China during the Period of Disunity

1
China during the Period of Disunity
2
Siddhartha Gautama (b. 563 BC)

• Prince Kshtriya varna
• Vedic priests blessed baby Siddhartha
• Sheltered Siddhartha from pain and suffering
• At age of 29 with a servant ventures to the
  outside world

3
Four Passing Sights

• Old Man
• Sick Man
• Dead Man
• Holy Man -- Sannyasin

4
Rejects Society

• Plans to discover the source of suffering
• Joins with Yogi and Sannyasin
• Joins with 5 ascetics
• All yoga proved unsuccessful
• Middle Way
• Sit and Meditate underneath the Bodhi Tree
• Tempted by Mara

5
Enlightenment

• Profound sense of understanding reality as it
  really is
• Described the experience as Waking Up.
• To Awake Bodh The awakened on Buddha
• Compassionate Buddha chose to teach the world
  the dharma

6
First Sermon

• Four Noble Truths
• To live is to suffer
• Suffering comes from desire
• To end suffering we must end desire
• Release from suffering by following the 8-fold
  path
• Noble Eight-Fold Path
• Right understanding, intention, speech, action
  Buddhist code of ethics

7
Triple Refuge or Three Jewels

• Essential beliefs of Buddhism conversion
• Buddha
• Dharma (Truth Teachings of Buddha)
• Sangha (Community of Monks believers)

8
Titles of the Buddha

• Buddha meaning the awakened one
• Sakyamuni Sage of the Sakya clan
• Tathagata perfected one thus come one one who
  has thus come

9
Nirvana

• Anatman no essential self or soul
• Samsara
• Rebirth
• This realm of suffering

10
Rise in Influence

• Contribution of material wealth
• Sangha becomes a powerful landholding institution
• Completes with secular authority

11
Parinirvana

• Died in his 79th year.
• Meeting with Sangha listed essential teachings
• Food Poisoning?
• What to do with the body of a Buddha?
• Stupa
• Relics
• Tradition of pilgrimage

12
Rise of Mahayana

• 100 BC 100 AD Canonization
• monastic life as essential to achieving
  enlightenment
• All can achieve Enlightenment
• Mahayana Greater Vehicle
• Hinayana lesser vehicle

13
Theravada/Hinayana

• Most widespread in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos,
  Cambodia, and Thailand
• Traces descent from the original sangha that
  followed the Buddha
• Vinaya (Monastic tradition) emphasized
• Vinaya Pitaka (Monastic Tradition Rules)

14
Vinaya

• Prohibitions and detailed practices for life in a
  monastary
• Four Offenses require immediate defrocking
• Thirteen Offenses confession and probation
• Rules of Deportment life of a mendicant

15
Mahayana

• Literate tradition sutras, tantras
• All people may become enlightened through
  skillful means and the Bodhisattvas.
• Shunyata

16
Bodhisattva

• Bodhisattva Vow
• Unlimited in number, all-seeing and all-caring,
  capable of extending boundless aid and succor to
  those who call upon them in sincere faith

17
Skillful means

• Dharma is only a means to an end other skillful
  means might successfully be employed to reach
  Nirvana
• Influenced by Bhakti Yoga
• Theistic
• Karma
• Sectarian
• Pure Land, Zen, etc.

18
Vajrayana (Tantrism)

• Diamond vehicle, or way of the lightening bolt
• Also known as tantrism esoteric ritual manuals
• Developed in the 7th century AD in response to
  Buddhist scholastism
• Common folk increasingly turn to Saivism (cult of
  Shiva)

19
Shaivism

• Sensual pleasure and spiritual bliss directly
  related
• Cultivation of sensual bliss through arts and sex

20
A World in Disarray

• China divided into a number of states after the
  collapse of the Han remains divided until 589
• Xuan a. Daoist Religion Dark, profound,
  secret b. Daoist Philosophy metaphysics
• Xue school of thought

21
Wang Bi (226-249) Neo-Daoist

• Syncretic Daoist in metaphysics, Confucian in
  social and political philosophy
• Raised level of Chinese philosophy to the
  metaphysics went beyond realm of names and forms
  to ultimate reality -- Benwu (original non-being)
• Benwu transcends all distinctions and
  descriptions pure being and original substance
  (ti)
• Stresses one underlying and uniting principle to
  all phenomenon commentary on Yi Jing argues that
  there is a general principle behind all objects
• Insisted on a united system based on one
  fundamental reality

22
China Divided

• Three Kingdoms (AD250)
• Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin (AD400)
• Military power paramount
• Use of stirrups
• Nomadic tribesmen
• Northern Wei and the Six Dynasties

23
The Northern Wei (386-534)

• Tuoba nomadic tribal coalition that established
  the state
• Made use of Chinese for collecting taxes, keeping
  records, and running government
• Sinification Chinese style capital Chinese
  titles, ceremonies, and music adopted Chinese
  legal codes
• Equal field system applied to abandoned land
  only

24

• Nine-rank system method of recruiting officials
  through inherited rank
• Great families maintained their wealth and
  exerted influence
• Sinification alienated tribesmen Rebellion of
  Six Garrisons (524) devastated the Northern Wei
• Legacies include Equal Field System and Buddhist
  artistic production

25
Buddhism in the North

• Translating Buddhism into Chinese
• Kumarakiva (350-409) central Asian monk
  greatest monk translator
• Buddhist apologists show that Buddhism is
  compatible with Chinese culture
• Downplayed anatman (non-self)
• Open to charges of Antisocial behavior
• Suffered times of persecution

26
Daoism The Religion

• Traced to Celestial Masters of later Han
• Faith Healing causes of illness in misdeeds of
  the patient or progenitors identified which
  demon was responsible
• Longevity use of spells, charms, breathing
  exercises, and sexuality

27
Daoism and Sexuality

• Based on Yin/Yang principles
• Women have unlimited Yin Mans yang essence
  limited
• Absorb yin and preserve yang leads to healthy
  long life
• Sexual intercourse encouraged to absorb yin
  essence, but with delayed or no ejaculation to
  retain yang essence
• New Daoist Sexual texts
• The Handbook of the Plain Girl
• The Art of the Bedchamber

28
The South

• Lower Yangzi River experienced substantial
  increase in population and productivity
• Fujian becomes truly Chinese

29
Rice Culture

• Wet-field rice cultivation
• Construction of paddy fields and careful
  irrigation complicated system of terraces
• Raising seedlings and transplantation
• Labor Intensive Labor supplemented from
  refugees from the North
• Produced more calories per acre than the north

30
Free-wheeling market economy

• Nanjing not internally divided into walled-off
  wards
• Pottery, textiles, lacquer, bronze mirrors, paper
  produced and traded in the South
• Increased foreign trade
• Great Families in the South wield power and
  influence
• Checks on power of great families

31
Buddhism in the South

• Supported by great families and rulers
• Vimalakirti wealthy Buddhist layman
• Opponents to Buddhism
• Daoism continues
• Fan Zhen