Buddhism
3 min readChinese Buddhism with a history of about 2,000 years has been playing an important role in forming the outlook of the Chinese people in terms of philosophy, politics, aesthetics, literature, and so on.
Buddhism was first introduced to China from India in the early part of the Eastern Han Dynasty and it flourished after the 4th century. Chinese Buddhism integrated the ideas of Confucianism, Daoism and other indigenous philosophical systems, and what was initially a foreign religion came to be a significant part of Chinese civilization with its unique characteristics.
Buddhism in many ways is in conflict with Chinese cultural tradition. For example, Chinese people usually consider the continuation of the generation line to be of tremendous importance, but Buddhism advocates celibacy. Confucianism holds that the human body is the sacred inheritance from one’s parents and so it should be protected from being impaired or injured, but Buddhism adheres to asceticism and self-sacrifice.
With the development of Daoism in China, Buddhism was gradually accepted by people because they share the naturalistic and nihilistic philosophical thought. In the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism thrived with the support of the emperors. Xuan Zang began his pilgrimage journey to India. After studying in India for 20 years, Xuan Zang returned with volumes of precious Buddhist scriptures, and he, together with other monks and scholars, dedicated all the time and energy to translating the scriptures into Chinese. Xuan Zang made unique contributions to Chinese Buddhism and greatly enriched Chinese culture.
The two main branches of Buddhism are Theravada and Mahayana, which include Tibetanand Zen Buddhism. Mahayana has been active in Japan, Korea, Nepal, Mongolia, and China, which teaches social concern and universal salvation. Theravada has been the predominant religion of continental Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka. It is also practiced by some ethnic groups of southwest China. Theravada promotes the concept of self-cultivation and gaining insight from the aspirant’s experience, critical investigation, and reasoning instead of by blind faith.
Buddhism held that the world permeates bitterness and suffering and everything is unstable. The Four Noble Truths is one of the basic teachings:
The concept of “Emptiness”is another key concept in Buddhism(The Sanskrit word is Sunya). Emptiness is not nothing, but it is the condition of existence of everything. It permeates all phenomena, making their evolution possible.
Emptiness is an abstract idea representing impermanence, instability, transience and relativity in the nature of all existence. According to Buddhism, nothing is permanentand everything is dependent on causes and conditions. Whenever the causes and conditions that produce or sustain a phenomenon are removed, that phenomenon will cease to exist.
Furthermore, In the Avatamsaka Sutra we can read this gatha:”All things are birthless.
All things have no extinction. You are also like that. If you know how to look at things this way, you can see and touch all Buddhas at any time.”
According to the Lotus Sutra, everyone has the Buddhata, and the Buddha is full of compassion, and that is why Shakyamuni Buddha always tries to help.
Amitabha is the Sanskrit word, and literally it means boundless light and boundless life.
According to Buddhism, people recite or call upon his name by the time of dying will be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss with the reception by Amitabha.
Bodhisattva, who is called Guan Shi Yin or Guan Yin Bodhisattva, is very popular in China.
Originally represented as a male, the images are now generally those of a female figure. It is believed that she has the greatest compassion and mercy and rescues all beings by hearing their voices of suffering and cries for help. Guan Yin can transform into many different shapes in order to cross over to the beings.
The Buddhist Eight Precepts, Eight Sufferings, the Winds of the Eight Directions, Eight Right Ways are very important in the practice of Buddhism.
Buddhism has been playing the mainstream role in Chinese religious life and it has exerted tremendous influence on Chinese culture together with its process of localization.It provides a new approach to the development of Chinese philosophy，and the translation of Buddhist scriptures has added something unique to the classic Chinese literature，commencing the field of translation study.The Buddhist influence on the Chinese painting，architecture and even dancing is also of considerable value.
