Question

The introduction of Buddhism to China is an example of what?

Answer 1

As a Chinese buddhist (Taiwanese in fact), I will speak from a Taiwanese perspective.

There are a number of facts known:

All Chinese know Buddhism came from India

All Chinese know Buddhism came into China during Han dynasty 1st century AD (from central Asia)

All Chinese know Chinese buddhist monk Xuanzang went to India for buddhist Pilgrimage during Tang dynasty. The Chinese novel Journey to the West 西遊記 was a popular novel of mainly Buddhist theme (albeit some Taoist as well), narrating Xuanzang’s path to India, and on the spiritual quest for Nirvana.

Not all Chinese know Emperor Asoka, in fact it’s limited.

But all Chinese Buddhist will know Emperor Asoka 阿育王, as he was often mentioned in Chinese Buddhist text and in the history of Buddhism.

From the perspective of Chinese buddhist, Emperor Asoka was a very great Indian historical figure in the history of Buddhism, as he was credited with the spread of Buddhism out of India and ultimately from Central Asia into China. In short, Emperor Asoka was the first person toglobalize Buddhism, and making Buddhism into an international religion . In this sense, he played an important influential role in the history of Buddhism.

Not many Chinese know Emperor Asoka was a great military leader and conqueror, of unifying India, before converting to Buddhism.

Buddhism played an important role in the cultural connection between India and China in history. In fact, many Chinese’s understanding of ancient India, Indian culture or their impression of ancient India came from Buddhism.

To many Chinese Buddhist, ancient India was the exotic, holy and spiritual place for great learning and religious teaching.

Chinese Buddhist culture is a mix of both Indian and Chinese culture. In fact, many Chinese Buddhist still practice Anjali Mudra 合十手印(sometimes known as “Namaste Greeting”), a typical Indian greeting practice, when greeting each other, or when make prayer to Buddha. It’s done by holding the palms together and making a slight bow. Several types of Mudra 手印 (ritual gestures) of Indian origin are still practiced by the Chinese Sangha communities.

Chinese religions such as Taoism, Chinese folks religions etc do not have the concept of “hell” until Buddhism spreaded to China, and they imported the Indian cosmology of “hell” (from Buddhism) into these religions, converting these beliefs into “Hades” or “underworld”.

Historically, Indians played a major role in disseminating Buddhism in China, esp. the Indian Buddhist masters. The Indian dyana master Buddhabhadra 跋陀 was the founder and first abbot of Shaolin temple(founded in 477AD) and he arrived in China in 464 AD. Bodhidharma 菩提祖師 was the Indian master credited for the founding of Chan / Zen Buddhism (禪）[‘Chan’ in Chinese, ‘Zen’ in Japanese] in China, arriving China in early 5th century AD. There were other famous Indian masters in ancient China including Bodhiruci 菩提流支, a Vajrayana master from North India (6th century CE) active in the area of Luoyang, China , Huili 慧理 (c. 320 AD) , possibly Matiyukti, was an Indian master who founded Linyin temple in Hangzhou in 328 AD.

The name “China” was actually derived from Indian Sanskrit चीन (cīna) . Most scholars generally think that the Sanskrit term cīna originated from the name of ancient Chinese state of Qin 秦 (or Cin /Chin) since 9th century BC and eventually the Qin dynasty (221–206BC), the first unified dynasty in Chinese history, whereby cīna is a corruption of “Chin/Chin”. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the “Mahābhārata” (5th century bce) and the “Laws of Manu” (5th century bce), but also used in several Buddhist Sanskrit texts. Over times, Chinese dynasty changed the name of their Empire, but cīna continued to be used in India to refer to China. According to Chinese records Great Tang Records on the Western Regions 大唐西域記 , when the Buddhist Xuanzang visited India (Kamarupa Kingdom) during Tang dynasty, King Bhaskaravarman did not know where “Tang” was, but when Xuanzang said Mahā cīna 摩訶支那 （literally means “Great Chinese” or “Great China”), the King understood where he came from. Cīna was later transliterated into the Chinese word 支那 (Middle Chinese: Dzi-na) during Tang dynasty period.