Around A.D., Buddhism was introduced into China. What influence do you think the spread of Buddhism has on China?

On the Influence of Buddhism on China Traditional Culture

Buddhism was introduced into China from Emperor Hanming in the East, and it has a long history of about 2,000 years. Except for the brief legal dilemma on March 3 and 1, it can be said that it has been booming. Even today, although Buddhism declined in Chinese mainland, it is still quite prosperous in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Qinghai and Tibet. It can be seen that Buddhism has exerted a profound influence on the traditional culture of China and has become an inseparable part of the traditional culture of China.

What made Buddhism have such great power to take root in this fertile soil of China and become a popular belief at that time, just as China people generally believe in Marxism today. Let's take a look at the general development of Buddhism in China.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism was first introduced to China. At first, Buddhism was regarded as one of the methods of Taoism, which effectively eased the resistance to the spread of foreign heterogeneous cultures. At this time, many monks from the western regions began to spread Buddhism in China, and brought a lot of Buddhist classics. Therefore, the development of Buddhism in China began with the translation of Buddhist scriptures. One of the Buddhist scriptures translated into Chinese earlier is called Forty-two Chapters and The Analects of Tianzhu, regardless of style (42 quotations). It is similar to The Analects of Confucius, which is admired and respected by China traditional literati, so Buddhism can be integrated with Confucian culture later, which has a lot to do with the original introduction of this book. With the arrival of a large number of Indian monks in the western regions and the translation of Buddhist scriptures, China people gradually realized that it was different from Confucianism and Taoism. A group of people were attracted by this new and different culture and became the earliest Buddhist monks, monks, virgins and virgins (believers at home) in China.

At this time, Buddhism mainly spread among the upper-class literati and rulers, and had little influence on the people. With the deepening of China people's understanding, some successful monks in China took one or several Buddhist scriptures as the basis of their practice according to their own personal experience, thus starting to have sects. For example, the wise master of Tiantai Sect founded Tiantai Sect according to several classics such as Goblet of Fire, and Master Hui Yuan of Lushan Mountain formed an association with some monks in Lushan Mountain. A common vow to live in the pure land of Amitabha Buddha in the western paradise became the beginning of the establishment of Pure Land Sect (also known as Lotus Sect). This case is mainly based on the classics such as Infinite Life Sutra and Amitabha Sutra. Because the method of chanting Buddha by Pure Land Sect is simple and easy, it soon spread to the people and became the most popular Sect among the people. Later, the Guanyin Bodhisattva of Hokkekyo was listed separately and spread widely among the people because of its simplicity and ease. It can be said that the popularity of Buddhism is closely related to this special pure land method in Buddhism, because most Buddhist classics are abstruse and difficult to understand, and ordinary scholars can't get a glimpse of it, let alone ordinary people who can hardly read.

In addition to the Pure Land Sect, another Zen Sect that has a great influence on China's traditional culture was introduced by Master Dharma. At first, Dharma came to the Southern Dynasties to meet Liang Wudi. However, the Southern Dynasties only rebuilt Fude, which was unbearable, so they came to the Shaolin Temple in Songshan Mountain in the Northern Dynasties, facing the wall for ten years, and then went to Hui Ke. Later, it spread to five ancestors of Hongren. Since then, Zen has been divided into two branches. Master Shen Xiu founded the Northern Sect of Zen, and Master Huineng took over the mantle of Hongren and founded the Southern Sect. What really influenced China culture was the "sudden feeling" founded by Huineng, that is, it was straightforward without words, but with this heart, it was straightforward to become a Buddha. Because it is difficult for Emperor Wudi of the Tang Dynasty to destroy the law, various sects declined and Zen flourished, it is not an exaggeration for Zen to become synonymous with Buddhism in China. As a result, almost all temples are Zen temples, and almost all wizards are Zen masters. Zen is close to literati's life, concise in righteousness, and deeply loved by literati, such as Su Dongpo and Huang Tingjian in Song Dynasty. His literary works are deeply influenced by Zen and full of Zen.

Therefore, Buddhism has a great influence on traditional literature. Tang poetry, Song ci and Yuan Qu are all deeply influenced by Buddhism, especially Zen. The introduction of Buddhism and the translation of Buddhist scriptures brought a large number of foreign words, such as Prajna, Enlightenment, Zen, Maha and Samadhi, which enriched China's vocabulary of Chinese characters. Among the poets in the Tang Dynasty, such as Wang Wei, deeply influenced by Mahayana Vimalakīrti Sutra, the pastoral poems are full of Zen. Su San's ci in Song Dynasty is full of Zen. Some famous Buddhist images were used in Ming and Qing novels, such as Tathagata, one of the top ten Buddhas, who robbed one of the past 53 Buddhas and defeated the Buddha. However, when they are used, they obviously deviate greatly from the original intention, and don't express their inner understanding of Zen like Tang poetry and Song poetry, so their influence on novels can only be regarded as superficial.

Another great influence of Buddhism is embodied in tea culture. The original intention of Buddhism is the teachings of the Buddha, so it attaches great importance to precepts and prohibits monks from drinking alcohol. But it not only does not exclude tea with the function of clearing the heart, but also strongly encourages the world to drink it. Pilgrims will be invited to tea when they come on a pilgrimage. In addition, many large temples built on the mountain are suitable for growing tea, thus making great contributions to the development and progress of tea culture in China.

Because most Buddhist temples are located in the mountains, temple architecture undoubtedly enriches the humanities and culture of the mountains. For example, Emei Mountain in Sichuan is a famous Buddhist Dojo, Tiantai Mountain in Zhejiang is a Dojo of Tiantai Sect, North Shaolin Temple is built on Songshan Mountain in Henan, and Han biography is built on Wutai Mountain. Tibetan Buddhist temples and Lushan Mountain are famous Dojo of Jingtu Sect. Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and Luoyang Longmen Grottoes are both Buddhist grottoes and temples, and most people combine mountaineering and sightseeing with pilgrimage.

As one of the three religions, Buddhism has a great influence on both Confucianism and Taoism. The emergence of Neo-Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties is inseparable from Confucian scholars' reference to Buddhism. Confucian culture is undoubtedly influenced by Buddhism through the systematization and speculation of Neo-Confucianism. Taoist architecture draws lessons from the characteristics of Buddhist architecture. Influenced by Buddhist sitting posture, Confucian scholar-officials also changed from kneeling to sitting in a dish, which is a comfortable sitting posture.

Mahayana Buddhism takes compassion as its purpose and advocates entering the WTO with the spirit of being born, which is different from Hinayana Buddhism, which only cares about its own degree. Many officials who live at home can still adhere to a clean government and care about the sufferings of the people in the era of corrupt officials. This is inseparable from their Buddhist beliefs. In their spare time, many literati enjoy reading classics and meditating, and stay away from debauchery, which undoubtedly resists the spread of officials' bad style. Ordinary people, as laymen, take chanting Buddha (or avalokitesvara), worshipping Buddha and fasting as their daily affairs, and at the same time release alms, which plays an important role in neighborhood harmony and physical and mental improvement. This is inseparable from their belief that "good is rewarded with good, evil with evil, not without reporting". It can be seen that the influence of Buddhism is not limited to a specific class, but a belief generally accepted by the public at that time.

(The following is transferred from Happy Paradise)

The profound and long-standing Buddhist ideology and culture is not only an important part of the traditional culture of all ethnic groups in China, but also has a great influence on many aspects of our secular culture, such as society, politics, history, philosophy, ethics, literature, language, music, dance, architecture, sculpture, painting, astronomy, medicine, science and technology, weddings, funerals and auspicious festivals, etc.

The introduction of Buddhism into China had a great impact on the development of China's history and culture, leaving a splendid Buddhist cultural heritage in the history of China. The exchange and integration of Indian Buddhist culture and China's inherent culture not only promoted the all-round development of the combination of Buddhism and China culture, but also formed academic ideas, cultivation methods, music art, craft architecture, customs and habits in the process of integration. Buddhist culture in China has become an important part of traditional culture in China.

Buddhist philosophy contains profound wisdom. The interaction between Buddhism and China's classical philosophy promoted philosophy to put forward new propositions and methods. Buddhism has profound and unique views on the life of the universe, the introspection of human reason and the analysis of concepts. In the outlook on life, Buddhism emphasizes the subjective consciousness and links its own liberation with the salvation of mankind. With its unique way of thinking and life style, it gives new enlightenment to people's spiritual life in China traditional society.

Buddhism has brought new artistic conception, new style and new wording methods to China culture, literature and art. Thousands of classics translated from Sanskrit are great and rich literary works in themselves. A?vagho?a's Ode to the Zen Forest brings a model of long narrative poems; Fahua, the late Wei Dynasty and White were the sources of inspiration for novels in Jin and Tang Dynasties. Prajna and Zen thought influenced the poems of Tao Yuanming, Wang Wei, Bai Juyi and Su Shi. Bianwen, folk stories and Jackson's quotations all have a deep relationship with Chinese popular literature.

How to treat the relationship between religion and culture is an inevitable problem for every nation in the process of developing culture. Buddhism has exerted a great influence on China culture and left a splendid Buddhist cultural heritage in the history of China. For example, the most well-preserved ancient buildings in China include the Buddhist Temple Pagoda, the existing brick pagodas of Song Yue Temple in Songshan, Henan, the Tang Dynasty wooden buildings of nanzenji and Beiju in Wutai Mountain, the Damu Pagoda in Yingxian County, and the stone pagodas of Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, all of which are precious objects for studying the history of ancient Chinese architecture. Many Buddhist buildings have become prominent signs of landscape contours in various parts of China. In a lush, red-walled and blue-tiled hall and Qiongge. Exquisite Buddhist architecture adds infinite spring scenery to the magnificent scenery of Wan Li. Dunhuang, Yungang, Longmen and other grottoes, as treasures of ancient sculpture art, are world-renowned. They have absorbed the characteristics of Gandhara and Indian, and developed into sculpture art with China national style, which is a great cultural heritage of our country.

Buddhism has also brought new artistic conception, new style and new way of choosing words. Thousands of classics translated from Sanskrit are great and rich literary works in themselves. A?vagho?a's Ode to the Zen Forest brings a model of long narrative poems; Fahua, the late Wei Dynasty and White were the sources of inspiration for novels in Jin and Tang Dynasties. Prajna and Zen thoughts influenced the poems of Tao Yuanming, Wang Wei, Bai Juyi and Su Shi. Bianwen, folk stories and Jackson's quotations all have a deep relationship with Chinese popular literature.

The touching stories in Buddhist scriptures often become the subject matter of artists' paintings. Cao Buxing, Gu Kaizhi, Zhang Sengyou, Zhan Ziqian, Yan, Wu Daozi and other famous painters of past dynasties have been handed down from generation to generation for their good paintings of Buddhism. The development of Chinese painting from Wang Wei's literati painting to popular freehand brushwork painting after Song and Yuan Dynasties is related to Zen thought. This shows the role of Buddhism in painting. As for music, Brahma was popular in China in the 3rd century. The music of the Tang Dynasty also absorbed the music of Buddhist countries such as Tianzhu Music, Qiuci Music and Anguo Music, and a small part of the music of the Tang Dynasty was preserved in some Buddhist temples.

Buddhism is accompanied by the spread of astronomy, medicine and other technologies. In the Tang Dynasty, a group of eminent monks created the Dayan calendar and measured the meridian, which made outstanding contributions to astronomy. There are more than ten kinds of medical books and prescriptions translated from India recorded in the history books of Sui and Tang Dynasties. Tibetan is the language of Buddhism, and it has the knowledge of doctors. The engraving of Buddhist scriptures promoted the development of printing in China, and almost all the oldest printed versions in the world have been preserved so far.

Buddhist philosophy contains profound wisdom and has profound and unique views on the life of the universe, the introspection of human reason and the analysis of concepts. Engels praised Buddhists in Dialectics of Nature as an advanced stage in the development of human dialectical thinking. In the world view, Buddhism denies that there is a supreme "God" and thinks that things are in a causal network with no beginning and no end. In the outlook on life, Buddhism emphasizes the subjective consciousness and links its own liberation with the salvation of mankind. The interaction between Buddhism and China's classical philosophy promoted philosophy to put forward new propositions and methods. With its unique way of thinking and life style, it gives people new inspiration, emancipates people's minds, gets rid of Confucian dogma and pushes people's spiritual life to another new world.

So does Buddhism still play a role in the process of developing new socialist national culture? The development of human culture is a continuous process, and traditional culture and modern culture cannot be completely separated. We should absorb all the valuable essence of traditional culture to enrich and develop the new socialist national culture. China's traditional culture also includes Buddhist culture. There is a prejudice that the reference to China traditional culture seems to be only Confucian culture, which completely obliterates the position of Buddhist culture in China traditional culture and the contribution of Buddhists to China culture. In fact, the traditional culture of China since Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is no longer a pure Confucian culture, but a cultural form formed by the confluence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

Studying the history of China, especially the cultural history of China, is inseparable from the study of Buddhism. In fact, from A.D. 148, the translation of Anshi Gaodongdu Buddhist Scriptures, to 260, when Zhu Shixing went to the West to learn from the scriptures, and then to A.D. 1 175, when Zhu and Lu Xiangshan met in Hubei (the former marked the beginning of a new cultural movement-Buddhism, and the latter marked the establishment of another new cultural movement-Neo-Confucianism). The Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty were the aftermath. It was during this period that Buddhism became the mainstream of China's philosophy. Its long duration, great momentum and wide influence (spread abroad) are far from being comparable to Confucian classics in Han Dynasty and Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. So when Hu Shi wrote The History of China Philosophy, he stopped writing because he didn't understand Buddhism at that time. There is also a famous contemporary historian in China who held a nihilistic attitude towards Buddhist culture in his early years, but began to systematically study Buddhist scriptures in his later years, saying that he needed to make up lessons. The historian told people that in the history of China, the relationship between Buddhism and culture is so deep that if you don't know Buddhism, you won't know China culture. But now people still do not attach importance to the study of Buddhism and regard it as vulgar religious superstition. For example, the great translator, traveler, linguist and Buddhist master in China's history declared the prize, which left his due chapter in the works of world history of western scholars. His name is a household name in India, and former Indian Prime Minister Nehru honored him as one of the four great men in history. But in China, people only know the Tang Priest in the Journey to the West, but they don't know the Xuanzang Prize in the cultural history of China. What's more, some people simply regard the precious cultural heritage of Buddhism as a way to make money, and many things that shouldn't happen give people an excuse that China doesn't respect culture. Nowadays, many people deny that Buddhism is a part of China culture, but when he opens his mouth, it actually contains Buddhist elements. Language is one of the most common and direct cultures. Many popular expressions in our daily life, such as the world, truth, reality, equality, the present, the moment, discipline, relative, absolute and so on, all come from Buddhist vocabulary. If we really want to completely abandon Buddhist culture, I'm afraid they can't even speak well. Therefore, when formulating today's cultural development strategy, we should put forward the problem of seriously studying the essence of Buddhist culture.

Buddhism also has a wide influence on China literature. There are so many Buddhist scriptures that there are more than 10,000 volumes of Dazheng Tibetan alone. Many Buddhist classics, such as Diamond Sutra, Vimalakīrti Sutra and Goblet of Fire, which are widely circulated in the teaching circle, are masterpieces handed down from the literary perspective.

The concept of time and space displayed in Buddhist scriptures is unheard of in China. China people's view of time and space is relatively narrow, as Zhuangzi said, "Outside Liuhe, sages talk without discussing". The time and space expounded by Buddhist scriptures show us a magnificent momentum. In the Vimalakīrti Sutra, Vimalakīrti was ill, and the Buddha sent his disciples to greet him. Although its residence is only ten feet, hundreds of people don't feel crowded and the room doesn't get bigger. This is what Buddhism calls an incredible realm. When Sharifutsu entered the room, he turned around: everyone came to visit the doctor, but there was no place to sit. Where should we sit? From this perspective, Vimalakīrti asked Manjusri Bodhisattva: "Where is the most solemn seat when you travel in the country of thousands of monks?" ? Manjusri Bodhisattva replied: From the 36 Ganges sand countries in the east, there is the Buddha country of Sumi Mountain, where Leo is 84,000 meters high and magnificent. Showing his magical power, he immediately shipped tens of millions of Leo and put them in Zhang's room. The narration in Buddhist scriptures takes the whole universe as the stage and infinite time and space as the background. For those who don't believe in Buddhism, it may just be regarded as a myth. Even so, its open imagination has greatly expanded the thinking of Chinese people from another angle.

The genre of Buddhist classics is also very rich, including poetry, prose, novel and drama. Even if it is not accepted from the belief level, it can be studied as a cultural heritage, so it is very popular with traditional literati. As early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, eighteen eminent monks gathered in Lushan Mountain and joined the Lotus Society under Master Hui Yuan, the eminent monk, to practice pure business together. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, scholars' good Buddhism became more popular. Wang Bo, Wang Wei, Bai Juyi, Liu Zongyuan, Liu Yuxi, Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi and Su Dongpo are all devout Buddhists. Literary works represent the author's observation, experience and life accumulation of the world, and also reflect the author's ideological realm and spiritual belief. So many ancient literary works contain Buddhism and Zen. If we don't know Buddhism, it is difficult to understand the details of these works.

In addition, some works are directly drawn from Buddhism or related content. For example, The Journey to the West took the experience of Tang Priest (Genjyo Sanzo) going to India to learn Buddhist scriptures as the theme. Students who have studied history should know that Master Xuanzang is one of the four great translators in the history of Buddhism in China, and he has made outstanding contributions to Buddhism in the Han Dynasty. Based on this history, The Journey to the West naturally permeated many Buddhist thoughts in his creation. Regrettably, after the interpretation of some film and television works, Tang Priest became a poor foil for the Monkey King and Pig Bajie, and failed to reproduce the historical truth. Notes novels such as Yuewei Caotang Notes and Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio also reflect the Buddhist thought of karma to varying degrees. As for the classic Dream of Red Mansions, there are many Zen poems for readers. If you know nothing about Buddhism, you will not be able to interpret these works correctly.

Buddhism was only distorted and used by the rulers, but not used correctly. The behavior of rulers will inevitably deviate from the purpose of Buddhism to love the people and lead to decline.