: 

1. The first period  - From the Three Kingdoms to Tay Tan (the third to the fourth century TL).

After the loss of the Dong Han Dynasty, the Chinese nation was divided into three blocks, namely the Three Kingdoms: Wei, Shu, and Wu. Despite this division, among those countries, from the king to the people, they all followed Buddhism, and each country had high monks from Tay Vuc to evangelize: in Dong Ngo, there was Mr. Khuong Tang Hoi; In North Wei, there is His Holiness Dam Ma; in Tây Thục, there is Châu Tử Hàng, a Chinese-Chinese monk who went to Tây Vân to study Sanskrit and found the original Sanskrit script to translate it, in order to enrich the treasure of Chinese-Chinese classics. 

But it was not until the time of the Xun Dynasty that Chinese Buddhism saw the splendor of the first flourishing period. In 310 CE, under the reign of Tay Tan, in the reign of Vinh Gia, a high monk from Tay Vuc, Lord Buddha Do Trung, came to the sermon to be admired by the people of thousands of people. He has trained some famous disciples like them: Dao An Phap Hoa, Truc Phap Hai.  

Shortly after that, Mr. Cưu-Ma-La-Cross continued the pro-legal career of his predecessors and brought Chinese Buddhism to an extremely brilliant position. It was during this first period that China began to have new sects of Three Commentaries and True Truth. 

2. The second period  - Under the North and South dynasties (the fifth to the sixth century).

During this period many monks increased the power of Buddhism both in the people and in the royal court, such as Hue Lam attending the royal court. And there are many who have introduced sects from outside, or founded new sects. As Mr. Bodhidharma passed from Thien Truc to Zen Buddhism, and was the first ancestor of this sect in China; The Tripitaka Siddhartha translates the Mahayana Mahayana teachings, the Venerable Ðàm Vô Thunder translates Nirvana transmission, and the Southern Music Master sets up Thien Thai Ton. It was the second flourishing period for Chinese Buddhism. 

3. The third period  - Under the Tang Dynasty (7th-9th centuries)

Around the beginning of the seventh century, under the reign of King Duong Thai Ton (the second king of the Tang Dynasty), after a period of being dispersed due to the war, Buddhism in China began to prosper again. The high monk who started this flourishing period is Huyen-Trang, often called the Tam-Tibet Tripitaka. Realizing that sutras in his home country were either destroyed or destroyed due to wars, or original deviations due to misinterpretation or copying, Mr. Xuan-Trang spontaneously made a vow to go to India, seeking study with the wise men- monks, and traveled all over India. After 15 years, he returned to China, bringing many sutras with Sanskrit and organizing the translation into Chinese literature of over 1,500 volumes. King Duong Thai Ton respected him very much, built Dai Tu An pagoda to enable him to translate the meridians (1). 

After Huyen-Trang, Mr. Nghia-Tinh also traveled to India by sea and also requested about 60 volumes to be translated, and 230 books in total. 

Since then, under the Tang dynasty, except for a few kings, most of the others also supported and adored Buddhism, and Buddhism was strongly penetrated among the people. Considering the four periods of prosperity, this period was the most flourishing period of Chinese Buddhism. 

4. The fourth period  - Under the Ming Dynasty.

From the time when the Tang dynasty lost the world to the Ming Dynasty, hundreds of years of Chinese-Chinese history passed through life: the Five Great Dynasties (Hau Luong, Hau Duong, Hau Tan, Hau Han, and Chu Chu). Song Dynasty, then Yuan Dynasty. 

In these kings, only the Song dynasty had goodwill to revive Buddhism, after a period of ruin due to war and the destruction of the pagoda of King The-Ton after Chu Chu. The Song monarchs sent envoys to West-Vuc to request the Buddhist monk's name, and the classic translations, so Buddhism gradually recovered, albeit inferior. 

But it was not until the reign of King Thai-To Minh (Chu Nguyen Chuong) on ​​Buddhism that regained the splendor of previous flourishing times. Minh Thai-To, originally a small Sa-Di, so when he ascended to the throne, he strongly supported Buddhism. 

He prescribed the rules for monks, placing the Sangha, Sangha, and Sangha to handle monks. He again summoned monks at Truong-Son to censor the sutras. The kings succeeding King Minh Thai-Ton, also continue to revive Buddhism, so Buddhism in China once again has the splendid nuance of the old times. But it was also the last flourishing period. 

Indeed, from the time when the Ming dynasty lost the throne to the Qing Dynasty, although the kings also supported Buddhism, but in folk, few people understood the Buddha's morality, but only thought of offering, superstition, and deformities. presentable. 

It was not until the Tam-Democratic-revolution (1912) that Buddhism emerged from the form of Buddhist studies and the establishment of Buddhist associations throughout the country. But this is part of modern and modern Buddhism, which we will study in a later article. 

III. SUY VONG PERIODS  

As we know, life is impermanent, nothing can escape that common law. Chinese Buddhism was at its peak, as we saw above, there must also be a period of decline that we will mention later. 

Chinese Buddhist historian, when it comes to the decline of Buddhism, is often summarized in a sentence: "Tam Vo, Nhat Ton yoke". This sentence means the dark time of Buddhism, in the three generations of King Vo (Thai Vo after the Wei Dynasty, Vo De Dynasty of Bac Chu Dynasty, Vo Ton Dynasty of Duong Dynasty) and in the reign of The-Ton Dynasty King after the Zhou Dynasty. 

Here, we refer to these four dark periods sequentially: 

1. First Period  - Under the post-Wei period of Thai-Vo-De (439-450 TL).

In the middle of the Southern and Northern dynasties (420-588) while Buddhism was prevailing, the king was worshiping and the monks increased every day, until the seventh Thai-Binh Chon-Quan reign (446 TL) was king. Puppet But the fate of the tyrant could not last long, so four years after the execution of the atrocious tactic, Thai-Vo-De died. Van-Thanh Vuong ascended the throne, realizing the cruel, unreasonable and dangerous deeds on the scene, so he had a Buddhist revival. Thanks to that Buddhism gradually regained the old-world bar. 

2. The second period  - Under the reign of Bắc Chu Võ-Đế (574 TL).

In the reign of Võ-Đế in Bắc Chu Dynasty, Buddhism was again hit by a second yoke. The king decreed to abolish Buddhism, take the monks to become people, and join the army; The pagoda was turned into a royal palace for the kings to live in, the people were forbidden to worship Buddha. 

But a few years later, Vo-De died, Tuyen-De-throne succeeded in reviving Buddhism revival and transmitting discourse. Thanks to that, until Sui, Buddhism went back to operating, the King of the Buddha took refuge in the Dharma. 

3. The third period  - During the reign of Võ-Tôn under the Tang Dynasty (840-847 TL).

The third ear of Chinese-Chinese Buddhism occurred in 845 AD under the reign of the Võ-Tôn of the Tang Dynasty. 

As we all know, the Tang dynasty was a peak period in Chinese Buddhist history, the kings of this life were all devoted to Buddhism. But in the reign of Vo-Ton, a king who worshiped Taoism, listened to the monks, instigated and suppressed Buddhism as well as other religions. Vo Ton destroyed the destruction of 44,600 Buddhist pagodas and arrested 265,000 monks and nuns. bronze bells were confiscated to make money. 

But perhaps the ruthless kings could not live long, two years after Võ-Đế died. Tuyen-Ton King ascended the throne, lowered the colors to renovate the pagoda and revive Buddhism. 

4. Fourth period  - During the reign of the post-Chu Dynasty (about the middle of the tenth century).

After the Tang dynasty lost its throne, China became a prey for the fierce rivalry between vassals, and rebellious wars everywhere, Buddhism also suffered a great deal of damage because of the time. In addition, there was the destruction of a post-Chu king, King The-Ton. 

The-Ton really hated Buddhism, so he only destroyed the temple to 30,336 houses, brought bronze statues, bells, inaugurated minting money, the sutras were burned or lost almost. Facing such a dark situation, Chinese-Chinese Buddhism was thought to be missing. But not! The Song Dynasty after pacifying the world, tried to revive Buddhism and send envoys to the West-Vantang, inviting Buddhist monks and magicians to go to China. 

IV. SIX DEVICES OF CHINA-CHINESE CONCRETE  

Regarding the Buddhist sects in China, Zen Buddhism is the most powerful and profound development. It is not surprising that Zen Buddhism is very suitable for the majority of Chinese people and Zen ancestors are very popular saints. Let us know briefly about those Patriarchs:

The first Patriarch of Zen-religion in China was Bodhidharma. After he was transmitted by Dharma Patriarchal Bat-Nha-Da-La. He went to China to confer the life of King Luong Vo-De (528 DL). He sat and built his face against the wall to meditate for nine years, at the Shaolin Temple. He passed away at Thien-Thanh Pagoda in the Vo-Mon area, buried at the temple of Hung-Nhi Mountain next to Dinh-Lam Pagoda. 

Before his passing, Toad Ma had said a poem to bless Hue-Kha, or Spirit-Quang (who had cut off his arm to pray to him). The verse is as follows: 

Chinese Literature:  

Maize hybrid self-inflicted 
Transmission of passion love 
Nhut flowers opening the five Diep 
Natural results into 

Translate: 

I come to China  
Lecture to save love 
A flower sprouted in five wings 
Naturally successful results . 

Mr. Hue Kha inherited Mr. Dat Ma, was the second, Mr. Sang Xan was the third, Mr. Dao Tin was the fourth, Mr. Hoang Rings was the fifth and Mr. Hue-Nang was the sixth. the last of the Zen religion in China. 

C. CONCLUSION 

After reading the history of spreading Buddhism in China, we can draw a few useful comments as follows: 

1. Buddhism is a foreign religion, transmitted from India. While Buddhism in India is declining every day, Buddhism in China is becoming more and more prestigious every day and eventually conquering most of the largest population in the world. Why? Perhaps because in India, the missionary leaders did not adapt to the situation, with the progress of the world of the time, kept the old lifestyle, while in China, the The missionary has understood the radical roots of the masses, adapted to the situation and the times, always promoting new religions to meet the spiritual needs of each class. Therefore, Buddhism in China is not dominated by any religion.  

2. As in Vietnam, when the dynasties in China were newly enthroned, the kings of the founding nation always worshiped Buddhism and encouraged the mission, and the last kings, on the contrary, often destroy Buddhism, before losing the throne. These facts allow us to conclude that: The kings of the country declared most virtuous and wise men who realized that it was necessary to revive Buddhism in order for the people to be pure and prosperous. In contrast, the last kings were largely unethical soldiers, so they destroyed Buddhism. Therefore, the country was in turmoil even more and his thrones also collapsed with the collapse of the whole country. 

3. Buddhism in China-China sometimes prosper and at failure. In that prosperity, the sins and sins of kings were great, but not all. The king was just an upper monk, and the main cause, the main motive, was still the believers and especially the Buddhist leadership. When believers have strong faith and belief, missionaries have clear eyesight, so even if kings want to break the religion, they can only partially destroy it. Just as when the believers lacked virtue and faith, the leaders lacked the spirit of progress and wisdom, the king, even if he wanted to support Buddhism, only partially supported it. 

So, always the same, the construction or the destruction, first comes from within.  . HET = NAM MO BON SU THICH CA MAU NI PHAT. (3 LAN). THE TRAVELER THAT HOI PHAT VIETNAM TREN THE GIO.TINH THAT KIM LIEN.THICH NU CHAN TANH. AUSTRALIA, SYDNEY.9 / 1/2020.