Chinese Language and Culture: Buddhism

Religious and historical context

To figure out the breakthrough of Buddhism in ancient times, we have to take into account the historical, political and religious context of India during the 6^th and 7^th Centuries BC. During the Vedic period, Indian society was divided into different castes ranging from the highest to the lowest positions within society. All people were condemned to die and be reborn indefinitely, it is the eternal cycle of death and rebirth known as samsara. All people who live, died and are reborn again in the samsara are subject to the karmic law of retribution. Karma is energy that people accumulate throughout their lives and it’s caused because of their moral actions or thoughts. Whenever a person dies, these moral actions accumulated throughout his life (karma) are transmitted to another body (rebirth). If the actions a person have been good, there will be positive karma and, therefore, the rebirth will also be positive (as a kind-hearted human being). However, if the actions have been bad, there will be negative karma, hence, the rebirth will also be negative (as an animal or an evil person who will suffer in life).

The only way a person has to get rid of samsara is by ceasing to produce karma. The only way a person can achieve to cease producing karma is by putting an end to desire, that the person’s thoughts and actions don’t have any purpose, because they are the source of karma. When a person doesn’t produce karma anymore, the person achieves Enlightenment. In Hinduism this Enlightenment is known as moksha while in Buddhism is known as nirvana. Although both terms cannot be considered synonyms, they have a point in common: to liberate the human beings from the eternal cycle of death and rebirth that makes people suffer.

In the Vedic Indian society only the two highest castes, the Brahmans (priests) and warriors (aristocracy), could get Enlightenment, while people from the lowest castes were condemned to die and be reborn as a person of the same caste. In this sense, Buddhism was a great social breakthrough because Buddha (Siddharta Gautama) stated that all people were equal and could get enlightenment in the same way regardless of their social and economic status.

The life of Buddha

Buddhism was originated in North India, in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. Its founder was Siddharta Gautama, a prince from a small kingdom governed by the warrior caste of the Sakya clan. The day Siddharta was born, around 566 B.C, a shaman told his father, king Suddhodana, that his son would one day either become a great king or a great spiritual leader depending on the education of the young prince. As long as the young prince didn’t see the cruelty there was beyond the palace walls (poverty, disease, suffering, old age, death, etc.), the prince would surely choose a political inclination.

King Suddhodana wished his son to become a great king who one day succeeded him to the throne of their kingdom, that’s why the king furnished the young prince with all the pleasures of life (delicious food, beautiful women, etc.) because he wanted to prevent his son from taking the spiritual path.

Prince Siddharta became married and had a son, but just when his father thought that his son had finally chosen to become his successor, prince Siddharta, who had always been an observant person who wasn’t much interested in the worldly pleasures, finally got out of palace thanks to his servant’s help. Out there prince Siddharta bumped into the hardships of life, he encountered old age, disease and death. Siddharta was really shocked when he discovered that all this suffering was an unavoidable part of life which no human being could escape. In one of his last walks out of the palace walls, prince Siddharta saw an ascetic man who was begging. Prince Siddharta was really puzzled when he discovered the expression of inner tranquillity and serenity reflected on this ascetic man’s face despite the fact he had renounced to all the worldly pleasures. This last encounter was crucial in Siddharta’s life because he realised he had to abandon his family and live like and ascetic if he wanted to find answers to the human suffering.

Prince Siddharta wandered from one place to another during seven years, learning from the teachings of different gurus he encountered on his way and adopting extreme ascetic practices such as not eating anything during long periods of time. When Siddharta was about to die of starvation he finally realised that way wouldn’t lead him to enlightenment so he decided to eat again. Soon after this, he heard a musician master who was lecturing his pupil about how to tune his instrument, the master said to him: “If the strings on your instrument are too slack, the instrument will not sound properly. On the contrary, if the strings are too tight they will break. The instrument will sound properly when the string are neither too tight nor too slack”. From this indirect teaching, Siddharta drew a conclusion that led to one of the most important teachings of Buddhism: the Middle Way which means that attach importance to extreme hedonism or extreme asceticism is equally harmful to people.

Finally, prince Siddharta sat to meditate under a tree in the outskirts of the city of Bodh Gaya, a tree which is known as the Bodhi tree (awakening tree). Prince Siddharta decided that he would not get up again until he found an answer to human suffering. Under that tree, Siddharta discovered the following: firstly human existence always implies pain and suffering. Secondly, the source of human pain and suffering is desire. Thirdly, human beings have the possibility to get rid of this pain and suffering. Fourthly, in order to get rid of pain and suffering human being must follow the eight basic precepts of Buddhism known as the Noble Eightfold Path.

What Siddharta discovered under the Bodhi Tree is known as the Four Noble Truths which are the core of Buddhism and anyone who wishes to be considered a Buddhist cannot doubt about them. Experts at Buddhism usually compare the Four Noble Truths with one medical diagnosis, that is to say, firstly, we diagnose the illness (suffering is an indissoluble part of life); secondly, we identify the source of this suffering (desire); thirdly, we conclude that we can cure the illness (human beings can get rid of suffering); finally, we take the prescribed medicine (follow the eight precepts of the Noble Eightfold Path).

Wisdom (prajña)	1- Right view
Wisdom (prajña)	2- Right intention
Ethical conduct (sila)	3- Right speech
	4- Right action
	5- Right livelihood
Concentration (samadhi)	6- Right effort
	7- Right mindfulness
	8- Right concentration

Prince Siddharta drew the conclusion that all human beings are misleading themselves when they think that their knowledge about the world is reliant, they do not realise that the world around them is constantly changing. If everything is constantly changing human beings cannot base their knowledge on it because it would be wrong. In other words, our knowledge is just a cluster of perceptions of the estate of things in a certain moment, but we cannot put our trust in these perceptions because the things we perceive now won’t be the same tomorrow. If human being cannot rely on the physical world they perceive, the only certainty left for humans being to rely on is vacuity. The fact that human beings cling to desire it proves that they do not understand the vacuity of the universe around them. Hence, if human beings base their happiness on something which is in fact changeable and transitory, that will inevitably cause them suffering when they finally lose it.

Because most people cling to desire and refuse to accept the vacuity of the universe, it is precisely the reason why they keep on creating karma which attaches them to samsara, which is responsible for the fact that they die and are reborn incessantly, and thus prolonging their suffering. Siddharta understood the vacuity of the universe and he renounced desire. Thus, Siddharta reached an irreversible stage that Buddhists call nirvana which in Christian terminology could be vaguely translated as “enlightenment”. When one reaches the stage of nirvana, one ceases to produce karma and the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara) is over, which means that the person’s suffering ceases as well. When Siddharta reached the stage of nirvana he became a Buddha, which in Sanskrit means the “awaken one”, that is to say someone who has understood the Ultimate Truth (Dharma). A Buddha is someone whose acts are different from the rest of people because his acts do not have any purpose, he has renounced to the worldly pleasures because he has understood that everything is emptiness, he’s no longer motivated by material interests, he has destroyed his ego, that’s why he acts spontaneously, without any concrete personal aim.

Buddha went to the Deer Park in Sarnath (nowadays Varanasi, near the Nepali border) where he found his old ascetic fellows who had abandoned him the moment he betrayed the vow of not eating. However, when Buddha told them about what he had s one of the most important moments that Buddhists call the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. The Dharma is the Ultimate Truth that Siddharta discovered under the Bodhi Tree, and the fact that he shared it with his old ascetic fellows is a very important event because it marks the beginning of the Buddhist monastic community (sangha). By telling his old fellows what he had learned (Dharma), Buddha helped them get nirvana and they became his disciples who helped him spread the Dharma throughout India.

In Sanskrit, nirvana literally means “to extinguish”, that is, to suppress one’s own desire. Despite no Buddhist knows exactly how is the state of nirvana, the great majority agree that is state of an absolute peace of mind. Buddha reached the nirvana in two stages: the first stage is when he was learned about the ephemeral nature of the Universe, the cause of human suffering and how to overcome it, moment in which he stopped producing karma. The second stage was when he died and reached what Buddhists call parinirvana or final nirvana. In this final stage, Buddha burnt all the residual karma that was left in him and that meant that he would never be reborn again.

After the death of Buddha, his disciples, who were steadily growing in number, wrote down all their master’s teachings and created the first Buddhist Canon known as Tripitaka written in Pali (the native language of Buddha).

Centuries after the death of Buddha, his disciples spread his teachings throughout the whole territory of India, Southeast Asia, Eastern and Central Asia. However, within the sangha (community of monks), there were certain disagreements about how the Buddha’s teachings should be interpreted. These disagreements led to the split of the Buddhist sangha. Theravada or Hinayana Buddhism (the only surviving branch of orthodox Buddhism) was spread mainly throughout Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos), while Mahayana Buddhism which appeared later, was mainly spread throughout Central Asia, Vietnam, China, Korean and Japan.

Buddhism in China

Mahayana Buddhism, which originally came from India, entered China during the first century of the Christian era. However, Buddhism started to spread all over the Chinese society two centuries later, after the fall of Han dynasty in 220 AD. From the fall of Han dynasty to the instauration of the Sui dynasty in 581 AD, was a period of profound political instability and war. The main reasons why Buddhism rooted so deeply in the Chinese society of that age are probably two. Firstly, North China was divided in different states controlled by barbarians (peoples from the northern Asian steppes). These people had usurped government to Chinese people, no wonder they preferred to legitimize their power using a foreign religion like Buddhism instead of patronizing Confucianism which was totally hostile to them. Secondly, this was a historical period of hardships and probably people found in Buddhism a way to relieve their suffering that didn’t find in Taoism or Confucianism.

Buddhism had some points in common with Taoism, for example, the concept of vacuity or the fact that everything in the Universe is constantly flowing and changing and, therefore, our perception of the Universe is just a false appearance and not its real nature. In fact, during the first centuries of its introduction in China, Buddhism was disguised with Taoism, and many people even confounded them. This was due to the fact that Buddhist writings were first translated using Taoist and Confucian terminology, and thus these translations only contributed to mask the real message of Buddha. However, in the course of centuries, new schools of translation and outstanding translators such as Kumarajiva, achieved a high level of accuracy in their translations of the Buddhist Canons.

In addition, we have to bear in mind that the introduction of Buddhism in China was not an easy process. Buddhism came from a very different culture, Indian culture, which was much more spiritual than Chinese culture. If we take into account the fact that Confucian society was very pragmatic and that family and government were the same thing, no wonder many of the Buddhist concepts were never accepted and had to be adapted into the Chinese way of thinking. One of the controversial aspects of the life of Buddha (Siddharta Gautama) was the fact that he had abandoned his family (the core of Chinese society) to search for answers to human suffering and reach enlightenment.

Once adapted into Chinese culture, Buddhism lived its golden age in China during the Sui 隋朝and Tang dynasties 唐朝 (581-907 AD). However, despite the great capacity of Chinese people to assimilate the new religion, An Lushan rebellion in 755 AD marked a turning point. From then on, China adopted an attitude much more hostile to everything that was foreign and Neo-Confucianism began to replace Buddhism as the new ideology of government. Despite the fact that Buddhism never disappeared as a religion of the people, the teaching of Buddha were no longer supported by the imperial State, and the monastic community remained under the strict control of government.