Buddhism China - Overview

Buddhism was first called "Dhyana" in China, a Sanskrit word later transliterated as "Channa" or Chan.  As a new religious practice Chan had a slow start, but flourished for nearly 1000 years.

Buddhist Mantra

Dhyana was the dominating Buddhist practice in China since the fourth century CE. During the late Tang dynasty, Chan cut it's Indian roots. It was highly regarded for hundreds of years as the third Chinese philosophy. In 13th century Chan Buddhism was transferred to Japan as Zen Buddhism.

Buddhism was first brought to China by Indian merchants who practiced Dhyana-meditation. It took several hundred years until Buddhism was recognized by China's intellectual elite, mainly Taoists. They saw it as a new religious and philosophical concept very close to Taoism.

 After Kumarajiva, in 4th century CE, made the first reliable translations of Buddhist sutras using Taoist terms and thinking Buddhism was finally appreciated by Chinese intellectuals as Dhyana.

Since 6th century Chinese monasteries translated a constant flow of Buddhist scriptures from India. Although there were other Buddhist groups in China, Chan was dominant.
The contents of Buddhism widely discussed, commented on and compared mainly with the Taoist canon. That's no surprise. Taoism and Buddhism favor non-violence. Both are celebrated as religion and/or as philosophy and both strongly recommend meditation.  

Despite this overall acceptance in China, some Confucian scholars trained as state-administrators opposed Chan-Buddhism as a foreign religion.

During the Tang dynasty from the 7th to 9th century CE Chan-Buddhism fascinated the Taoist elite. Buddhism seemed similar to Taoism:  Chan, although from India, had no gods and it's intense meditation was the tool to realize the "emptiness" of reality. There was nothing to achieve. 
 
An attractive concept for Taoists. after several centuries Chan-Buddhist abbots, temples and monasteries became politically influential and rich.


In 845 CE, although the Tang Dynasty was already weakened, Chan-Buddhism was heavily suppressed and nearly extinguished by Tang Emperor Wuzong.

The wealth of 40,000 temples and 4,600 monasteries was taken away.

More than 300,000 monks and nuns of Chan were sent to work in the fields and had to pay taxes again.

A fortune for the emperor.r

Some lucky Chan-Buddhist monks and nuns escaped to the south, where Chan-Buddhism was still tolerated.

Buddhism in China

It took about 100 years until a central authority was re-established in China by the Sung Dynasty.

Its first emperor, Taizu, a former general, modernized the country.

He and his successors expanded the administration and encouraged new technical ideas and cultural diversity.

The dynasty needed lots of educated civil servants for its reform projects but there were not enough qualified applicants.

Buddhist competition with Confucians.

By the 10th century the flow of Buddhist scriptures from India had dried .


Chan monks learned to cultivate themselves through meditation until they reached the state of enlightenment.

This process was claimed to be similar to Confucian studies with an imperial examination at the end.

Buddhist leaders argued that both ways similarly enabled their successful students to take over government posts. After some time the emperor agreed.

Buddhist Beliefs

A competition between Chan-Buddhists and Neo-Confucians began and changed both of them.

Neo-Confucianism became less elitist, more egalitarian.

Chan-Buddhism became less mystical, more pragmatic and focussed on meditation. 

Today, after 200 years of social and political changes Chinese Chan also called  meditation Buddhism is still best known as "Zen" around the world. This will change.


The transformation of Indian Buddhism to Chinese Chan Buddhism wasn't smooth at all.

Chan Buddhism split into different Chinese schools, so called houses, quite early on.

Chan Word

All schools told stories about enlightened forefathers during the Tang dynasty.

All these forefathers, it was said, were linked in a very long chain of enlightened predecessors to the Enlightened One, the Buddha.

This fictional genealogy, the so called "lineage", provided the Buddha's authority to all Chan schools since first century CE in China.

Some Chan masters who were linked to the "lineage" could make their students eligible for government jobs by approving their enlightenment.

This system made some master powerful and guaranteed them a constant flow of income.

Zen Saying

The Song emperors' beneficiaries of Chan Buddhism needed not only a lineage.

Buddhism was in China still seen as a foreign cult. This image had been the main reason for several persecutions.

To change this perception Chan cut off its roots and converted the "Indian" Buddha and his teachings (the sutras) into a Chinese version.

The Chinese Buddha behaved like Lao Tzu, Kung Fu-Tze (Confucius) or any other ancient Chinese philosopher.

The mysticism and magic of Buddhism was strictly denounced. Enlightenment and how to achieve it without magic became the new center of Buddhist teaching in China.

The transition to Chinese Chan Buddhism wasn't officially declared but told in hundreds of stories.

Drawn from widely known fairy tales, legends and popular sayings, strange habits of deceased Buddhist masters were reported or newly created.

Zen Wisdom

These masters  fictional biographies expressed the essentials of the new Buddhism China history.

The tricky strategy to change Buddhism into Chinese Chan was successful. The outcome, a fictional history is believed as real in most Chan circles until today.

The often lengthy biography-stories of Zen were later shortened and called goang like the philosophical cases Confucian students had to deal with.

Buddhist goang collections, the well known Chan riddles became the text book of Chan.

Although there were still pockets of other Buddhist schools during the Song dynasty, Chan  was dominant in China.

But in the following centuries Chan slowly merged with Confucianism and Taoism.

Japanese monks who came to study Buddhism China in the 13th century not only mispronounced the characters for "Chan" as "Zen", but also took the fictional Zen stories at face value as historical riddles with a mystical meaning.
 

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