Tsukamoto Zenryu Ch. 6 a History of Early Chinese Buddhism

7/28/2019 Tsukamoto Zenryu Ch. 6 a History of Early Chinese Buddhism

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6THE RISE OF BUDDHISMSOUTH OF THE YANGTZEUNDER THE EASTERN TSIN


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A. Collapse of the Western Tsin and Buddhism'sSouthward Trek

The Inauguration of the Eastern Tsin at Chien-k'ang. The rule of the Western Tsin,which had created a unified Chinese state, was not to endure very long. As has beensaid above, after the death of Emperor Wu (in 290), the court was characterized bythe autocratic usurpations of the Chia clan, blood kin to the empress, who were taking advantage of the new occupant of the throne, the idiot emperor Hui, whileelsewhere there were seven years of feuding among princes of the blood who tookturns in attacking the capital at Lo-yang in the hope ofcapturing the imperial power(the so-called Disturbance of the Eight Princes). In this way the governing power ofthe Tsin court was worn down to nothing, and to this was added a succession ofcrop failures, floods, and other natural calamities, with the result that the entireMiddle Plain was converted into a virtual wilderness. Availing themselves of the opportunity provided by this situation, there rose up in attack all over the land avariety of non-Chinese peoples in the north who, since the days of the Latter Han,had been moving to within the Great Wall and many of whom were now settledagriculturists. We are referring, of course, to the "Five Barbarian Nations" (wu hu),i.e., to the non-Chinese peoples among whom the best known were the Hsiung-nu,the Chieh, the Ti, the Ch'iang, and the Hsien-pi. Liu Yao, chief of the Hsiung-nu,who were the first nation to become aggressively active, at length reduced Lo-yang,taking Emperor Huai captive (in 311). Then Emperor Min, who succeeded him inCh'ang-an, the other capital, was also taken captive by Liu Yao (in 317), and theWestern Tsin, which had lasted only four reigns over a period of fifty-two years,perished. Thereafter, North China became the scene of a bewildering struggle forpower among the Five, and there was ushered in the period of political turmoilknown as that of the "sixteen states of the Five Barbarian Nations" (wu hu shih liukuo). About the same time, one member of the imperial family, Ssu-ma Jui, who,with his base at Chien-k'ang, had, from Yung-chia 1 (307), attained the highestpolitical-military rank south of the Yangtze and who, with the aid of men likeWang Tao, and Chou Yi, had also contrived to win the sympathies of most of thepowerful families south of the Yangtze, was elevated, once the Western Tsin was nomore, to imperial dignity by two groups, viz., the powerful families indigenous tothe south and the aristocrats who, likeWang Tao, had come down from the north;and thus it is that the Tsin was restored (in 317). He is the man known to subsequenthistory as Emperor Yiian of he Eastern Tsin. Incidentally, Chien-k'ang is none otherthan the old Wu capital of Chien-yeh, whose name was changed in order to avoidthe personal name of Ssu-ma Y eh, Emperor Min of the Western Tsin.

The court of the Eastern Tsin maintained itself, through a period of 104 years(317-420, incl.), for eleven reigns, as diagrammed on the accompanying table, until

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taken over by the Sung, first of the "Southern dynasties." If one may arbitrarilydesignate the first five reigns as the "former period" of the Eastern Tsin, then thisformer period, lasting a bit over 50 years, was one. in which scholar-aristocratsfrom the north, streaming southward in a steady succession to become officials in theservice of the court at Chien-k'ang, or taking up residence in the K'uai-chi area,charmed by the loveliness of the southeast, brought with them into these two areasthe metaphysical scholarship ("dark learning") and "pure talk," based primarily onthe study of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, that had been so fashionable in the MiddlePlain, and, with their predilection for the life of the recluse, established in the southa new fashion that was to carry all before it. At the same time, the Buddhist scripturesin Chinese translation that had gradually, in conjunction with the "dark learning"and "pure talk" just mentioned, come to be read by intellectuals and aristocratsin the Lo-yang region under the Western Tsin , particularly the Vimalakirtinirdeaand the Prajfiaparamita scriptures, whose Chinese versions made use of expressionsreminiscent of the philosophy of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, came at length to beinterpreted within a framework of Chinese thinking. This produced Buddhistsamong the Chinese, including monks, who would with enthusiasm preach and propagate the doctrines of these scriptures.(1) Emperor Yiian(r. 317-323) (2) Ming (r. 324-325)IIm

IIdaughter ofYu Ch'en(empress regent forCh'eng)

(3) Ch'eng (r. 325-342)L(6) Ai (r. 362-365)-(7) Prince of Hai-hsi(Fei, r. 366-371)

IImIIdaughter ofYu Yung

- (4) K'ang (r. 343-344)--(5) Mu (r. 345-361)II IImIIdaughter of Ch'u

P'ou (empress regentfor Mu and Hsiao-wu)

mIIdaughter of Ho Chun

-(8) Chien-wen - - - - , - - ( 9 ) Hsiao-wu(r. 371-372) (r. 373-396)IIm Tao-tzu, prince of I

(10) An (r. 397-418)

-(11) Kung (r. 419-420)II K'uai-chuLady Li of Chih-fangPalaceAmong these Buddhist scholars and evangelists, both lay and clerical, were not a

few who joined the southward move to Chien-k'ang. These scholar-aristocrats whoread, memorized, and studied the Buddhist scriptures and their colleagues in theBuddhist clergy who combined in their own persons a mastery of Lao-tzu andChuang-tzu as well as the Vimalakirtinirdda and the Prajfiaparamita are the ones whobrought to bloom in the aristocratic salons ofChien-k'ang and K'uai-chi the flowerof Buddhism, as modified by "dark learning" and "pure talk." This aris tocraticBuddhism, together with the fashionable study ofLao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, laid thefoundation for the spiritual culture of the Eastern Tsin, which, inherited later by the314 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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Southern dynasties, effected the absolute triumph of aristocratic Buddhism in SouthChina. There were, of course, among the ethnically Chinese intellectuals and thepowerful families rooted south of the Yangtze many who were, broadly speaking,heirs to the traditions of Confucian scholarship that had obtained since Han times,but even these so-called "southern" (nan jen) scholars could not remain uninfluencedby the new vogue of Lao-Chuang learning brought with them by the northerners'southward flight. Yet, the southern intellectuals, answerable to the Son of Heavenand charged with the responsibilities of government, however fond they might beofLao-tzu, Chuang-tzu, and"dark learning," were not men to cast aside the "doctrineofpropriety," based as it was on the Confucian classics and heir as it was to a longtradition. Nor were they the men to forget that in this doctrine of propriety residedthe fundamental authority on which government and ethics had to rely. ChiangTun (305-353), for instance, was a man who stood in a relationship of mutualfriendship and respect with cultivated (jeng liu) gentlemen who were typical of the"dark learning" of their age, such that he is said (in the chapter on "character evaluation," p'in tsao, in Worldly Talk and Recent Remarks) to have held as models "Wang(Meng) and Liu (Yen), who were worshiped by all who lay claim to being cultivated." Equally the master of Confucianism and "dark learning," he is mentioned(in roll 56 of the Book of Tsin) as the author ofan essay on "being consistently true tothe Way and esteeming self-control" (T'ung tao ch'ung chien lun), in which he appearsto have preached a syncretization of both disciplines, saying that "the behavior of thegentleman is something that must be based on propriety, and anything that succumbsto whim, casts off restraint, and ignores the canons of propriety is completely inconsistent with the Way." 1 Even Hui-yiian, who embraced Buddhism in the conviction that the learned theories indigenous to China are nothing but "chaff,"did not reject the study ofLao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, going so far as to conduct readings in the classical canons of propriety (li) for members of the aristocracy. Consequently, while there were occasional counterattacks from Confucian quarters onthe Buddhists, in reaction to the latter's successes with the aristocracy, there was nostopping the stream that was leading to the reinforcement of that same aristocraticBuddhism.

The Shortcomings of Aristocratic Buddhism under the Eastern Tsin. What aristocraticBuddhism tends to lack is earnestness of religious practice, while the things thateasily adhere to it, on the contrary, are a casual, playful character and the elementsof rot that always accompany a life of extravagant luxury. Where the Buddhistchurch of Chien-k' ang is concerned in the latter half of the Eastern Tsin, suchtendencies became pronounced within the clergy itself. In particular, as the conversion to Buddhism of ladies of the upper class progressed, the community of nunsdeveloped, and the close contacts of these nuns with the powerful aristocratic clansand with the ladies of the aristocracy invited criticism from men rooted in thetraditional (i.e., no t very complimentary) Chinese view of womankind. Becauseof this, and because there were serious abuses in fact as well, from this point of viewalso serious attacks on, and even advocacy of the suppression of, Buddhism came to

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be voiced. In response to this, the air became filled with theories professing to seebasic identity in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, as well as with argumentsabout the relative worth of the three disciplines, about harmonizing their respectivedifferences, etc. Yet, in all this, the era of the Eastern Tsin was one in which Buddhism, maintaining its doctrinal lead, invaded the Southern dynasties, thus constituting a special chapter in the history of the Chinese spirit.

As the aristocratic Buddhism of the lower reaches of the Yangtze, an integralpart of the cultural complex of the capital at Chien-k'ang, went from triumphto effeteness, then to decay, an effective monastic community disciplined in practiceand study in a rigorously regulated life, composed likewise of refugees from thenorth, left its mark on its contemporaries in all quarters, as well as on later generations. The community to which we refer is that ofTao-an, who lived in Hsiang-yangabout the middle of the Eastern Tsin, and Hui-yiian (his disciple), who later madehis home on Mount Lu in Hsiin-yang.

What we intend to do now is to give a general description of Buddhism underthe Eastern Tsin, devoting one section of the present chapter to each of the (admittedly rather arbitrarily selected) headings.

Internal War and the Expansion of Buddhism in North China. A look back overChina 's history wi ll reveal that the flight of ethnically Chinese refugees into remoteareas from the Middle Plain, i.e., the Yellow River valley, and the whole area to thesouth of t, including the valley of the Huai, was something that took place repeatedly from the disturbed end of the Han to the no less disturbed era of the infightingamong the Three Kingdoms. In the midst of the turmoil that marked the latterhalf of the Western Tsin, this movement became all the more pronounced. Theplaces in which the refugees took up residence were located as far to the west as Tunhuang, to the southeast as Han-chung and beyond that to Szechwan, or to Chingchou in the middle of the Yangtze basin, or even farther south yet to Kiaochow(the Hanoi region). Now that the Eastern Tsin had established a capital at Chienk'ang, however, it was only natural that a majority of the aristocratic clansmenand intellectuals who had visions of establishing themselves in the political worldshould move southward with the Chien-k'ang area as their destination. In order toward off, to whatever degree possible, the dangers of a troubled time, whole families of the powerful would move, taking their retainers and dependents in tow, andthe powerless commoners for their own part, when giving up the soil they tilled,would collect with the in tention of moving under the protection of these samepowerful families. O f the latter too there were not a few who would move in largegroups, having first taken the dispossessed commoners under their protective wing,then converted them into hired laborers and/or private armies.

While Buddhism in North China had at this time not yet reached a point at whichone might speak of"fl.orescence," still there were, already by the end of the WesternTsin, not a few monasteries in Lo-yang, as well as monks to inhabit them, boththriving to the extent of inviting general criticism. Yang Hsuan-chih, in the prefaceto his well-known Record of he Sal'!fghiiriimas ofLo-yang (Lo yang ch'ieh-lan chi), notes316 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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that "Buddhism, having arrived, gradually spread, and by Yung-chia in Tsin times(306-312) there were forty-two monasteries." Then, in the Correction ofError (Chengwu lun), regarded as a work of the early Eastern Tsin, dating to the former halfof thefourth century (and contained in roll 1 of the Hung ming chi), one reads varied attacks on Buddhism, saying, for example, that Shih Ch'ung, for all that he was a manof power, wealth, and family, as well as a devout Buddhist, died a violent death(ca. 301); that the sramal).as in the capital, in spite of their numbers, have never beenknown to have effected either a prolongation of the emperor's life or a plentifulharvest; that, in particular, "the men of the Way (i.e., the sa111gha) recruit thecommon people in large numbers to build stiipas and monasteries on a large scale,going to extremes in ostentation, luxury, and extravagance." This applies to otherplaces as well as Lo-yang. In nearby Hsti-ch' ang as well as the Chung-shan area northof the Yellow River, then further west in such cities as Ch'ang-an, there wereBuddhist monasteries, which had become centers for scriptural translation, proselytization, and the like. In Ch'ang-an, as we have already said, D h a r m a r a k ~ a andhis fellows saw to the construction of monasteries, in which, aided by large numbersofbelievers, both lay and clerical, they pursued their religious activities. In this way,in the metropolitan centers of Chinese civilization toward the end of the WesternTsin, Buddhism had already laid quite a respectable foundation for future evangelism,part of which consisted of monks from abroad as well as committed monks andlaymen among both naturalized foreigners and native Chinese. Furthermore,Buddhism was already a phenomenon oflong standing in the valley of he Huai, nearChien-k'ang.

In addition to the above, the following should be noted: The arrival of foreignmonks continued. The propagation of Buddhism by naturalized foreigners proceeded. Buddhists began to make their appearance even within the ethnically Chineseintelligentsia. As the evangelistic activity of hese various sorts ofBuddhists gained inintensity during this early period, there was an uninterrupted movement of largenumbers of people from these areas to remote, outlying regions. Then, togetherwith the traditional learning and ideas, and beliefs indigenous to the centers ofChinese civilization with their long tradition, Buddhism also spread to the newhomes of the people just mentioned. Also, since, as already stated, their principal destination, the area of Chien-k'ang, the Eastern Tsin capital, had been since Wu times(during the era of the Three Kingdoms) the scene of missionary activity of bothnorthern and southern origin, with the attendant construction of monasteries, therewere active in Buddhist circles at Chien-k' ang under the Eastern Tsin not only thethinkers and scholars who had come south but also the newly added, purely Buddhistscholars of the Middle Plain.

Intellectual Buddhism from the North. Now, once the Tsin court was reestablished atChien-k'ang, then the members of the powerful families and the high-rankingofficials who had served that court at Lo-yang, who had held power in the politicalcircles there, and who had been most active there,both in order to escape the internalwars that plagued the north country and in order to regain their positions as active

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functionaries in that same court, now reconstituted at Chien-k'ang, formed anever-increasing stream of refugees, from the time of the Yung-chia Disturbance onward, having the latter city and its environs as their destination, a development thatwas only to be expected. In this way, the mainstream of thought and scholarshipcentering about Lo-yang early in the Eastern Tsin moved to Chien-k'ang togetherwith the intellectuals themselves, then further on to K'uai-chi, southwest ofa Chienk'ang in which the one-time refugees were now more or less settled, to flourish inboth places. At the center of the thought and scholarship of the intellectuals of theWestern Tin, needless to say, was the study of the Confucian classics, which hadlong been the basis ofboth government and ethics, but it had been somewhat squashedby a new vogue of scholarship, that of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, the so-called"dark learning." Since Buddhism too became, at length, an object first of interest,then of acceptance on the part of these intellectuals through the intermediacy of"dark learning," the Buddhism that moved south to Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chi wasof necessity propagated in an intellectual society enamored of those two sets ofideas as a "Buddhism ofDark Learning," i.e., in conjunction with the ideas ascribedto Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. Also, by joining streams with the vogue of seclusion(yin yi) and "pure talk" (ch'ing t'an) that had become fashionable in company withthe study ofLao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, it rapidly blazed the path to its own triumphamong the intellectual aristocracy, and eventually was blessed with the opportunityto lay the foundation that was to lead to the total triumph of Buddhism under theSouthern dynasties (primarily an aristocratic Buddhism, to be sure).Buddhism and the Family of Wang Tao. Now it is noted in the biography of WangTao (courtesy name Mao-hung),2 that "the capital on the Lo toppled, and theladies and gentlemen of the central provinces who fled trouble by going to the leftof the River (i.e., south of the Yangtze) numbered six or seven out of ten." Thefamily ofWang Tao was one of the distinguished families that moved south. It wasa family fond of"pure talk" and "dark learning," fraternizing at the same time withthe Buddhist sarp.gha, respecting its members, feeling inclined toward a belief in theBuddhist religion and, at the very least, affording it a sympathetic understanding.That same clan, as we will have occasion to tell later, also produced some influential

Wa ngL a n-

(Chu Fa-t'ai's sponsor)-Ts ' a i - - -Tao- ------ ,,,----Hsia

1Hsiin (Tao's descendants allBuddhists)

-Min-Shao- Tao-pao (Buddhist monk)

-Chi--1,---Tun-Chu Tao-ch'ien- C h e n g - -K 'uang- - - -Hs i -ch ih lHs i ian -ch ih (Hsi-chih' s descendantsall t'ien shih Taoists)-Ning-chih

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and effective members of the sarpgha, the most notable among them being ChuTao-ch'ien, a man active in the aristocratic Buddhist circles of Chien-k'ang andK'uai-chi under the Eastern Tsin, one who furthered the conversion of the Chienk'ang aristocracy to Buddhism.

Let us now cite another clan that was one of the most powerful in the mass southward move, and that also made its weight felt in the aristocracy, in the bureaucracy,in the world of ideas, and also in the religious circles of the Eastern Tsin.

The dan just referred to is, as can be seen from the chart, that o f Hsi Chien,originally of Kao-p'ing (now Tsining in Shantung).3 To begin with, he fled toMount Yi in Lu at the head of over a thousand households native to that locality,but within three years those who fled south under his leadership numbered in thetens of housands. This clan had power and influence enough to rank it alongside thatofWang Tao. Ever since late Han they had been believers in a Taoism that had beengradually developing as an organized religious movement. Yet, at the same time,it is to be noted that they produced from their own ranks the extremely zeaJousBuddhist scholar and practitioner Hsi Ch'ao (courtesy name Chia-pin).Even within Wang Tao's own clan, one family, that of Wang Hsi-chih, were in

their majority believers in t'ien shih Taoism. The appearance in such numbers ofbelievers either in Buddhism or in Taoism among both the Wang clan and theHsi dan may presumably be interpreted to mean that at this time of civil war eventhe intellectual aristocrats, having experienced the turmoil in their very persons,when confronted with the issues of death and life, could not help seeking somespiritual prop or other, and that this was the golden opportunity for Buddhism orTaoism-or both, as the case might be-to capture their hearts.

Now, while Emperor Yi.ian, first sovereign of the Eastern Tsin (r. 317-322), didaccede to the throne, by the end of the Western Tsin the princes had no real power,being no more than "front men" for aristocrats such as Wang Tao. The real powerin the domains of the Eastern Tsin south of the Yangtze came to be monopolized bypowerful nobles, particularly those powerful noble families that made the movesouth of the Yangtze and occupied the key posts in the Eastern Tsin government,making the court into their puppet and becoming great landowners by letting theirpower speak for them and by taking possession of the most fertile lands south of theYangtze, there again securing their position as distinguished families. As the aristocracy and the intellectual class moved southward, the "dark learning," i.e., theLao-Chuang thought, that had come to flourish at Lo-yang under the WesternTsin, also moved south. Wang Tao, once he had moved south of the Yangtze,would speak of only three sets of ideas, those contained in two essays of Hsi K' ang,arguing that music in and of itself contains neither sorrow nor joy (Sheng wu ai lo

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lun) and the one on the cultivation of the life force (Yang sheng fun), and one byOu-yang Chien (courtesy name Chien-shih) stating that words do express ideas fully(Yen chin yi lun). 4 Kuang Yi, also a refugee from the north, organized a group of"pure talkers," known as the "Eight Accomplished Ones" (pa ta), in imitation of heSeven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.5

If only from these instances, one is in a position to understand that the intellectualsfrom the north had both respect and admiration for the scholarship and life at-titudes ofLo-yang under the Western Tsin. In fact , it would have been only humanfor persons so far removed from the old capital, the political and cultural centerin which they had lived so long, to yearn for the old soil and, in retrospect, toidealize both the place and its way of life, including its polite accomplishments.As a matter of fact, under the Eastern Tsin the young exponents of the new Confucianism, which had incorporated the Taoistic ideas of Wei times, most notablythose ofHo Yen and Wang Pi, were looked back to with admiration as illustriousthinkers, who had not been favored with worldly success, and their theories readwith fond attachment. Not only that, but the study of Chuang-tzu that flourishedin their wake, particularly that of late Western Tsin times, principally that of KuoHsiang, became a preoccupation, with the result that "dark learning" flourishedmore and more. Of course, men like Hsiung Yi.ian, giving stern warning against thevogue typified by the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove that prevailed early underthe Eastern Tsin, with its contempt for the pedestrian duties of the statesman and itsfondness for Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, for the life of seclusion (yin yi), and for"pure talk" (ch'ing t'an), cites one of the three faults of persons charged with politicalresponsibility:

Now those persons charged with office regard the management of [worldly)affairs [i.e., political duties] as [the work of] common clerks. The requirementto obey the law they regard as cruel. Scrupulous attendance to propriety they re-gard as sycophancy. Easy-going indifference they regard as sublime and subtle.Recklessness they regard as the mark of an accomplished gentleman, while ar-rogance is taken by them for gentility.6

The mood of the age, however, was not to be arrested by memorials to the thronesuch as the one from which these remarks are quoted. This is why and how Buddhism, linked with the scholarly vogue of studying Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, wasable to become current in aristocratic society.

In this way, while North China was subject to an unending siege ofcivil war, withnon-Chinese lording it over the Chinese, south of the Yangtze was fashioned acomparat ively serene society ruled by the distinguished families of the aristocracy,into which was transplanted the aristocratic culture, specifically the "dark learning," that erstwhile had been flourishing at Lo-yang. Consequently, even after theestablishment of the Eastern Tsin there was a steady flow of persons from NorthChina. In fact, whenever there was any upheaval in the north, the refugees wouldstream south of the Yangtze, creating a huge social problem for the court of the320 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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Eastern Tsin. According to recent researches, in the period of time ranging fromthe end of the Western Tsin to the end of the Liu-Sung, one-eighth of the population of North China moved to the south, and, as a result, one-sixth of the totalpopulation south of the Yangtze is alleged to have been of northern provenance.7

Learned Chinese Monks Move South. Under the conditions just described, therewere also among the sarpgha not a few who moved to south of the Yangtze, atypical case being Chu Tao-ch'ien (courtesy name Fa-shen), a man who entered theBuddhist order from one of the most highly placed, most illustrious families of thetime, being younger brother to Wang Tun, the generalissimo who was the realpowerholder under the early Eastern Tsin. Apart from these cases, there must alsohave been some who, being on close terms in the Middle Plain with gentlemen ofdistinction, went south in the retinue of their respective clans, as well as wholegroups of monks, whether teachers and pupils, comrades, or simply countrymen,who moved together.

Examples of the last named, a type of mass migration of monks that took placeseveral times during the history of the Eastern Tsin, would be the cases of Sarpgha

r a k ~ a (Chu Fa-hu), who late in life left war-torn Ch'ang-an together with a wholefollowing of monks;8 Tao-an's following, a group numbering several hundreds,that went as far south as Hsiang-yang;9 Yti Fa-Ian and his disciples, who crossed theYangtze together; 10 and others.

The monks who crossed the Yangtze, if only to stay alive, had first of all to placetheir reliance on the aristocracy and on the powerful families. Therefore theirfirst destination was the capital at Chien-k'ang, but the second place they aimed atwas K'uai-chi, situated southeast of the capital, a place well suited to the religiouslife because of its beautiful natural scenery, a place to which, in particular, thearistocracy was attracted, building permanent homes or villas in which they pursuedthe sophisticated pleasures of"dark learning" and "pure talk." K' uai-chi (the regionof what is now Shao-hsing in Chekiang), being a focal point for illustrious familiesand powerful clans, was an important place, having close contacts with Chien-k'ang.So important was it, in fact, that the court of the Eastern Tsin created a prince ofK'uai-chi and also stationed there a nei shih to take charge of the actual duties ofpolitical administration.b The post of prince of K'uai-chi was occupied, amongothers, by the man who was to become Emperor Chien-wen (r. 371-373), a man whoenjoyed "pure talk" and the reading of Buddhist texts in the company of distinguished scholars, both lay and clerical. In particular, the post was occupied by Ssu-maTao-tzu, who, with his grip on the political power, lived a life ofextreme luxury andextravagance, performed Buddhist good works, and greatly advanced the cause ofBuddhism, but who at the same time, because of his naive faith in the Buddhistclergy, brought the latter into the world of politics, thus launching the tendencytoward decay that was to characterize the aristocratic Buddhist community ofChien-k'ang. The post of nei shih at K'uai-chi w as occupied, among others, by suchdistinguished scholars as Ho Ch'ung, a Buddhist, and Wang Hsi-chih and WangNing-chih, both Taoists. It was thus a place favorable to the florescence of "dark

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learning" and "pure talk," of both Buddhism and Taoism. In particular, there werepresent many distinguished scholars of noble family fond of Buddhism, who thusattracted many renowned monks to make their home there. The latter had the runof the mansions and villas of the aristocracy, whose partners they became in "darklearning" and "pure talk," as well as their teachers in the reading and propagationof Buddhist scriptures. The number of eminent monks who in this way played aleading role in the advancement oflearning and the arts at K'uai-chi was not small.In the former half of the Eastern Tsin, the centers for the advancement of Buddhismwere Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chi, another center, one of a very different and specialsort, being the Hsiang-yang monastic community headed by Tao-an. The effectsof the latter's powers in teaching and conversion were felt as far away as Liang-chou(Kansu). During the latter half of the Eastern Tsin, in the face of the tendencies toward decay that characterized the aristocratic Buddhism of the two flourishingcenters, Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chi, the evangelistic activity of monks of Tao-an'sschool made itself felt as far away as the upper reaches of the Yangtze in Shu (Szechwan), and the entire Yangtze basin became, in fact , an area most favorable to thetriumphant spread of Buddhism.

Aristocratic Buddhism at Chien-k'ang. Now at the court of the Eastern Tsin, whichmaintained its sway for over a hundred years, the founder of the dynasty, EmperorYi.ian (r. 317-322), from the time he was assigned to the area while still a prince,accorded favorable treatment to illustrious men , in keeping with the suggestions ofWang Tao and others. Even after his accession he continued the practice, conferringthe favorable treatment both on the illustrious clans long settled south of the Yangtze and on the outstanding scholar-gentlemen who had fled to the south, thuswinning them as allies in defense of the Tsin ruling house. Since his successor,Emperor Ming (r. 313-325), in the company of ministers of state like the said WangTao and Yi.i Liang, men who esteemed both "dark learning" and Buddhism, didhonor to distinguished guests and was fond ofliterary erudition, Chien-k'ang becamea focal point for outstanding scholar-gentlemen from the very beginning of theEastern Tsin, and "pure talk" flourished. The two sovereigns just mentioned laid thefoundations of a triumphant era for learning and the arts, one in which "dark learning," centered about Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, and Buddhism, which was acceptedon the understanding that they were all of a piece, were to usher in their own glorytogether with the distinguished clans that had fled sou thward . Both of the saidsovereigns, as well as Wang Tao and Yi.i Liang, were vitally concerned with Buddhism, and all four had friendly contacts with the sramal).as.

Chu Fa-chi, disciple to the Chu Tao-ch'ien who achieved such great things in theconversion to Buddhism of the court aristocracy of Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chi atthe beginning of the Eastern Tsin, published a work entitled Lives of Eminent Reclus-es (Kao yi sha-men chuan), among whose surviving fragments one reads as follows:

The emperors Yi.ian and Ming of the Tsin disported their thoughts in the obscureand the empty, consigning their feelings to a taste for the Way and honoring the

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teachers of he Dharma as friends and guests. My lords Wang [Tao] and Yii [Liang]exhausted their feelings in deference to the latter, having the same [instincts as to]odor and flavor [i.e., the same preferences; cited from the commentary to roll2A of Worldly Talk and Recent Remarks].Since Emperor Ming, in particular, was a Buddhist or, at the very least, a ruler

profoundly concerned with Buddhism, such that Hsi Tso-ch'ih, in a letter to Taoan, says that in his venerat ion of Buddhism he fashioned an icon with his own hand,and that he tasted the true flavor of samadhi, the conversion to Buddhism of thearistocratic society grouped around the court at Chien-k' ang proceeded at greatspeed. In addition, after the reign of Emperor Ming there was a succession of boyemperors, including a feeble-minded sovereign too retarded to rule. The real powerof government then went to the emperors' in-laws andfor to powerful ministersfrom other outstanding families. An example is Ho Ch'ung, who, having risen topower with the support of two devoutly Buddhist ministers, the Wang Tao and YiiLiang just mentioned, and whose power, for a time, carried all before it, spent theState's resources unstintingly in offerings to the clergy and in the construction ofreligious edifices. Since, further, there was a continued period of regent dowagers,a period in which most of these dowagers, as well as empresses and other highranking court ladies, were also Buddhists, the pro-Buddhist atmosphere that hadits beginning at the very beginning of he Eastern Tsin, during the reigns ofemperorsYuan and Ming through the exertions of Wang Tao and Yii Liang, continued andeven flourished thereafter. The circumstances may be plainly deduced from ShihTao-an's letter to the distinguished Hsi Tso-ch'ih, in which he says, in part,

It is now more than four hundred years since Buddhism came to China. Yet,though there might, from time to time, be princes assigned to outlying regions,or gentlemen not serving in office, who would do homage to that religion,because it had been preceded in China by the teachings of the Saints and Sagesof yore, there were not many Buddhists among the Chinese. Even when therewere, they came from the lower gentry. Now, however, that Emperor Minghas become a Buddhist, the situation is such that there is no gentleman of distinction or wisdom in the upper classes but takes refuge in the Buddha's Doctrine.If a monk of exalted virtue like yourself, Sir, were to propagate the Doctrine inthe land ofTsin, then the conversion of our country to Buddhism would proceedall the further. nAristocrats Confronted by Monks Who Speak No Chinese. Now the aristocratic

Buddhism of the former half of the Eastern Tsin, the Buddhism of the capital atChien-k'ang and of the K'uai-chi of which the aristocracy was so fond, was ofcourse guided and developed by ethnically Chinese monks who had fled south fromthe Middle Plain, typical of these being the activi ties, as teachers and evangelists, ofsuch gentry monks as Chu Fao-ch'ien and Chih Tun. Yet it is a fascinating fact thatthe conversion to Buddhism of the Chien-k'ang aristocracy was initiated, oddly

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enough, through wordless communications with Srimitra (Po Shih-li-mi-to-lo),a non-Chinese monk who had come south as a refugee and who spoke no Chinese.This too was possible only because the society of the time was one in which "puretalk" was fashionable, an aristocratic society where worldly affairs were held in lowesteem, and here one can catch even at this early time a glimpse ofwhat was to be thecharacter of aristocratic Buddhism under the Eastern Tsin.

Srimitra (a name traditionally rendered in Chinese as chi yu, "friend of goodfortune"), who is also referred to as kao tso ("the occupant of the high throne"), issaid to have been a Central Asian. The surname po would seem to indicate Kucheanorigin, and his biography says that he was born the legitimate son of the king ofKucha, but that he entered the Buddhis t clergy, surrendering his rights to his youngerbrother; also, that he was a man of striking appearance and manner. This is the sortof thing that apparently bewitched the Chinese aristocracy, given the esteem inwhich they held nobility of lineage and of appearance, and that assured him theirrespect even if he spoke no Chinese. He came to Lo-yang some time in Yungchia (307-314), but, being confronted by civil war, he went south, where he took upresidence at the Chien-ch'u-ssu, a monastery alleged to have been founded in Wutimes by K'ang Seng-hui. (Since there was a great market in front of the monastery,it was also called the Monastery of the Great Marketplace [ta shih ssu].) The chancellor Wang Tao is said, upon catching a glimpse of him, to have been taken with himdirectly, remarking, "He is my sort!" From this one deduces that he became wellknown among the distinguished gentry, and he did in fact make an enormousimpression on the aristocratic society of the time as an extraordinary personality,and this without resort to conversation or to preaching. Distinguished gentrymen,the real powerholders who controlled the Eastern Tsin, revered this "barbarian"monk who had fled south from Lo-yang, this Central Asian who spoke no Chinese,and took pleasure in consorting with him. In this class are included Yii Liang (289-340, courtesy name Yiian-kuei), who held the rank of t'ai wei; Chou Yi (269-322,courtesy name Po-jen), whose rank was kuang lu; Hsieh K'un (courtesy name Yu-yii), whose rank was t'ai ch'ang; Huan Yi (276-328, courtesy name Mao-lun), whoserank was t'ing wei; Pien Hu (281-329, courtesy name Wang-chih), whose rank wasshang shu ling; and Wang Tun (courtesy name Ch'u-chung), whose rank was tachiang chiin.

Huan Yi, in a eulogy to Srimitra, said that the epithet "outstanding and perspica-cious" (Ch. cho lang, almost Lat. praeclarus) would be fit praise for him, while ChouYi, as occupant of a post charged with the selection of candidates for public office,is alleged to have said, awe-struck, "Ifonly this were a tranquil age, one -that permitted one to select a distinguished worthy like him, indeed one would have no regrets!"

When Chou Yi was killed by Wang Tun (in 322), Srimitra went to Yi's home toconsole his survivors. There he chanted three hymns, and the beautifully dignifiedecho of the Sanskrit chants penetrated the clouds. Next, without changing his facialexpression, he pronounced several thousand words of incantations, then, with tearsin his eyes, he expressed his feelings of sympathy, after which, withholding further324 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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tears, he maintained his composure. The manner of this foreigner, with its extremesof sorrow and joy, ofelation and depression, was what gained for him the extraordinary respect ofan aristocratic society 12

Incidentally, Chou Yi's younger brother, Chou Ch'ung, was also later put to death(in 323). Always a devout Buddhist, he is said, when facing the executioner, to havechanted from the scriptures endlessly and in unshakable composure. 13 Further, theFa yuan chu lin (roll13) says of Chou Yi's son Chou Ch'i, the General Who Protectsthe Armies (hu chiin chiang chiin), that his family had "for generations revered theBuddha." This leads one to suppose that the Chou family had been Buddhist at leastfrom the end of the Western Tsin, and that its devotion to Buddhism continuedeven after its move southward.

Srimitra, noted as a man skilled in the pronouncement of spells and as the translator of Buddhist scriptures connected with spells, scriptures such as that of theMagical Spells of he Queen ofPeahens (K'ung ch'iieh wang shen chou ching, Mahamayu-rividyariijfii?, now lost), a work in one roll; of the Assorted Magical Spells of theQueen ofPeahens (K'ung ch'iieh wang tsa shen chou, presumably another version of thesame, likewise lost), also in one roll; and of the Scripture of Anointment (Kuan tingching, M a h i i b h i ~ e k a s u t r a ) , in twelve rolls (a work that survives, but the last three rollsof which seem a later addition), was also adept at the chanting of scriptures in Sanskrit (fan pai), a craft that he transmitted to his disciple Mi-li and that survived intothe Southern dynasties. Under Emperor Ch'eng, during the Hsien-k'ang period(335-342), he died at the advanced age of eighty-some years, mourned by aristocratic society. Wang Min, Tao's grandson (and Hsia's son), who had served him as amaster, made a special point of composing a eulogy in honor of his foreign teacher,and the emperor himself saw to his burial on the hill called Shih-tzu-kang (or Ylihua-shan-kang), where he had lived his ascetic life, and set a chattra to mark theplace. Later, a monastery was erected in that place by sramal).as who had come fromwest of the Passes, and Hsieh K'un rendered them assistance. This was none otherthan the monastery known under the name Kao-tso-ssu, the "Monastery of(the occupant of) the High Throne."

Though it had not been possible for him to teach Buddhist doctrine by word ofmouth to the court of the early Eastern Tsin and to the gentlemen of positionand renown who gravitated to it, he is to be noted as a non-Chinese monk whohad a great effect as teacher and evangelist through the example he set by his behaviorand his manner. For example, when in close contact with Wang Tao, he wouldmaintain the attitudes of a foreign monk, not altering his manner in any way.When, on the other hand, he saw Pien Wang-chih, the shang shu ling who attachedmuch weight to Confucian propriety, his manner would undergo a revolutionarychange. For he would, so we are told, adjust his collar and straighten his posturebefore answering him. We are also told that his contemporaries admired him asone who "behaved appropriately in every case." This nothing other than a form of

tbe "pure talk" (ch'ing t'an) so beloved of the aristocracy, one in which the attitudeof response, not dependent on the exchange of words, could change to suit the

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circumstances, and it is for this tha .t he won the highest accolades from the worldof "pure talk," those of "superlatively bright" (cho lang) and of "refined spiritprofound yet manifest" (ching shen yuan chu). (C the chapter on "praise and appreciation," shang yu p'ien, in Worldly Talk and Recent Remarks. 14)

Also, of members of the sa111gha skilled in this sort of magic, the Lives of EminentMonks lists, apart from him, Chu T'an-kai, Chu Seng-fa,15 Chu Fa-k'uang,16 andothers, whose powers of evoking numinal responses (ling yen) are all mentioned.One is obliged to say that the influence of the Buddhist magician-monks, thoughmention of it in written records is no t to be compared to that of the pure-talking,dark-learning Buddhism of the intellectual class, must have rendered an indelibleservice in the spread of Buddhism both in breadth and in intimate contact with thereal life of gentry and commonalty in Eastern Tsin society, since at that very timesouth of the Yangtze there was current in both classes a Taoism in which there werelikewise many magical elements.A Summary History of u Sanskrit Chants." We wish now to trace and briefly todescribe the course of the "Sanskrit chant" (fan pai) south of the Yangtze underthe Tsin17- i .e ., of a style of chanting of hymns on the Indian model, imported intothe Buddhist communities of China and Japan as part and parcel of Buddhist ritualas a whole under the rubric of the "science of sound" (sheng ming, standing forsabdavidya) and then undergoing further development in the lands of its adoption,in other words, a sort of Buddhist hymn transplanted on the soil of South China inthe fourth century. Our reason for doing so is that these chants too have an extremelyclose connection with the development of aristocratic Buddhism, with the floweringof Buddhist ritual and particularly of arts and crafts, and, through these, with thespread of Buddhism in the society in general.

The word pai is regarded as a transcription of Sanskrit patha ("reading") or,according to another theory, of Sanskrit b h a ~ a ("speech"), both meaning "hymnof praise" (tsan sung) or "chant" (ko yung).i The monks and pious Buddhist laymenwho came to China in the early period would, when worshiping the Buddha orperforming other rites, chant in Sanskrit or in their own respective languages,thus exciting the curiosity of the Chinese. The above-mentioned rites, in the courseof which they humbly burnt incense and chanted before images of the Buddha(who, to the Chinese, was a "golden deity"), pronouncing a body of unintelligiblesyllables, must have won for them from the Chinese something quite unexpected,an attitude of veneration as magicians possessing inconceivable powers. The likelihood is that these chants were in Sanskrit or in some other non-Chinese languagewhen, as mentioned above, one notes that early under the Eastern Tsin Srimitra,when paying a condolence call on Chou Yi's survivors, "assis en face du corps, . . .psalmodia trois pieces d'hymnes bouddhiques. L' echo du son indien se repercutasur les nuages," or when one reads as follows:

... Auparavant, le Kiang-tong [a savoir le bas Yang-tseu) n'avait pas de dharal).i.Sirimitra traduisit et publia le K'ong ts'io wang king [T 986 et T 987: Maham-326 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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iiyurividyiiriijfii] et revela les dharal).i divines. En outre, il apprit a son discipleMi-lika reciter ahaute voix les hymnes bouddhiques qui ant ete transmis jusqu'anos JOUrs.

Since, on the other hand, many Buddhist scriptures had already been translated intoChinese, since it was already customary for Chinese Buddhists, both lay and clericalto recite these aloud, and since, in particular, there were many "verses" (chieh sung)'contained in them, it is likely that even among those Buddhists who were ethnicallyChinese it became customary to recite or to chant verses and similar passages melod-ically in an imitation of the Indian manner. It was also inevitable that on the oc-casion of a specific religious ceremony one particular giithii would be chosen, thena hymn composed in Chinese and, finally, set to music and chanted. Still, there wasa considerable difference in the chanting of Sanskrit hymns and of Chinese hymns,given the respective characters of the two languages, and there was need for ratheringenious manipulation to chant in the Indian manner a hymn whose words wereChinese. In roll 13 of the Lives of Eminent Monks, in the concluding essay (fun)on the ching shih ("chanteurs-compositeurs d'hymnes") one reads as follows :18

. . . Where the songs of the Eastern Realm [China] are concerned, one linksrhymes and thus forms chants; where the hymns of the Western quarter [India]are concerned, one forms giithiis and thus harmonizes sounds. Even though the[Chinese] songs and [Indian] hymns are different, yet both resort to harmonizingbell-chimes, to matching basic tones, for only then are they subtle and recondite.Therefore, when playing songs on [instruments of] metal and stone, one calls them"music" [yiieh]; when the hymns are modeled on woodwinds and strings, one callsthem "utterances" [pai, a transcription of bhii1Ja?] . ... Once the Great Doctrine[of the Buddha] flowed eastward, translators of the texts were many, but thosewho transmitted the sounds were, in effect, few. Truly, this is because the Brah-manical sounds are multiple, while Han words are simple. Ifone were to use Brah-manical sounds to chant Han words, then the sounds would be clumsy and thegiithiis oppressive. If one were to set Han tunes to the chanting of Brahmanic:1lpoems, then the rhymes would be deficient and the words excessive. Forreason, the golden words [of the Buddha] had their translations, but the Br: ""1-manical echoes had no transmission.

The above is evidence of the difficulties involved, as well as of the then awarenessof those difficulties. Yet already in the Buddhist community of the Southern dynasties it was customary to chant as fan pai such things as translated giithiis from thescriptures, to the accompaniment of woodwind and stringed instruments importedfrom the west.

As to the beginnings offan pai in China, at the time of the Southern dynasties therewas a tradition to the effect that during the era of the Three Kingdoms Ts'ao Chih,the Wei prince Ssu ofCh'en, while spending some time on Fisherman's. Mountain,was deeply touched by some Brahmanical sounds coming from Heaven and, moved



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by these sounds, reduced in size and otherwise adjusted the text of the scriptureof the Former Rise of Wondrous Responses (a life of the Buddha), producing therefroma "science of sound" (sheng ming, representing a presumable sabdavidya) consistingof forty-two parts (or "harmonies"?, ch'i). Under the Western Tsin, Po Fa-ch'iaoof the Middle Mountain (chung shan) took up the tradition inaugurated by PrinceSsu of Ch'en, continuing with una bating voice until the advanced age of ninety.All the night through he would chant hundreds of thousands of words from thescriptures, the lovely tones reaching the gods. His life came to an end north of theYellow River, so we are told, late in the reign of Shih Hu (d. 349) of the Latter Chao(cf. the notice on him in roll13 of the Lives ofEminent Monks). In Chien-k'ang, underthe Eastern Tsin, Chih T'an-yi.ieh, a man of Yi.ieh-chih origin, converted EmperorHsiao-wu (r. 373-396), and theJan pai created by this latter, verses in six syllables sungto a new tune, are alleged to have continued into Liang times (cf. ibid.).

We are not about to insist on the historicity of the tale that Ts'ao Chih of theWei perpetuated a Brahmanical chant that he had heard from Heaven on Fisherman'sMountain, but the fact remains that in Sung and Ch'i times he was looked up to asthe man who originated sabdavidyii in China. We are also told that south of theYangtze, in the kingdom of W u, also one of the Three Kingdoms, Chih Ch'ien,a Buddhist lay brother of Yi.ieh-chih origin born south of the Yellow River, composed three Jan pai, "linked bodhisattva-verses," based on the Sukhiivativyuha andthe Middle Scripture of the Former Rise (Chung pen ch'i ching, likewise a life of theBuddha). Again, we are told that K'ang Seng-hui, who came to Chien-k'ang fromChiao-chih (the Hanoi area), "transmitted the sound of Nirval).a songs, which, pureand elegant, sad a ~ d yet clear, became a model for the age." This, in addition to theevidence already given above, makes it evident that the chanting of these "Brahmanical tunes" on the part of foreign Buddhists in China may be regarded as fact.The early development of theJan pai south of the Yangtze, in response to the flowering ofaristocratic civilization from the Eastern Tsin onwards and in keeping with theflorescence of a Buddhism focused on the aristocracy, appears to have developed further and spread with great speed into the Sung and Ch'i eras. Roll 12 of the Ch'u

tsang chi chi (TSS. 92ab) lists the following twenty-one collections of Jan pai,c.':nposed by "reciters of scriptures and hymns" (chi11g pai tao shih) :t(1) Hymn [in which Men Pray] the God Sakra to Take Pleasure in Their Pan

c a v i i r ~ i k a Convocation."u Source: Middle Scripture of the Former Rise (Chung pench'i ching, a life of the Buddha). Ti Shih lo jen pan-che-se ko pai.

(2) "Record of the Buddha's Praise of a B h i k ~ u ' s [Acts of] Benefit [to Others].Source: Sarviistiviidavinaya. Po tsan pi-ch'iu ch'i li yi chi.

(3) "Easily Understood Explanation of the Excellent Hymn of the B h i k ~ u Mil-lion-Ears." Source: same. Yi erh pi-ch'iu shan pai yi liao chieh chi.

(4) "Record of the Penetration to the World of the Brahman Gods of the Voiceof the B h i k ~ u Deva." Source: Ekottariigama. T'i-p'o-pi-ch'iu hsiang ch'e Fan t'ienchi.

(5) "Record of the Fine Voice of the B h i k ~ u Superior-Gold-Bell." Source:328 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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Scripture of the Wise Man and the Fool (Hsien yu ching). Shang chin ling pi-ch'iumiao sheng chi.

(6) "Record of the B h i k ~ u Voice-Sound." Source: Mahiisiii'J'Ighikavinaya. Yinsheng pi-ch'iu chi.

(7) "Hymn Recording the Fine Voice of the B h i k ~ u Dharma-Bridge, [a Voice]Giving Evidence of [the Faculty of] Response [to Supernatural Stimuli]." Source:Chih chieh chuan.v Fa ch'iao pi-ch'iu hsien kan miao sheng chi pai.

(8) "Record of the Composition by Prince Ssu of Ch'en of a Hymn in Responseto a Brahman Sound [Heard on] Fisherman's Mountain." Ch'en Ssu wang kanYu shan Fan sheng chih pai chi.

(9) "Record of the Brahmanical Hymn in Linked Verse Composed by ChihCh'ien." Chih Ch'ien chih lien chu fan-pai chi.

(10) "Record of the Nirvai).a-Hymn Handed Down by K'ang Seng-hui." K'angSeng hui ch'uan ni-huan-pai chi.

(11) "Record of the Brahmanical Chant [Pronounced in a] Loud Voice by Mili." Source: Suratapariprcchii. Mi-li kao sheng fan-pai chi.

(12) "Record of Six-Syllable Brahmanical Chants Inspired by a Dream [Consequent upon the Concoction and] Refinement of Medicine." Source: Scriptureof[That Which] Outpasses the Light of the Sun (Ch'ao jih ming ching). Yao lien mengkan Fan yin liu yen pai chi.

(13) "Record of the Brahmanical Dance [to the Accompaniment of] DharmaMusic Composed by Emperor Wen of the Ch'i." Ch'i Wen huang ti chih fa yuehFan wu chi.

(14) "Hymn Composed in Dharma-Music [fa yueh tsan] by the Same Author."(15) "Words to a Song [to be Sung to the Accompaniment of] Dharma-Music,

Composed by the Courtier Wang Jung at the Same Emperor's Command."(16) "Worshipful Brahmanical Hymn Composed by [Prince] Wen-hstian of

Ching-ling." Ching ling Wen hsuan chuan Fan li tsan.(17) "Hymn Vowing to Exclaim Siidhuw [ch'ang sa yuan tsan] Composed by the

Same Author."(18) "List of Names, Derived from a Preface to an Old Prajfiaparamita Trans

lation [?] Accompanied by a Memorial Inscription, of Monks Who Had Read ThatScripture from Ytian-chia Times [151-153]x Onward." Chiu p'in hsu Yuan chia yilai tu ching tao jen ming ping ming.

(19) "Record of Scriptural Reading, Compiled at the Residence of Prince Wenhstian ofChing-ling [?]. Compiled by Shih Tao-hsing, [a Monk of the] Hsin-anssu." Ching ling Wen hsuan wang ti chi chuan ching chi.

(20) "Record of the Karmic Backgrounds of the Reciters." Tao shih yuan chi.(21) "Three Chapters of the Older Version of the Dharmasai'J'Igiti, Drawn Up by the

Dharma-Master [Tao-Jan."(?) An fa shih Fa chi chiu chih san k'o.The above twenty-one are all contained in the sixth roll of the Collection of

Reciters of Scriptures and Hymns (Ching pai tao shih chi).These scriptural hymns, set to music, were probably part of an elaborate ritual,



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conducted to the accompaniment of Central Asian woodwind and stringed instruments, quite apart from any other ways in which they may have been chanted.Background information on the composition of the works above cited is furnishedby the section entitled ching shih p'ien ("chanteurs-compositeurs d'hymnes") withinthe Lives of Eminent Monks, which, following the biographical notices on Po Fach'iao and Chih T'an-ytieh, has accounts of many such monks from Tsin, Sung,and Ch'i times (a total of eighteen, if sub-biographies are included). In the biographyof Hui-jen, a monk of the Northern Prabhutaratna Monastery (pei to-pao ssu), onereads as follows: Prince W en-hstian of the Ch'i, after he had had his dream, gatheredthe chanters and, sifting with them through all the old discipline manuals of the"science of sound" (sheng ming, sabdavidyii), established a new and different science.In particular, the area of Hui-jen's greatest skill was the "forty-two sections of[the Scripture of] Miraculous Response" (Shui ying ssu shih erh ch'i, presumably a hymnfrom one of the lives of the Buddha), one that his disciples, more than forty innumber, had transmitted to "the present day" (i.e., the Liang). The same sourcefurther cites eight Ch'i monks renowned for their skill in these matters, but thedetails of whose lives were not known, noting their respective excellences in musicalperformance and adding that the skills taught by them were actively put intopractice east of the Che, west of the Yangtze, and in Ching, Shan, Yung, and Shu.

From this one may deduce that in the Buddhist community from the Tsin into theSouthern dynasties the musical chanting of scripture and the singing of hymnscontributed greatly to the spread ofBuddhism by appealing to the sense ofhearing.One may also surmise that these hymns, most of which dealt with the life of theBuddha Gautama, easily facilitated the propagation of the Buddha's life story.Also, in the halls ofworship in which these musical ceremonies were conducted therenaturally developed depictions of the life of the Buddha in connection with theformer, as well as depictions of scenes from the Vimalakirtinirdesa, a scripture muchused as the subject of public readings or of "pure talk," and, above all, wall paintings. The Buddhist community centered about Chien-k'ang under the Eastern Tsinwas also a breeding ground for the creation and development of Buddhist art andBuddhist hymns on the part of the Chinese themselves, and this in turn also aidedthe spread of Buddhism.

One may say, in sum, that the Buddhist community south of he Yangtze from theEastern Tsin onwards, characterized as it was by the chanting of magical charmsand the introduction ofjan pai, brought about the development of Buddhist painting, sculpture, and even music and dance, thus effecting an indelible achievementin the spread of Buddhism, this foreign religion, among the gentry and commonalty of China.

Evangelism and Medical Science. In addition to the above, there were monks engaged in the practice ofmedicine. For example, Yti Fa-k' ai, the Prajfiliparamita scholarwho was well versed in the Pancavii'J".Siitisiihasrikii and in the Saddharmapur:zqarkiaand who would not yield to Chih Tun in the dispute over the doctrine of"emptinessidentical with matter" (chi se k'ung yi), was also a skilled practitioner of medicine330 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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who, among other things, took the pulse of Hsiao-tsung (r. 345-362). When askedwhy he practiced medicine, he replied, "By clarifying the Six Perfections I removethe diseases of the four lethal devils. By regulating the nine signs I heal the illnessofchills caused by the wind. Surely it is a good thing thus to benefit both oneselfandothers !" 19Y It certainly seems an answer in keeping with the time, a time in whichthe study of the Prajfiaparamita, tinged with "pure talk" and "dark learning," wasin full swing. Even medical science was regarded, every now and again, as a sort ofmagic, and, in fact, practical, magical activities were conducted not only in theBuddhist church of the north, in the territories of the Five Barbarian Nations, bu tsouth of the Yangtze as well, the center being the foreign missionaries. This, presumably, contributed greatly to heightening a general interest in Buddhism, one pervading aristocracy and commonalty.

Hsi Yin, an aristocratic believer in t'ien shih Taoism, contracted a stomach illnessthat the physicians were unable to cure. Ironically, the following story is told abouthim: Hearing that YU Fa-k' ai, an ordained Buddhist monk, was skilled in the practiceof medicine, he invited him to his home. After taking his pulse, Fa-k'ai said to him,"Your illness is the result of one thing, too much exertion." So saying, he administered a hot liquid medicine. That caused an enormous loose bowel movement in themidst of which were several crumpled balls of paper, each the size of a man's fist.Upon examination, they proved to be talismans (fu) that the fanatical Taoist hadswallowed whole. (C the chapter on "technical competence," shu chieh, in Worldly Talk and Recent Remarks. 20)

Srimitra may well be said to have been a typical missionary monk, one whoinstilled a breath of fresh air into Buddhism south of the Yangtze, a religion notconfined to the "pure talk" circles of the aristocracy but a practical, magical religion of the sort just described. Yet, when all is said and done, he remains a foreignmonk to whom the Chinese language was alien. Those who successfully taught anunderstanding of Buddhism to the aristocracy of the Eastern Tsin, who moved theBuddhism of the aristocrats forward in gigantic strides by becoming their teachersand companions in "pure talk" and "dark discussion" (hsuan lun), were the widelylearned, ethnically Chinese members of the sa111gha. We move now to a new section, in which we will describe the advance of aristocratic Buddhism during thefirst half of the Eastern Tsin, focusing on two typical members of the Chinesesa111gha, Chu Fa-ch'ien and Chih Tun.

B. Monkish Recluses and theCommunity oj((Pure Talkers" and ((Dark Learners"

at Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chiThe Triumph of Aristocratic Buddhism South of the Yangtze. As we have said above,the association at Chien-k'ang under the early Ea stern Tsin between the refugeearistocracy and Srimitra, the likewise refugee missionary-a sort of conversationwithout words or, at the very least, in broken language-was also something in the

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nature of "pure talk".1 Still, what furnished the principal force for the conversionof that aristocracy to Buddhism, by functioning actively in the "pure talk" and"dark learning" circles of the Middle Plain aristocrats who had fled to Chien-k' angand K'uai-chi, was, needless to say, the refugee sa111gha, whose members were assteeped in Lao-Chuang study as the aristocrats themselves, who engaged in "puretalk" with the same veneration of the life of seclusion, and who lectured the aristocrats on Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu as well as on Buddhism in Chinese translation. Ofcourse, the refugee intellectual monk, however learned, however much a paragonof virtuous conduct he might be, was, in terms of his very calling as one who hadleft the household in order to cultivate the Way, a man without a means oflivelihood, and one who, in addition to all this, had forsaken the monastery of his original residence and the danapatis (donors) associated with it to flee to the south. (Ofcourse there must also have been among them some who came south in the companyof their danapatis, others who preceded their lay sponsors as religious precursors,so to speak.) Those of them, therefore, who had old friends now associated with thearistocracy south of the Yangtze, or who, in particular, were able to make new acquaintances among gentlemen of standing, among men who would provide themwith the necessaries of life, among gentlemen renowned for their scholarship andtheir "pure talk," would gain immediate access, as respected friends, to the socialcircles of court and aristocracy. A good example is Chu Tao-ch'ien, a member of atop-ranking aristocratic family, the Wang clan ofLang-yeh, who contrived to laythe foundation for the conversion to Buddhism of the Chien-k'ang court and theK'uai-chi aristocracy during the reign of the first two sovereigns of the EasternTsin, emperors Yiian and Ming (r. 317-326).Those members of the sa111gha, however, who were not of distinguished background were compelled to experience difficulties even in their daily lives. A monkof Central Asian extraction born in Ch 'ang-an was K' ang Seng-yiian, a non-Chinesenaturalized to the point that, "though his appearance was that of a Brahman, hisspeech was truly that of the Middle Realm," who recited from memory both thePaiicavilpsatisiihasrikii (Fang kuang) and A ~ ~ a s i i h a s r i k i i (Tao hsing) prajiiiipiiramitii.During the reign of Emperor Ch'eng (r. 326-342), successor to Emperor Ming, hecrossed the Yangtze together with K'ang Fa-lang and Chih Min-tu , but, having noacquaintances there, sustained himself by regularly begging for his food. In thecourse of this he was discovered by Yin Hao, a circumstance that enabled him tomake himself generally known.2 Another case is Chu Fa-t'ai, a colleague ofTao-an'swho, after taking leave of him and his colleagues at Hsin-yeh, suffered a variety ofhardships on the way to Chien-k'ang, then got the help of Huan Wen in Chingchou, finally proceeded to the capital, where, benefiting by the friendship andassistance ofWang Hsia (Tao's son), he came ultimately to be held in general esteem.3Thus there were cases in which, in order simply to get enough to eat, it was necessaryto match the preferences of individual aristocrats. It is said of Chih Min-tu that,when he was about to go south, he conferred with a friend, to whom he said, "Ifwe go east (i.e., south) of the Yangtze with (nothing more than) the old (worn-out)332 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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doctrines, we shall surely earn nothing to eat." Accordingly, so the story goes, hebrought with him across the river a "doctrine of the non-existence of mind" (hsinwu yi), which he had concocted with an admixture of deas of"voidness" and "nonexistence" (hsu wu), derived from Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, and which he expoundedfor years on end after his arrival.4 This may be taken as an indication of one aspectof a life attitude forced on the refugee monks by the mere need to stay alive.

Among the monks just mentioned were no t a few who had been active in the Buddhist community, i.e., in the world of ko yi, of the Western Tsin. Examples of theseare Chu Tao-ch'ien, who had been giving readings of the S a d d h a r m a p u t ; ~ 4 a r i k a andthe Paiicavi'!lsatis. p.p. even before his southward move,5 and Yii Fa-lan, whostudied the scriptures, whose education and manner were both aristocratic, of whomit is said that "his air and his spirit were distinguished and quite separate from theordinary, (his practice of) the Way much bruited about in the three River Areas, hisrepute making its way into all four extremities," and who further is alleged to havebeen fond of seclusion in mountain and forest. 6 Chih Min-tu's "doctrine of thenon-existence of mind" also appears to have been a theory previously current inLo-yang. In general, in fact, ko yi Buddhism, a product of Lo-yang, moved southtogether with monks of the type just mentioned, where, now south of the Yangtze,it was taken over and further developed. There it was welcomed by an aristocracyfond of "dark learning," i.e., of ideas in the tradition of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu,and this in turn brought about the triumph of aristocratic Buddhism south of theYangtze.

On the other hand, among those who circulated in the well-known hills andmountains of the K'uai-chi region were numbered Yii Fa-lan and his disciples (YiiFa-k'ai and Yii Tao-sui), as well as the monks listed in the section on the LivesofEminent Monks devoted to practitioners of dhyana (hsi ch'an p'ien), to say nothingof Chu Tao-ch'ien, Chih Tun, K'ang Seng-yiian, and others who circulated between there and Chien-k'ang, none of whom completely severed his ties with thearistocracy. Since K'uai-chi, favored as it was by natural beauty and accessible as itwas to the capital, was a spot especially fit for the villas of aristocrats who tookpleasure in "idling beyond the reach of grime" (ch'en wai chih yu), and since therewas accordingly a large number of recluses there, the sarp.gha dwelt in monasteriesdonated by the former and, in the leisure left from educating their disciples, wouldengage in "pure talk" with the aristocrats who visited them. Consequently, theBuddhism of K'uai-chi, itself no more than an extension of that of Chien-k'ang,was nothing outside the realm of a religion of aristocrats. Thus the ko yi Buddhismof the Middle Plain that moved south on account of the collapse of he Western Tsinprospered before all else in conjunction with the aristocratic scholarship and trainingthat had their centers in Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chi, gaining currency as somethingmarked with a special character, one that entitles it to be called a "Buddhism of puretalk and dark learning," and proceeding to fashion an "era ofaristocratic Buddhism,"a unique phenomenon that permeated the history of Chinese civilization throughoutthe Eastern Tsin and the Southern dynasties.

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Now it is possible to make clearer the character of Buddhism at Chien-k'angand K'uai-chi under the Eastern Tsin by choosing two monks, Chu Tao-ch'ien andChih Tun, as typically representative of those who had the run of the aristocraticsociety of Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chi, who engaged in "pure talk" and enjoyed"dark learning" together with the members of that society, who read and discussedLao-tzu and Chuang-tzu as well as the Buddhist scriptures in Chinese translation,who laid the foundation for Buddhism in that area by becoming teachers andfriends to the aristocrats in the pursuit of the life ofseclusion of which the latter wereso fond and which they held in such high esteem, and who, finally, achieved areputation throughout the Southern dynasties, thus heightening the triumph ofaristocratic Buddhism in their territories.

CHu T AO-cH'IENClm Tao-ch'ien (286-347), courtesy name Fa-shen (of which the second syllable maybe written with one of two different characters). A member of the Wang clan ofLang-yeh, i.e., of the very cream of North Chinese society, he was in fact youngerbrother to Wang Tun, one of the top power-holders under the early Eastern Tsin.This Wang Tun, who was a man of outstanding achievements as well as of greatpower at the beginning of the Eastern Tsin, in 322 raised an army in revolt, withwhich for a time he reduced the political world of Chien-k'ang to chaos, only to beput down in 324 by one of his own kinsmen, Wang Tao. Yet this very Chu Taoch'ien, in spite of the importance he attached to being a recluse who had left thehousehold, became the object of veneration of both royalty and aristocracy, as adistinguished member of the sarpgha, the leader of the aristocratic Buddhist churchof Chien-k'ang and K' uai-chi, until his death at an advanced age close to ninety. Thesame Wang clan, the most renowned and at the same time the most powerful of theclans, produced other distinguished members of the sarpgha besides him, mostnotably Tao-pao,7 younger brother to Wang Tao, and Tao-ching,8 cousin to WangNing-chih. The pronounced partiality toward Buddhism of the Wang family, themost powerful family early in the Eastern Tsin (and including relatives by marriagefrom the mother's side), and, in particular, the successive emergence of devout Buddhists from the house ofWang Tao, a distinguished public servant later enfeoffed asduke of Shih-hsing, may be viewed as important elements facilitating the eventually triumphant rise of aristocratic Buddhism under the Eastern Tsin and guaranteeing its triumph. For example, from the lineage ofhis eldest son Yiieh, who succeededhim in the dukedom ofShih-hsing, came Wang K'uei, who late in the Eastern Tsinand at the beginning of the Sung attached himself as a devotee to Shih Chih-yen,a monk who made his home first at the Shih-hsing-ssu, then at the Chih-ytian-ssu("Monastery of the Quince Grove"). Both of these monasteries were situated hardby the tomb of Wang Tao (c Chih-yen's biography). The Chih-ytian-ssu is said tohave been built by Wang Tao's son Shao (c Shen Yiieh's inscription, entitledChih yuan ssu ch'a hsia shih chi). Wang Hsia was of Tao's sons the one who distin-334 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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guished himself the most, and his whole family was devoutly Buddhist, doing suchthings as supporting Chu Fa-t'ai, serving Srimitra, and listening to Sa111ghadeva'slectures. His own two sons, Hstin and Min, studied Buddhism from their youth,both becoming men with a considerable understanding of Buddhist doctrine (cf.their biographies, as well as the Lives ofEminent Monks).9Now Chu Tao-ch'ien forsook lay life at the age of eighteen (in 303), studyingunder the tutelage ofLiu Ytian-chen ofChung-chou and achieving fame throughoutthe Lo-yang area from quite an early age. His teacher, Liu Ytian-chen, was anoutstanding Buddhist scholar in the tradition of "dark learning" under the Westem Tsin, as can be deduced from the fact that Sun Ch'o composed a eulogy (tsan)in his honor, also from the fact that Emperor T'ai-wu of the Northern Wei, in hisfamous edict of proscription, abused him to the following effect:

The extreme degree to which Buddhism prospered under the Northern Wei canbe traced back to the trust placed in the false words of foreign mendicants by thefollowers of Liu Ytian-chen, a Chinese of the Western Tsin, who then graftedthese on to the learned theories of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu.10In the Buddhist community of North China and the Middle Plain, in the year of

Chu Tao-ch'ien's birth (286), the SaddharmputJqarika (Chengfa hua ching) was translated by D h a r m a r a k ~ a (Chu Fa-hu), then in 291 a translation was made, by Wuch' a-lo and Chu Shu-Ian, of the Paiicavii'J'Ifatis. p.p. (Fang kuang po-jo ching) sent backto China by Chu Shih-hsing, the Prajfiaparamita scholar ofLo-yang in the kingdomofWei who went as far as Khotan in his quest ofDharma. It is to be noted that bothwere scriptures much awaited by the Buddhist church of China, both at the sametime extremely important for the early advance of the Mahayana in that country,both propagated and read publicly, whether by the translators themselves or byother Prajfiaparamita scholars, both acquiring an unending stream of persons lay aswell as clerical, who studied them, read them, memorized them, and sang theirpraises. Chu Tao-ch'ien at the age of twenty-four (in Yung-chia 3, i.e., in 309)began his public readings of these newly translated Mahayana scriptures, both soextremely important for the development of Buddhism in China, and his audienceis said never to have dropped below five hundred. It is worthy of note that ChuTao-ch'ien's activities after his southward move early became a vehicle for theintroduction south of the Yangtze of the vitally important Buddhist scriptures mostrecently translated in the Middle Plain. He is alleged to have gone south early inYung-chia. If his readings of the SaddharmaputJqarika and the Paiicavii'J'Ifatis.p.p. inYung-chia 3 (309) at the age of twenty-four may be presumed to have taken placein Lo-yang, then one may suppose that he moved south about Yung-chia 4 (310),i.e., to escape the Yung-chia disturbances.

Chu Tao-ch'ien Honored by the Aristocracy. Almost immediately after his arrivalin Chien-k' ang, Tao-ch'ien was treated with honor and friendship by emperorsYtian and Ming, as well as by the chancellor Wang Tao, the military officer (t'aiwei) Yti Liang, and others, all ofwhom stood in awe ofhis air and his natural endow-

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ments. It is to this, presumably, that Tao-ch'ien's disciple, Chu Fa-chi, is referringwhen he says, in his Lives of Sublimely Secluded Sramm:zas (Kao yi sha-men chuan),

Two Tsin emperors, Yi.ian and Ming, disported their thought in the obscure andthe empty, entrusting their feelings to the flavor of the Way and courteouslyattending the Dharma master as guest and friend. My lords Wang [Tao] and Yi.i[Liang], exhausting their feeling for him, would move aside [to make room forhim on] their seating mats. [Quoted in the commentary to roll 2B of WorldlyTalk and Recent Remarks.U]

He is also said to have been in the habit of entering the palace without removinghis shoes, to which his contemporaries supposedly remarked, "This is because agentleman who lives beyond the confines (of the ordinary) has native talents that(out)weigh (social conventions)." Since his biography says even about his mannerand appearance that "his air and form .. . were of an imposing dignity," it islikely that, quite apart from and in addition to his erudition in Prajfiaparamita andother scriptures, his bearing, which most befitted his aristocratic background, as wellas the conduct of a man who prided himself on being a gentleman beyond theconfines of the ordinary, endowed his personality with elements acceptable to thevery cream of aristocratic society. As Hsi Tso-ch'ih says in his letter to Tao-an,"When the Emperor Ming . .. began to revere this Way (of Buddhism), with hisown hand he fashioned a likeness of the Thus Come One and savored the delicioustaste ofsamadhi" (quoted from Hung ming chi 12).12 As one can see from this, EmperorMing took an active interest in Buddhism, his most profound inspiration in thisdirection coming, presumably, from Chu Tao-ch'ien. It is also to be noted that thelatter, being a student of the Saddharmaput:z4arika and the Paiicavi'!'satis. p.p., bothnewly translated in the Lo-yang region under the Western Tsin, transmitted thisnew learning to the Buddhist community south of the Yangtze, a community thathad developed under the doctrinal leadership of two Wu monks, K'ang Senghui and Chih Ch'ien. One reads in the biographical notice (in roll 5 of the Lives ofEminent Monks) on another Prajfiaparamita scholar, Chu Seng-fu, who, also coming south to escape the disturbances that marked the end of the Western Tsin , createda reading group in the Wa-kuan-ssu at Chien-k'ang, that "of the old, establishedsarp.gha at Chien-k' ang there was none who did not elevate him and submit tohim." 13 From this it is evident that the influential and learned monks who camesouth at the end of the Western Tsin all injected a breath of fresh air into the otherwise tradition-bound Buddhist community of Chien-k'ang.

Now Chu Tao-ch'ien, who had been active in aristocratic circles in Chien-k'ang,once Emperor Ming (325), Wang Tao (339), and Yi.i Liang (340) were dead, retiredto Mount Shan by K'uai-chi, where for more than thirty years he would now expound the Prajfiaparamita and other scriptures, now comment on Lao-tzu andChuang-tzu, in both cases standing at the head of the learned community ofK'uaichi, and many are those who are said to have come to school to him in admirationof this man who had such breadth of learning and knowledge in the realm of relig-336 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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ious and secular knowledge fashionable at the time. About this time, at the earnestinvitation of Emperor Ai (r. 362-365), he went to Chien-k'ang, where he gave areading of the Paiicavi1J1satis. p.p. in the palace, to the praise of the emperor andall the courtiers. He gained, among other things, the fervent adherence of PrinceYti of K'uai-chi, the later Emperor Chien-wen, at whose invitation he visited thelatter's princely dwelling. On one of those occasions he met at the prince's dwellingLiu Yen, the magistrate of Tan-yang, who was also a distinguished member of theworld of"pure talk" and a close friend ofWang Hsi-chih. Liu Yen fired at him thequestion, "What is a man of the Way like you doing within these vermilion portals?" To which Tao-ch'ien retorted, "You may see vermilion portals, bu t I think ofmyself only as whiling my time in a sagebrush doorway." This story, as an exampleof the brilliant conversation held in the world of "pure talk," is recorded not onlyin his biography but also in the chapter on "language" (yen yii p'ien) in WorldlyTalk and Recent Remarks. 14The Mighty Ho Ch'ung Is Converted. Not only did Tao-ch'ien win the adherenceof Wang Tao and Yii Liang, the two most powerful aristocrats at the court of theearly Eastern Tsin, he was honored, in a master-disciple relationship, by the devoutlyBuddhist Ho Ch'ung (292-346), who even after the deaths of the two men justmentioned held the real political power at court, being related by marriage to theruling family, being a member of the very top rank of the aristocracy, and havingbeen recommended by both Wang Tao and Yii Liang during their lifetimes, a manof whom it is said that "among important ministers his authority dominated thewhole age" (c the biography ofHo Chun in roll93 of the Book of Tsin). From thisone concludes that Tao-ch'ien's skill at converting the Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chiaristocracy to Buddhism was demonstrated more continually and more effectivelythan that of anyone else. The fact that he lived to the then rare age of eighty-nine(the majority, even of royalty and aristocracy, died young in those days, and thelonging after, and veneration for, longevity was at the time extremely strong), thefact that in addition to this he was fond ofa life of seclusion, and, finally, the fact thathe chose the secluded retreats among the mountains and rivers of the K'uai-chi areaas his dwelling place all enhanced his effectiveness, already great, in converting thearistocratic society of his time. Tao-ch'ien, fond as he was of the secluded life, tookno pleasure in frequenting the court at Chien-k'ang, and eventually finished outhis remaining days in his wonted retreat on Mount Yang in Shan, wandering at willthrough the mountain.15 When, in Ning-hsing 2 (374) he died at the advanced ageof eighty-nine, Emperor Hsiao-wu praised him in these terms:

The Dharma-master Ch'ien had an intuitive perception of universal truth that wasboth free of preconceptions and far removed from the ordinary. A mirror ofmanners both pure and upright, he set aside the possible glory of becomingprime minister, donning instead the dyed garment of simplicity and poverty.Dwelling in the mountains apart from men, and earnestly striving withoutsurcease [for the Buddhadharma], he rescued the common people by propagatingthe Way.

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So saying, he donated a hundred thousand cash in his memory (according to theLives ofEminent Monks). This man, who entered the monastic order from the veryhighest ranks of the then aristocracy, who also had the run of aristocratic society inboth Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chi, was an absolutely classic leader-type in the sarpghaof the then Buddhist community of the aristocratic society south of the Yangtze.Chih Tao-lin comments, "Fa-shen's doctrinal scholarship is deep and broad, hisfame long established. He is a Dharma-master, a propagator of the Way." 16 SunCh'o, in his Essay on Worthy Men of the Way (Tao hsien lun) , compares him to LiuLing, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo GroveY Among his disciples arenumbered Chu Fa-yi.i, Chu Fa-i.iyn, K'ang Fa-shih, and others, all of whom madetheir home in the K'uai-chi area, all of whom achieved fame as learned monks.One of his disciples, Chu Fa-chi, is the author of the Lives of Sublimely Secluded

S r a m a ~ J a S . For all of these men Sun Ch'o has written eulogies (tsan). Even Chih Tun,to whom the next few paragraphs shall be devoted, and who became the leader of thearistocratic Buddhist community of Chien-k'ang and K'uai-chi, is commonlybelieved to have been a follower and a pupil of Tao-ch'ien. (For further details, seethe account of Chu Ch'ien in roll4 of the Lives ofEminent Monks.)

CmH TuNChih Tun (314-366).18 Courtesy name Tao-lin, secular surname Kuan, he is reported alternately to have been from Ch' en-liu (the hsien of the same name in whatis now Honan) and from Lin-Iii (Lin hsien in the same province). In either case, he wasborn toward the end of the Western Tsin in the vicinity of Lo-yang to a gentryfamily of the Honan area which, if one is to take at face value the statement in hisbiography that his family had "worshiped the Buddha for generations," had alreadyadopted the Buddhist faith. He was born nearly thirty years after Chu Tao-ch'ien,who was active in the same place at about the same time, but only three years afterTao-an, who, born about the same time in North China, became an eminent monkof the very first rank, and later came to Hsiang-yang, a place which, though far removed from Chien-k'ang, was still within the territories of the Eastern Tsin, wherehe exercised not a little influence and inspiration on the decision-making intellectualsof that state. Since his biography says that his whole family fled south of the River(Yangtze) from the disturbances ofYung-chia, the likelihood is that he himself wasborn south of the Yangtze. At the very least, he was a man who grew up in a devoutly Buddhist family that had experienced the bitterness ofgiving up its ancestral homeand fleeing southward in order to live through a time ofsocial disturbance. Whetherbecause he had grown to adulthood under the religious influence of a householdsuch as has just been described, or whether he was influenced directly or indirectlyby the recluse atmosphere that had its center in and about K'uai-chi, specificallyby Tao-ch'ien and the other eminent monks honored and respected by the aristocrats, he early acquired an interest in Buddhism. Going into seclusion on Mount Yuhang near K'uai-chi, familiarizing himself also with Buddhism in the tradition of338 BUDDHISM SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE


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L o k a k ~ e m a , a missiOnary of the Latter Han, which had circulated south of theYangtze in the previous generation, he savored and acquired intuitive insights intothe A ~ { a s . p.p. and another scripture based likewise on the notion of Emptiness,the Tathagatajfianamudriisamadhi siitra (?),translated in the kingdom ofWu by ChihCh'ien under the title Hui yin ching, and left lay life at the age of twenty-five (in338). Just about this time there occurred a series of events that gave a considerableshock to the Buddhist community of Chien-k'ang or of K'uai-chi, which had hadvery favorable prospects, where the royal family and the aristocracy were concerned , thanks to the exertions of the aforementioned foreign missionary Srimitraand Chu Tao-ch'icn, the Chinese monk from the distinguished Wang clan.

Th-e Society ofHis Time and the Church's Uncertainty. Emperor Ming , who had carried out the worship of the Buddha within the palace, whose contributions to theadvance of Buddhism in and about Chien-k'ang had, as a consequence, been verygreat, died a young man of twenty-seven in 325, to be succeeded by his five-yearold son, who was to be Emperor Ch'eng. The latter was "assisted" in the task ofgovernment by Wang Tao and Yii Liang, while the regency was held by the latter'syounger sister, who was the boy emperor's mother. Inevitably the power of theYti clan, now the emperor's in-laws, waxed. At that time, however, an upstartsoldier named Su Chiin launched an uprising on the pretext of "chastising" YiiLiang, contriving in 328 to invade Chien-k'ang itself, where he let his men loot atwill. The palace offices were burnt, the State's treasure scattered, Yii Liang and othersenior officials put to flight, to say nothing of other important functionaries (such asPien Hu) who died in the fighting. The officials and their ladies who were taken captive in Chien-

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