A Discussion of the Anti-Buddhism Struggle in China Before the Mid-Tang Dynasty and the Path of Buddhism's Development in China

Abstract

From the time of the Eastern Han dynasty [A.D. 23-220] onward, Buddhism gradually became a very important ideological tool for the feudal landlord class in China in their establishing their rule over the country. Although Buddhism had its roots in India and was transmitted to China in the form of seeds of ideas, it found even more fertile soil in China and grew into a tall and leafy tree with a stout trunk, casting its protective shadow over the entire Chinese system of feudalism. In the age of feudalism in China, the political power of Buddhism was constantly in competition with that of the Daoist religion in areas populated by the Han people, and there was quite an ebb and flow. However, it is fair to say that in terms of ideological and cultural influence Buddhism enjoyed a great advantage. Naturally, the other imported religions and/or regional religions, which were by and large even weaker than the Daoist religion, were even less of a match for Buddhism. Nevertheless, in terms of China's historical conditions, owing to intermittent class conflict — primarily the revolutionary peasant wars, to a powerful despotic system of concentration of political power and to the conflict of practical interests between secular landlords and monastic landlords — monastic orders who controlled land on the basis of the monastery economy, and also owing to the traditionally powerful influence of Confucianist orthodoxy (there was in Confucianist teaching also a smattering of tendencies toward humanist and even materialist thought, as well as the development of natural science) — all these factors combined to wage war against religion and theology. As a result, the development of Buddhism was greatly hindered, and, unlike the religions of Europe and other Asian countries, it was unable to place religious authority over and above secular political authority or to achieve an absolute monopoly over the realm of ideology and culture. In China, no matter how brightly the star of Buddhism shone and how great and compelling its power and prestige came to be, it still nonetheless always huddled up at the feet of the feudalistic monarchy and was never able to take the place of the orthodoxy of Confucianism. Still, it was indispensable as a supplementary tool of government.