Between Han and Tang: The emergence of Chinese Buddhism and Religious Daoism

1. Between Han and Tang:The emergence of Chinese Buddhismand Religious Daoism • October 1, 2013

2. review • What language did the Aryans speak? • What is the difference between their early religion and Buddhism? • What were the primary social classes of this Vedic civilization? • What sort of items did South Asia export and import 2,000 years or so ago?

3. Many Chinas • Disunity in China between 220 and 589 • 16 kingdoms in the north, many with rulers of non-Chinese ethnic background • 6 dynasties in the south, ruled by people of Chinese ethnicity • Many Chinese moved south, bringing the Yangzi into China proper • Many originally non-Chinese peoples, north and south, became sinified and therefore became Chinese.

4. Asia at the time of the Northern Wei • http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exhibit/nwei/images/map.jpg

5. Cultural Changes • Tea-drinking spreads from the south to the north. • Calligraphy, poetry, and painting become signs of membership in the educated elite • New religious movements appear: • religious Daoism (with indigenous roots) • and • Buddhism (imported from South Asia through Central Asia but transformed into Mahayana Buddhism).

6. Mahayana Buddhism • Buddhism of compassion for others--the Bodhisattva path. • Bodhisattvas postpone their own admission into nirvana to help others. • “Northern” Buddhism: China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam • Has statues of both Buddhas (many different Buddhas) and Bodhisattvas. • Added new sutras to Theravada sutras.

7. VARIETIES OF MAHAYANA PRACTICE • Sutra Study-salvation through knowledge • Meditation-salvation by controlling (stilling) the mind and its thoughts. • Devotion-salvation through faith. • Nirvana here means rebirth in paradise. • Ritual--True Word, chanting the Buddha’s name, and esoteric Buddhism • Lotus Sutra--Nichiren Buddhism (SGI)

8. Popular Buddhism • Polytheistic • More concerned with gaining objects of desire (health, wealth, etc) than stilling desire. • Little interest in meditation. More interested in prayer, chanting, and bowing • Finds justification in many sutras.

9. Impact of buddhism • printing (woodblocks) • New forms of architecture and art (sculpture in particular) • the adoption of the chair • the use of sugar • the drinking of tea

10. Religious Daoism • Emerged from folk religion. Has shamans, priests, temples, gods, rituals, and revealed sacred texts.. (Much of its organizational appearance was borrowed from Buddhism) • Ritual is more important than dogma. (There is no Daoist creed.) • Some Daoists pursue “immortality” through breathing practices (internal alchemy) , physical exercises, sexual exercises, diet, or moral arithmetic.

11. Common errors in discussing religion • Confusing what the sacred texts of a religion say, and what the practitioners of that religion do. • confusing what the religious professionals do with what the average lay practitioner does. • imposing a Western understanding of religion (theistic, doctrine-centered, generating a moral code, etc.) on an Asian religion which emphasizes ritual over belief, has no formal theology or creed, or maybe doesn’t even generate its own moral code.

12. Defining religion • Religion: Any attempt to explain the otherwise unexplainable, predict the otherwise unpredictable, or prevent the otherwise unpreventable by relying on forces that transcend the human realm. Neither belief in a supernatural personality nor the generation of a moral code are necessary for a way of thinking and behaving to be called religious. (Some Buddhists do not believe in a god. Shinto has no moral code of its own.) • Religion normally involves ritual and/or prayer. • Religions provide behavioral guidelines as well as guidelines for making value judgments. Examining religion in Asia therefore helps us understand what people in the past considered important and why they did what they did.