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Buddhism had spread throughout India by about the third century
BCE
through the generous support of King Ashoka, who also ensured the transmission
of Buddhism beyond India’s borders by sending Buddhist emissaries abroad to
introduce Buddhism to people in other lands.
Buddhism flowed along
two primary routes, one to the north, and the other, to the south.
Most of the sutras
that traveled north were Mahayana, and were written in Sanskrit. These
scriptures spread from India to Gandhara, in the kingdom of Kashmir.
Then, they traveled eastward from central Asia along the Silk Road trade
routes to the indigenous people of China.
In contrast, the
teachings that traveled south were predominantly Hinayana, and were
written in the Pali language. These sutras were carried along the trade
routes used in the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia and localities to the
south. Hinayana teachings reached China by sea in about the fifth
century.
Buddhism supposedly
also made inroads west to such areas in the Near East,
Middle East,
and Europe as Greece, Syria, Egypt and Macedonia.
Buddhism Reaches China
The Later Han Dynasty
Buddhism first
arrived in China in 67 CE, when Emperor Ming of the Later Han Dynasty
invited two Indian Buddhist monks, Kashyapa Matanga and Chu-fa-lan, to
translate Buddhist scripture into Chinese at Pai-ma-ssu (Temple of the
White Horse) in Lo-yang. There are other accounts about how Buddhism
first entered China, including one claiming that during the reign of
Emperor Ai, Buddhist teachings were passed verbally from an Indian
emissary named Izon to Jing-lu in 2 BCE, at the end of the Former Han
Dynasty.
Regardless of whether
Buddhist scripture first came to
China
during the Former or Later Han Dynasty, Buddhism did not spread easily
because the Chinese people were already thoroughly indoctrinated in the
teachings of Confucianism and Taoism.
Nonetheless, the
Chinese people began to recognize Buddhism in the Later Han Dynasty,
during the reign of Emperor Huan, who ruled from 146 until 167 CE. At
this time, An Shih-kao, crown prince of the Indian kingdom of Parthia,
took the tonsure to become a Buddhist monk and then headed for China,
where he spent nearly twenty years translating primarily Hinayana
scripture into Chinese.
Later, during the
reign of Emperor Ling, who ruled from 168 until 189, another monk from
Central Asia named Lokakshema made his way to China and eventually
produced Chinese translations of more than twenty Mahayana sutras.
Influenced by these
first two pioneers, Buddhist monks in increasing numbers ventured from
the west to China to spread the Buddha’s teachings, translating a vast
number of sutras into Chinese along the way.
In this way, Buddhism
gradually flourished in China during the period of the Three Kingdoms,
i.e., the Wei (220-265), the Wu (229-280), and the Shu (221-263).
Age of Sutra Translation
Western Chin Dynasty
After the Wei conquered the Shu, they established the
Chin Dynasty in 265. The three original kingdoms were then unified when
the Chin assimilated the Wu in 280. The fifty-year period following the
founding of the Chin nation is referred to as the Western Chin Dynasty.
A monk named Dharmaraksha (231-308) represented the ideal of Buddhist
monks at this time, in that he devoted more than forty years to sutra
translation, with more than three hundred volumes to his credit, among
them, the Kosan hannya Sutra, and the oldest surviving Chinese version
of the Lotus Sutra, the Sho-hokkekyo. His extensive legacy attests to
his unsparing efforts to spread Buddhism.
Taking a different approach, monks like Chu-fa-ya and
Kang-fa-lang used the prevailing language of Confucian doctrine and the
Taoist ideologies of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu to explain Buddhist
principles and gain further ground in championing the Buddha’s
teachings. Yet, although these accommodations did produce positive
results in terms of new converts, there was also the danger that the
original Buddhist teachings were being warped in the process.
Buddhism grew in China during the Western Chin dynasty by
such means as those outlined above until around 300, when the emperor
sponsored the building of great numbers of temples and monasteries, and
the population of monks and nuns grew to thirty-one hundred individuals.
Meanwhile, because the ideologies of Lao Tzu and Chuang
Tzu had overtaken Confucianism throughout China, Buddhist priests
employed the ideas of those men to explain Buddhist doctrine and help
the masses grasp the Buddha’s message.
The Five Barbarian Tribes and the
Sixteen Kingdoms Period (304 – 439 CE) |
