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Chinese Buddhism

Buddhism with Chinese characteristics

Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism has shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas including art, politics, literature, philosophy, medicine and material culture.

Quotes

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  • When, after the fall of the Han, China found itself torn with political chaos, and life seemed lost in a welter of insecurity and war, the harassed nation turned to Buddhism as the Roman world was at the same time turning to Christianity. Taoism opened its arms to take in the new faith, and in time became inextricably mingled with it in the Chinese soul. Emperors persecuted Buddhism, philosophers complained of its superstitions, statesmen were concerned over the fact that some of the best blood of China was being sterilized in monasteries; but in the end the government found again that religion is stronger than the state; the emperors made treaties of peace with the new gods; the Buddhist priests were allowed to collect alms and raise temples, and the bureaucracy of officials and scholars was perforce content to keep Confucianism as its own aristocratic creed. The new religion took possession of many old shrines, placed its monks and fanes along with those of the Taoists on the holy mountain Tai-shan, aroused the people to many pious pilgrimages, contributed powerfully to painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and the development of printing, and brought a civilizing measure of gentleness into the Chinese soul. Then, it, too, like Taoism, fell into decay; its clergy became corrupt, its doctrine was permeated more and more by sinister deities and popular superstitions, and its political power, never strong, was practically destroyed by the renaissance of Confucianism under Chu Hsi. Today its temples are neglected, its resources are exhausted, and its only devotees are its impoverished priests.
    Nevertheless it has sunk into the national soul, and is still part of the complex but informal religion of the simpler Chinese. For religions in China are not mutually exclusive as in Europe and America, nor have they ever precipitated the country into religious wars. Normally they tolerate one another not only in the state but in the same breast; and the average Chinese is at once an animist, a Taoist, a Buddhist and a Confucianist. He is a modest philosopher, and knows that nothing is certain; perhaps, after all, the theologian may be right, and there may be a paradise; the best policy would be to humor all these creeds, and pay many diverse priests to say prayers over one’s grave. While fortune smiles, however, the Chinese citizen does not pay much attention to the gods; he honors his ancestors, but lets the Taoist and the Buddhist temples get along with the attentions of the clergy and a few women.
  • “Once, a young Chinese girl who spoke English started crying as soon as she entered my audience chamber. When she sat down, I understood why she was crying. She had been educated at one of the best colleges in Beijing. Until she arrived in Delhi, she knew nothing about Tibet and the Dalai Lama. After meeting monks in Delhi, she began to understand the Tibetan question and the role of the Dalai Lama. Then she came here. She told me that her entire generation knew nothing about Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. How can we help them? It is not possible. She can't speak, and she can't write, no one would publish it. »
    • Dalai Lama, quoted from François Gautier - Les mots du dernier Dalaï-lama (2018, Flammarion)
  • “A few years ago, while passing a Buddhist temple in Singapore, I heard Chinese monks reciting sutras (Buddhist prayers), it brought me to tears thinking that for millennia, Hundreds of millions of Chinese had repeated these same sutras. But since the communists took power, hatred, mistrust and violence have gradually erased the Chinese Buddhist tradition. I therefore prayed that this wonderful Buddhist message of peace, compassion and love would one day return to China, and that once again this extraordinary country would flourish and shine throughout the world. »
    • Dalai Lama, quoted from François Gautier - Les mots du dernier Dalaï-lama (2018, Flammarion)
  • Buddhism maintained itself and even grew while persecuted, and great Buddhist centers were often fiercely independent. Yet, the pseudo-historical reconstruction of Chinese Buddhism has a clear purpose. First, to claim that to adapt to China Buddhism had to accept to serve the state, and this was to its advantage. Second, to insist that this Sinicization of old is not sufficient today because Buddhism adapted to the Imperial State and its principles, while the Communist People’s Republic of China is obviously different. Accordingly, Buddhism should now adapt to the [Chinese Communist Party] and, as the Forum insisted, adopt and preach “Xi Jinping’s thought on religion”—and by doing so, it is claimed, it would even be true to its origins. It is a historical fraud, but a convenient way to assert CCP’s control on Buddhism—and all religions.
    • Zhao Zhangyong (pseudonym), "CCP Uses Lingyan Temple History to Insist Buddhism Should be “Sinicized,” Too", Bitter Winter (June 19, 2024)
    • Curator's note: The Forum in the quotation is the “Sinicization of Buddhism and Lingyan Temple History and Culture Forum” in the English translation of the Chinese title, and “Sinicization” in the Chinese Communist Party's terms is conforming to the ideology and directives of the Chinese Communist Party.
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