Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.44

v1.c7.44

Buddhism was obviously the most characteristic feature of the cultural exchange between India and China. Before the introduction of Buddhism, the traditional Chinese thinking stressed on human values. “Not knowing life, how can one know death!” Considerations about the meaning of human life and about the understanding of life were not profound. Buddhism aroused the interest of the Chinese in the fate of human beings and life. The Chinese learned that, apart from the path of filial piety, there also was the theory that life is suffering, the theory of deliverance through the eightfold path of leaving suffering and obtaining happiness. The Buddhist theories of the greater and of the lesser vehicle of Indian Buddhism were fully transmitted to China. However, except for the areas of national minorities in Yunnan, in all the other areas of China Buddhism of the greater vehicle was prevalent. The study of ‘*prajñā*’ and of consciousness only (vijñānavāda) and the theories and the teaching of the esoteric vehicle were all spread in China to different extents. The scriptures of these different schools were translated into Chinese and/or Tibetan. The Chinese embraced an attitude of learning an ideology that came from outside. In the process of learning, they combined Buddhism with traditional Chinese thinking and made several changes and elaborations to the thoughts and the concepts of Indian Buddhism. This drew the Buddhist world closer to traditional Chinese thought through absorption of elements of both Confucianism and Daoism. The sinicised Buddhism required people to practice filial piety, follow the constant obligations of morality and ethics and preserve rules of social order. For instance, when Buddhism was just introduced to China, it attached itself to Huang-Lao. At that time, people saw it as a kind of stratagem, or they saw it as one popular belief or magic current at the time. Translated Buddhist scriptures often borrowed the terminology of the Confucianists and of Daoists or of Daoism. Subsequently, the influence and the strength of Buddhism gradually increased. Its special characteristics came to the fore, little by little. Its way of thinking and the nature of its culture gained the attention of the people, and at the same time, with the support of the court, especially with the support of the ruling classes, Buddhism began to be established together with Confucianism and Daoism. In the end, it stood like one of the three legs of a tripod. The study and the assimilation of Indian Buddhist theories and its teaching and thought demonstrate cosmopolitanism of the Chinese people. Indian Buddhism thus finally gained great lustre in China.