University of Virginia Library

Buddhism in China: Beginnings

The Buddha Shākyamuni lived from about 560 b.c. to 480 b.c. in
northern India.[7] The way of life that he founded was from the first
both a monastic and a missionary religion. Spreading far beyond its
homeland, about five hundred years after the death of the Buddha,
Buddhism traveled quietly along the Silk Road into China.

The first positive evidence for Buddhism in China dates to a.d. 65
in the Latter Han dynasty (25-220). There is a brief reference in the
Hou han shu (History of the Latter Han dynasty)[8] to Buddhism
together with Taoism in the city of P'eng-ch'eng, a city that may be
considered the easternmost terminus of the Silk Road (see map).[9] The
next positive reference to Buddhism in China dates to the middle
of the second century, in the northern city of Lo-yang, where foreign
missionary monks and their Chinese followers set up a translation
center.[10]

Unfortunately, by the middle of the second century the Latter Han
dynasty had begun the decline that ended with its collapse in a.d. 220.
Rebellions, contenders for the throne, and nomadic tribes riding down
from the north pressed the agrarian Chinese and created great social
upheaval: families were separated; many became refugees; famine and
disease were widespread; and there was general social and political
chaos. The Great Wall had been built as a bulwark against the
nomads, but it was only as strong as the defending dynasty.

Undaunted by all the difficulties in China, Buddhist missionaries
continued to arrive and continued to translate scriptures.[11] They
brought a religion that offered consolation for a very uncertain world.
The Buddhist emphasis on the world's illusory quality attracted many
more followers than perhaps it would have in a time of peace and tranquility.
In a time of social tranquility it could have ended up as a sect
of Taoism, with which it was often associated during its early years
in China.[12]

The wars, however, continued. A trio of ill-starred dynasties tried
to restore the old Han empire, but none could prevail over another or

over the nomads until the Chin dynasty (265-317/317-420) briefly
united the country in a.d. 280.[13] But that unity was neither long nor
peaceful. The nomadic tribes sacked the two major northern capital
cities of Lo-yang in 311 and Ch'ang-an in 316. In 317 the court of the
Chin dynasty, along with many others, fled to the south. The loss of
northern China to the barbarians began the division of the country
into the Northern and Southern dynasties. A relatively stable, nonChinese
dynasty fringed with many, often ephemeral barbarian kingdoms
controlled the north, while a series of short-lived Chinese dynasties
controlled the south. This division would last for several centuries
until one ruler reunited the country in 589, long after the Lives was
completed.

Because the Confucianism that had been the philosophical foundation
of the Han dynasty had failed to prevent the disintegration of the
empire, it lost the allegiance of many of the educated elite. Men began
to look elsewhere for a way to order their lives and their land. The old
loyalties were loosened, giving both Buddhism and Taoism a greater
scope for development and expansion. Buddhism held its own and
gradually became a less exotic sight and in addition became separated
more and more from Taoism, with which, in the early days, it had
often been confused and mingled.

In both north and south, Buddhism gradually became a part of
upper-class life, but, after the shock of losing the heart of the empire
to barbarians and the flight to the south in 317, the Chinese embraced
Buddhism with a positive passion that continued throughout the time
of the Northern and Southern dynasties. The Buddhist institutions
that both immigrant and native worked to establish in the lower
Yangtze River valley were planted so deeply that, despite the vicissitudes
of decline, rebellion, and persecution over the centuries, these
institutions always revived to regain their vitality.[14]