We often say that Buddhism was introduced to China from India. Since then, Buddhism has gradually been sinicized and has become part of the Chinese civilization. But is this narrative really correct?
Sun Yinggang, a professor of history at Zhejiang University, believes that this simple linear narrative is inaccurate, and that the introduction of Buddhism to China is itself a cultural reconstruction. As soon as Buddhism entered China, it became part of East Asian culture. Among them, Gandhara plays an important role. Why is Gandhara so important in the history of the spread of Buddhism? Was Buddhism introduced to China from India?
On July 24th, at the launch of the new book "Buddha's Biography and Images: The Myth of Shakyamuni" held by the Social Science Literature Publishing House in one-way space, Zhao Yan, the author of the book, Zhao Yan, associate professor of the College of Literature of Qinghai University for Nationalities, and Sun Yinggang and He Ping, the two authors of "The History of Gandhara Civilization", chatted with everyone about the history of Gandhara art and Buddhism.
"Buddha's Biography and Images: The Myth of Shakyamuni", by Zhao Yan, Social Sciences Academic Press, April 2019
Why is Gandhara art important?
Sun Yinggang believes that whether it is from the logic of academic internal development or from the perspective of understanding Chinese civilization outside of academia, Gandhara art is very meaningful.
In the course of his research on Gandhara art, Sun Yinggang found that Gandhara was very closely related to Chinese civilization. In the past, academic research on Chinese civilization was limited to the territory of the People's Republic of China, which, in Sun Yinggang's view, removed too many perspectives from understanding Chinese civilization.
Many of the cultural elements, symbols and ideas of the Gandharan civilization eventually took root in East Asia and became an important human heritage. In this respect, Chinese civilization has always been an open civilization. The reason why China has been able to continue for thousands of years is because Chinese civilization is open and can constantly transform foreign cultural elements into part of its own culture.
The introduction of Buddhism is a vivid example. After Buddhism was introduced to China in the second century AD, it influenced Chinese outlook on life and death, language, beliefs, and daily life. The Chinese civilization after the introduction of Buddhism and the Chinese civilization before the introduction of Buddhism are very different. In terms of language, many concepts such as cause and effect, the world, etc. are transmitted from Buddhism, including the "huh" that people chat on the Internet now, which is also brought about by Buddhism. Because "oh" is a verb, meaning to rebuke and condemn, but in Buddhism, "huh" becomes an onomatopoeic word, referring to the laughter that makes a sound.
In addition, the rise and spread of Buddhism is a major event in the human world. Buddhism, between China, Japan, and Korea in the East Asian world, is also a very important cultural core issue in addition to Confucianism. Many of these ideas have to go back to Gandhara. In the last few hundred years BC, Gandhara was a crossroads of civilization, encompassing what is now northwestern Pakistan, Afghanistan, and more broadly Gandhara including the southern region of several Central Asian countries.
Gandhara art
The Gandhara civilization region is under the influence of Iranian civilization, influenced by The Civilization of West Asia, influenced by the Civilization of India in the south, and also influenced by the Civilization of China in the east. In the treasures of the Golden Hill, elements of various civilizations can be seen, including Chinese carriages. Moreover, that period coincided with the Hellenistic era, where the Greeks had established a series of small kingdoms, including the early Greek kingdom of Bactria.
Because of these opportunities, after Buddhism came to that area, it was influenced by various civilizations and produced some fundamental changes, such as the appearance of Buddha statues. Buddha statues play a very important role in Gandhara. Primitive Buddhism did not have Buddha images, ancient China and ancient India did not have the tradition of giving statues of saints and great people, and even in the early Buddhist texts, the Buddha was too great, so human beings could not express its image, and early Buddhism was against idolatry.
The first Batch of Buddha statues in history were very heavily Hellenistic, with the so-called Thirty-Two Statues, influenced by Greece and Influenced by Iran. For example, the "pekoe" in the middle of the Buddha is influenced by Iranian civilization. The king monarch of West Asia had this expression, using the image of the king to describe the saint.
What is the connection between Gandharan art and Greek civilization?
Zhao Yan believes that Gandhara has a lot to do with Greek civilization. Greece's strategic location around the sea on three sides gave birth to its differences from other ancient civilizations. One of the most important characteristics of Greek civilization was openness or inclusiveness. This spirit is embodied in Greek mythology. The Greek mythological system is very clear and clear, such as the "Homeric Epic" and "The Divine Genealogy of Hesiod", and the Greek mythology reflects a very systematic feature. From Greek mythology, the Greek spirit can be understood very accurately. Zhao Yan believes that the simple summary of the Greek spirit is its original desire, which affirms some of the most basic desires of man; secondly, it has a rational expression.
Dionysus, the god of wine, and Apollo, the sun god, represent two spirits, which are sometimes distinct and sometimes intertwined. At the heart of the Greek spirit is both the originality and the bondage of reason. This Greek myth became the most important source of Greek art.
Many greek sculptures, including frescoes from the early Mycenaean civilization, have scenes depicting Greek mythology, so it has a strong narrative element. These had a very direct impact on the birth of gandhara buddha art. Around the first century AD, Buddha statues began to appear, and the image of Shakyamuni was the shape of the sun god of the Greek prince, and its hairstyle and clothes were completely Hellenistic. In addition, the birth of Shakyamuni Shakyamuni, the creation of the Dharma, the incarnation of demons, and nirvana in the Buddhist tradition are all expressed in a very clear and linear narrative way. Therefore, the influence of Greek culture on Gandhara art is very far-reaching.
"History of Gandhara Civilization", by Sun Yinggang and He Ping, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, February 2018 edition
Sun Yinggang gave an example of how some Greek gods had been converted into Buddhism. The Vajrapani, or Vajrapani Bodhisattva, holds a Vajrapani pestle in his hand. Sometimes, it holds a vajra pestle in one hand and a whisk in the other. Some people say that it appears as an image of the Buddha's protector, the "guard" of the Buddha. Vajra pestle refers to the function of guarding; dusting refers to the function of service. Of course, the Buddha did not need its protection, and the Buddha's mana was much greater than his.
But in gandhara's Buddhist reliefs, there are a large number of images of the vajrayogini. Its original image was hercules the Greek Hercules, wearing a lion's skin hat on his head and holding a large wooden stick, which is a traditional element of Greek culture. The identity of Hercules appeared on the coins of the Greek kingdom of Bactria in pre-Buddhist times. Later Buddhist stories were collected from the Greek god and turned into the protector of Buddhism. This image, along the Silk Road all the way east.
Of course, its image was later deformed, but the image of it wearing a lion's skin hat and holding a weapon is still preserved. A few years ago, the tomb of xu Xianxiu, a Northern Qi warlord, was excavated by archaeology, and the ring he wore was painted with Hercules. Therefore, in that era, There were many exchanges between China and various civilizations.
Zhao Yan added that in Gandhara art, we will have some unimaginable scenes. For example, at the bottom is a standing statue of Shakyamuni, but above it is a scene of men and women. This conflict is very large. This is related to the two poles of the Greek spirit: original desire and reason, expressed in such a way, but harmoniously unified.
Sun Yinggang believes that Buddhism and early Greek philosophy do have some places to harmonize. Buddhism in the Gandhara region has been transformed and has undergone many changes, such as the emergence of Buddhist icons and sutras, and the emphasis on saving sentient beings starting with the emphasis on self-achievement. Saving sentient beings is an open system. Under such circumstances, Buddhist monks braved the harsh natural environment to go all over the world to preach and save sentient beings. The spread of religion inevitably brought about the fusion of art forms and new cultural elements.
Sometimes, the integration of civilizations is not uniform, it needs an opportunity, and Buddhism is very typical. Buddhism had already arisen in India in the 4th and 5th centuries BC, but it was not until the 2nd century AD that it was introduced to China. For the intervening five or six hundred years, it was only a local belief, and then it really became a world religion. Gandhara played a very important role in this process.
From the birth of Buddhism, merchants and craftsmen were its natural supporters. They have a natural sense of identification with Buddhism, because Buddhism talks about karma, which is exactly the same as the merchant's idea of debt. Moreover, Buddhism has been preaching the equality of all beings from the beginning, and it believes that all people are equal, which is abnormal in India. China is a society of four peoples: scholars, farmers, industrialists and merchants. Merchants were the lowest, so the areas where Buddhism flourished were generally areas where commerce was more developed. Until modern times, Jiangsu and Zhejiang consortiums and merchants were still very closely related to Buddhism.
Zhao Yan believes that in addition to the influence of Greek culture, Buddhism has also been "sinicized" in China. The origin of Chinese civilization is very restrained, a kind of agricultural civilization in the Yellow River Basin. This cultural foundation determines that in the process of accepting Buddhism, it may find some elements that suit itself. After Shakyamuni was born, he would bathe, and the people who sprayed him with rain were snake-like nagas. Naga was the serpent king in India, and during the Golden Hill period, many dragon elements appeared. This dragon is the earliest chinese shape that appeared in the Han Dynasty.
Did Buddhism come from India?
Sun Yinggang believes that everyone may not be familiar with Gandhara, but everyone may know about Miaoxiang Mountain in Yunnan. Buddhism has a great influence in Yunnan. Yunnan is known as the Buddha's kingdom, and the word Miaoxiangshan is translated from gandhara. Gandhara is equivalent to the transliteration of Myohyusan. The basic connotation of Gandhara may be the meaning of fragrant mountain, a fragrant place with fragrance. The most recorded of this place is the Chinese, including the "Records of the Buddha's Kingdom" and Xuanzang's "Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty". In their descriptions, Gandhara was the center of Buddhism in the world at that time.
Gandhara Stone Plate
In addition, since the second and third centuries, a large number of Buddhist scriptures have been translated in China, and the vast majority of Buddhist scriptures have come from this place. In 157 AD, Zhilou Jiachen began translating Buddhist scriptures in present-day Luoyang. We used to think that the most important language of Buddhism was Sanskrit, and we used the Sanskrit version to correct for Chinese errors, but then we found out that this was wrong. Sun Yinggang said, "For example, a Chinese Buddhist scripture was translated in the second century AD, and the earliest Sanskrit text we can get is no more than the tenth century, and we take a sutra that is a thousand years late to correct the Chinese text. What does this mean? ”
Recently, a number of original Buddhist texts such as the Lotus Sutra have been unearthed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is arguably the earliest Buddhist text, dating back to the second century AD. In fact, through the comparison between the scriptures, we can find that the early translations of the scriptures were not translated from Sanskrit at all. The earliest Buddhist scriptural languages were also not Sanskrit, which we called Galhu or Gandhara.
Hundreds of years after these Buddhist scriptures were passed down by word of mouth, some people wanted to write them down, first in Gandhara, and some even translated into Sanskrit. But, almost at the same time, these sutras were brought to China. In fact, the early Chinese translation of the Chinese scriptures is now the world's earliest, most comprehensive, most systematic, and most authoritative text, and in this sense, Buddhism is part of Chinese culture.
Sun Yinggang believes that the narrative of how Buddhism entered China is not a straight-line, simple inheritance as everyone imagines, but a cultural reconstruction. Buddha statues, sutras, ideological meanings and concepts cannot be found in India, this is Chinese. After Buddhism came in, these things were already part of East Asia.
Christianity originated in the area of present-day Israel and then spread to Europe, but Europeans never thought of Christianity as a foreign religion in our way. They never saw this as the main line of the narrative, but we have been saying that Buddhism is a foreign religion, and after arriving in China, it constantly adapted to the situation in China and became a Sinicized Buddhism. This is not the case, Buddhism has already become part of China in the first place.
Gandhara Buddha statue
Zhao Yan agreed with Sun Yinggang's statement. In the classical period, Buddhism was the product of a true fusion of diverse civilizations. In the course of its spread, Khotan and Guizi were the two centers of Buddhism at that time. Some of the grottoes in Guizi and Khotan have retained the Gandhara style. Enlightenment, from the buddhist philosophical point of view, is probably the most complete school of Greek philosophy, which pays more attention to wisdom and righteousness. Therefore, Buddhism is also inextricably linked to many civilizations.
Reporter 丨 Xu Yuedong
Editor 丨 Wu Xin
Proofreading 丨 Zhai Yongjun