On the afternoon of July 20, the Social Sciences Literature Publishing House invited Sun Yinggang, professor of Zhejiang University, Zhao Yan, associate professor of Qinghai University for Nationalities, and He Ping, collector and independent scholar, to hold an academic salon at the Aegean Sea Store of Beijing's One-Way Space, with the theme of "Gandhara, the Pearl of Art on the Silk Road". In recent years, the three scholars have invariably set their sights on the Gandhara region and conducted in-depth research on the culture and art of this region in history. In April and May this year, Zhao Yan's "Buddha's Biography and Images: The Myth of Shakyamuni" and Sun Yinggang and He Ping's "Illustrated Gandhara Civilization" were published by the Social Science Literature Publishing House and the Sanlian Bookstore respectively, which seems to indicate that the study of Gandhara is about to become a new academic hotspot.
The scene of the event
Gandhara: Another Greek world
Talking about the origin of the writing of "Buddhist Biography and Images", Dr. Zhao Yan said that he has always paid attention to Greek literature, as one of the sources of Western civilization, the ideas contained in Greek literature have a profound impact on the entire Western civilization. Because the teacher of the doctoral study was a Buddhist scholar, by chance, he came into contact with Buddhist mythology, and Zhao Yan found that the Chinese translation of the Buddhist tradition from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty contained many mythological elements and was inextricably linked to Greece.
From the perspective of Shakyamuni's life, the Buddhist tradition tells the whole process from his birth to his nirvana, which is like Greek mythology, with a very complete narrative system, a very clear context, and a very strong literary color. Later, in the process of research, it was found that not only the text of the Buddha transmission, but also the images of the Buddha transmission were also very systematic. In the beginning, in India itself, such as the Great Pagoda of Sanchi, there were only some symbolic images; for example, when representing the Buddha, it may only be a Buddha seat, a Bodhi tree, or a Falun. Later, in Gandhara, which is now northwestern Pakistan, Afghanistan, and possibly the five Central Asian countries in the north, in a broad sense, there were real humanoid Buddha statues in this place, which was very amazing, just as Sir Marshall could not hide his inner excitement when he was in Taxiira, saying that he had discovered another Greek world. Gandhara's iconographic form is entirely Hellenistic, and along this vein many relationships with Greek culture can be found. It should be said that Buddhist art was really born here. As Buddhism spread to the East, it spread to China, and some parts of China's acceptance retained some of the gandhara colors. From India to Gandhara and then to China, the texts and images of the Buddha's teachings have a very clear context.
Zhao Yan
Greek art pays attention to the performance of scenes and has a strong narrative nature. This had a very direct impact on the birth of gandhara buddha art, the earliest art of Buddhism. Among the earliest statues of Buddhas that appeared around the 1st century AD, the image of Shakyamuni Buddha was actually the shape of a Greek prince like the sun god. His hairstyle, as well as the treatment of the clothes he wore, and the crease treatment, were entirely Hellenistic.
Professor Sun Yinggang believes that Gandhara coincided with the Hellenistic era in the last two hundred years BC, and the Greeks once established a series of small kingdoms in this place, including the early like the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, and later the slightly larger Indo-Greek kingdom, where Greek culture arrived. It can be said that this is a very coincidental opportunity, where Buddhism has produced some fundamental changes. For example, with the appearance of Buddha statues, Gandhara played a very important role. Primitive Buddhism did not have a Buddha statue, ancient China and ancient India did not have a tradition of giving statues of saints, and even in the early Buddhist texts, the Buddha was too great, so you can't express his image, it is against idolatry.
A more obvious example of the influence of Greek culture on Buddhism is that some Greek gods were transformed into Buddhist gods and entered the Buddhist belief system. The most typical is that in Buddhism there is a god called vajrapani, or vajrapani bodhisattva, sometimes holding a vajra pestle in one hand, sometimes holding a vajra pestle in one hand, and holding a duster in the other hand. He appears as the image of the Buddha's protector, and some say that he is the Guard of the Buddha, that the Vajra pestle is the function of guarding, and that dusting is the function of service. His image was originally that of hercules Hercules of Greece. He wears a lionskin hat and holds a large wooden stick in his hand, which are traditional elements of Greek culture. Such a Greek god, which was absorbed by Buddhism, became a protector of Buddhism.
Moreover, this image traveled east along the Silk Road, not only in Gandhara, but also in the Kyzyl Caves, Maijishan, and until the Northern Zhou Dynasty. He later transformed again, and his appearance would change, but the image of him wearing a lion's leather hat and holding a weapon was still clearly visible, and the symbols were very accurate. Until a few years ago, archaeology excavated the tomb of Xu Xianxiu of Northern Qi, and the owner of the tomb was a military general of Northern Qi, who was known for his bravery in battle, so his nickname was "Wu". Very interestingly, his ring was also unearthed, and the picture on the ring was Hera Kris. The pattern on the ring of a Chinese warrior is Herachris, indicating that China did have a lot of interaction with various civilizations at that time, so we often see some extraterritorial elements in Buddhist stories, especially Greek elements.
In addition to the Greek elements, Sun Yinggang also mentioned the influence of Chinese civilization on Gandhara, such as tilly tepe, which we translate to "Golden Hill", which unearthed a large number of gold products in the first century AD, almost equivalent to our Eastern Han Dynasty. Among the cultural relics unearthed in this batch, many of them are Chinese, at least with Chinese elements, such as bronze mirrors and carriages with obvious Chinese characteristics, which are artifacts. In addition, there is the inscription, which records the title of Emperor Katha Sekya II of the Guishan Empire on an inscription unearthed in Alain, which is very interesting. He wrote four titles, called "Great King", "King of Kings", "Caesar", and "Son of Heaven". Some say he added all the titles known in the world at the time to his head. The "Great King" is Indian, the "King of Kings" is generally considered to be the tradition of West Asia, "Caesar" is the tradition of Rome, the "Son of Heaven" is said to be the Chinese tradition, and the Chinese emperor is known as the son of heaven to accept the Mandate of Heaven. So in this regard, Chinese culture at that time should have an impact on Central Asia. Most of the evidence is certainly no longer found, but sometimes a little clue is telling.
Buddhism itself is part of Chinese culture
Extending from the topic of Gandhara, Professor Sun Yinggang further elaborated on the significance of Buddhism for Chinese civilization. He believes that gandharan civilization is even more important to Chinese than the locals, because now its inhabitants have embraced Islam and do not agree with Gandhara civilization as their cultural heritage. The most recorded of this place in history is Chinese, such as Faxian's "Record of the Buddha's Kingdom" and Xuanzang's "Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty". They have all been to these places, and they are recorded in these places.
China began to translate Buddhist scriptures in large quantities from the second and third centuries, with an accurate date being that in 157 AD, Zhi Lou Jiachen began translating Buddhist scriptures in Luoyang, and most of the Buddhist scriptures at that time came from the Gandhara region. We used to think that the most important language of Buddhism was Sanskrit, and we would take a Sanskrit text to correct for errors in Chinese texts, but then we found out that this was wrong. For example, a Buddhist sutra in Chinese was translated in the 2nd century AD, and the Earliest Sanskrit text we can get is no earlier than the 10th century. Isn't it wrong that we took a Sanskrit sutra that was nearly a thousand years late to correct the Chinese Buddhist scriptures?
Recently, some philological scholars have found some original Buddhist scriptures such as the DharmaGuro Sutra in the second century AD in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which can be said to be the earliest Buddhist scriptures we have obtained. By comparing the scriptures, we find that in fact, our early translations did not come from Sanskrit at all, and the earliest Buddhist language was not Sanskrit. The earliest Buddhist scriptural languages were actually very complex, and the texts we call Galhu or Gandhara may have been the earliest Buddhist languages. The sutras actually have a Gandhara version first, and then some are Sanskritized. But you know, almost at the same time, these things were brought to China. So in fact, the early Chinese Buddhist scriptures in China are already the most authoritative, and they are now the earliest, most systematic, most comprehensive, and most authoritative text in the world. In this sense, Buddhism was actually part of Chinese culture from the beginning.
Professor Sun Yinggang originally wrote an article called "Is Buddhism Coming from India?" That's the question in mind. Buddhism is not a straight, simple transmission that everyone imagines, it is actually a cultural reconstruction, from the Buddha statue, from the scriptures, from its ideological meaning, concept, you can't find these things in India, it is Chinese. Since it came in, it has become part of East Asian culture.
Sun Yinggang
Let's discuss it from a methodological point of view. Christianity originated in Jerusalem, the area of present-day Israel, and then spread to Europe. But European scholars have never thought of Christianity as a foreign religion, spread to Europe and then gradually Europeanized, as we do, and they have never had this narrative thread. We have always said that Buddhism is a foreign religion, and after arriving in China, it constantly adapted to the situation in China, and then became a Sinicized Buddhism. Is that right? Not really. There has never been an immutable Buddhism, Buddhism has always changed, there is no Buddhism that was originally as pure as a little white rabbit, and then spread to China and was constantly polluted. The Dharma is impermanent, the Dharma is impermanent, nothing is eternal, this is what the Buddha said.
This issue is not very clear in history, for example, Xuanzang's westward journey to learn the scriptures is very illustrative. Xuanzang had already gone to India in the early seventh century, and he was a very typical fundamentalist, and he was going to India to find the so-called original scriptures. However, Xuanzang did not really know much about the context of history, and it is likely that he returned these things from India, and it is likely that the early Gandhara Buddhist scriptures were re-flowed back to India and then retranslated. Therefore, after Xuanzang translated back, he encountered very great difficulties, that is, his peers resisted him. This is also easy to understand, for example, the translation of "bodhisattva", the translation of bodhisattva for hundreds of years is "bodhisattva", no one questions. Xuanzang had to say that the translation was wrong, and asked everyone to change "bodhisattva" to "bodhisattva". As a result, no one actually paid attention to him, and he was still called a "bodhisattva" until now. Because "bodhisattva" is not translated from Sanskrit, but from Central Asian. I think Xuanzang's greatest contribution is the Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty, which is very important, and as for how much influence his translated Buddhist scriptures have on Chinese Buddhism, it may need to be re-elaborated by future generations. The translations of Xuanzang and Yijing had no influence at that time, especially Yijing, who translated the precepts and so on, which were almost not adopted by the Chinese monastic community. Moreover, historically speaking, these are all later things, which reflect the situation of southern Buddhism and cannot guide the daily life of Chinese monks.
The decline of Buddhism was also very early in India, in fact, when Xuanzang came to India, Buddhism had already declined, so many people doubted that Xuanzang would say something big later, such as how revered he was in India. Indian scholars do not buy this, and the vast majority of Indian scholars believe that Xuanzang exaggerated his experience in India. We have a very important academic predecessor named Chen Yinke, who wrote a review report to Feng Youlan's "History of Chinese Philosophy": "Even if we suspect that china can faithfully import ideas from North America or Eastern Europe from today onwards, its end should be equivalent to Xuanzang's knowledge of wisdom, and it can neither occupy the highest position in the history of chinese thought, nor will it eventually return to the cessation." What he is saying is that this kind of thing that Xuanzang believes is the true scripture will eventually die out, and it will not occupy much place in the history of Chinese thought.
The introduction of Buddhism was the first "globalization" of East Asian civilization
After several years of research, Professor Sun Yinggang believes that the greatest significance of studying Gandhara is to deepen our understanding of Chinese civilization. It is not true that our previous studies of Chinese civilization and Chinese history were confined to the current borders of the People's Republic of China. In ancient times, the area of influence of our civilization was much wider, and its openness was far beyond our imagination. Gandhara is an area that is extremely closely related to ancient China, and it is not right that in the past, whether it was cultural circles or academic circles, or even museums and cultural relics circles, this area was excluded from the research horizon. Many of Gandhara's cultural elements, many symbols, and ideas eventually took root in the East Asian world and eventually became an important human heritage.
It is in this sense that Chinese civilization has been an open civilization from the very beginning, it is not what we say in some textbooks, we are a closed civilization, we are an introverted civilization, in fact, it is not, even if it is measured by the entire world civilization, China is an open civilization, which is the reason why it can last for thousands of years. Because we are an open civilization, we can constantly transform foreign cultural elements into part of our own system, and this kind of thing has happened continuously throughout history.
If we look at the whole of history as a line, Buddhism arose from the northeast of India, then transformed in Gandhara, and then leapt into China. I used to call Gandhara the place where Buddhism flew, and I don't think it's an exaggeration, but it was only after it became a world religion. If there have been two globalizations in China's history, the second from the impact of the West since the 19th century, then the first globalization was actually the introduction of Buddhism. Many elements of East Asian culture as a whole can be explained within the Buddhist system, and sometimes you find that things are different from another angle. For example, when studying the history of the Wei, Jin, Southern, Northern, southern, and Southern Dynasties, Sui, and Tang Dynasties, we have studied Buddhism as a part of Chinese history, a side study, but if you look at China from another angle and regard China as part of the history of the rise and spread of Buddhism, you find that it is only a part of the history of the spread of Buddhism.
In the centuries since Buddhism was introduced to China in the second century AD, it has penetrated almost all corners of China, and our views on life and death, our language, our beliefs, and even our daily lives have almost all been remodeled by it. The Chinese civilization after the introduction of Buddhism is very different from the Chinese civilization before it. For example, language, many words are brought about by Buddhism, "cause and effect", "world". Even if everyone often chats on the Internet, "huh" is also brought about by Buddhism, without Buddhism, everyone can't type "huh". Because the word used to be a verb, meaning "to rebuke" and "condemn," Buddhism turned it into an onomatopoeia, expressing a sound. For example, our concept of life and death has also changed, before Buddhism entered China, China had the concept of the soul, there was the concept of Huangquan, and the person in charge of the world on the other side of our country was called Taishan Fujun, who lived in Taishan. So when we die, the soul will go to Tarzan, to the east. Now Taishan Fujun may not have been heard of by everyone, but it actually dominated the afterlife world of Chinese for many years. In the seventh century, Buddhism gave us a new "civil servant" called Yama. After the eighth century, there was a new image, that is, the Jizo Bodhisattva, followed by the Western concept of pure land. Then everyone thought that when they died, they should go west. This transformation of the afterlife is also the influence of Buddhism.
With the addition of Buddhism, the context of our entire history may be clearer. The openness and vitality of our civilization may be able to find more explanations, because it is an open system, it can accommodate different ideas, and then constantly do self-renewal and self-transformation, which allows us to survive to this day.
The rise and spread of Buddhism was really a major event in the human world, and to this day, it is still a core issue in the non-culture of China, Japan, and Korea in the East Asian world. For example, where did the common bodhisattva belief in China, Japan, and Korea come from? In fact, this has to go back to the history of buddhism into China, and only by sorting out this context clearly can we know where Chinese civilization came from. For example, in Japan, Buddhism has a particularly great influence on politics, and japan's third largest political party, the Komeito Party, is the Buddhist party. He had a great influence on The Real Life and Politics of Japan. The Emperor of Japan is actually the Buddhist Reincarnation King, the Emperor is a Trinity, he is the descendant of the God Amaterasu, he is the Son of Heaven, he is the Reincarnation King, and his sacredness is also defined in this way. Therefore, the emperor's ascension to the throne must go through an initiation ceremony to obtain the supremacy of all Buddhists. This ritual has lasted for more than a thousand years from ancient times to the present, and was still performed during the Taisho period. However, this ceremony is not public, and this time the new emperor takes the throne, and I don't know if he has adopted this ritual. To understand Japanese politics you have to study Buddhism, or you don't understand why he is like that.
In short, the study of East Asian history, many ideas have to go back to Gandhara, back to Central Asia, it is not the place we think, it has always been backward, it has always been culturally and economically poor. Once upon a time in the last few hundred years of BC it was indeed a crossroads of civilization. We go now to see that it is very dilapidated, but many of the world's glorious civilizations and empires may now be completely annihilated.