The
Critical
Views,
or the Sense of
Uneasiness,
in Chinese
Buddhism
and Their
Relief
especially
in the First Half of the c th Century
A.D.-Kyoshun
Todo
When a critical views in Buddhism are made mention, it immediately
will remind one of the view of the latter days of the Law (mo-fa 末 法).
The rise of the view of mo-fa in China, as Dr. Reimon Yuki pointed out
already, began with Li-shih-yuan-wen (立 誓 願 文) by Nan-yueh Hui-ssu (南 岳 慧 思), but such views treated here, are those previous to it, and the fol lowing will be reviewed in the order those previous to Suei(階)and T'ang
(唐) dynasties and how the Chinese Buddhists could accept and understand the ideas of the dharmaless period (fa-mich-chin法 滅 壼), as well as the sin world such as the age of five corruptions (Wu-chuo 五 濁=panca kasaya), and of the counterfeit of Law (hsiang-fa 像 法=Saddharma pratirupaka) which
are mentioned in Buddhist sutras; and further, how they improved these ideas as a view of the dharmaless period and the sin world in their practi-ce of the teachings of the Buddha? Granting, however, that what treated here is not irrelevant to those problems without though having a direct connection with them, it is attempted here to scrutinize a critical view of Buddhism formed separately from them.
A critical view of Buddhism which is mentioned here is established 35 years preceding establishment of Li-shih-yuan-wen, that is, during one-fourth century from end of the Northern Wei dynasty to the middle of the Eastern-Wei dynasty. Relevant materials on it are a few, but there are five inscriptions on the Buddha's images and one postscript to a copied sutra, and what is found in annotation of Buddhist sutra and sastra as given
-782-below in seven materials:
a. An inscription on the three-storeyed pagoda built in the 5th year
of the Cheng-Kuang (正 光) i.e., A.D. 524, by Liu-Ken (劉 根) and forty of his fellows (now in the possession of the K'aifeng Museum 開 封 博 物 館).
b. An inscription on the stone image of the Buddha carved by the
monk Tao-Wan (比 丘 道 翫) in the 3rd year of the Yung-An (永 安), i.e.,
A. D. 530.
c. An inscription iption on the stone image of the Buddha carved by the
Yuan-□(元 □) and his over twenty fellows, dating from the 2nd year of the Yung-Hsi, (永 煕), i.e, A.D. 533, and found in the Lotus Cave (Lien-Rua-Tung 蓮 華 洞) at Lung-Men (龍 門).
d. An inscription on the stone image of the Buddha of the
Chih-Hsing-ssi (中 興 寺) built in the 3rd year of the Ta-T'ung(大 統), i.e., A. D. 537, by laymen of Chao-hsing (趙 縣) in Hopei province (河 北 省).
e. An inscription on the stone Buddha's image carved in the 7th year
of the Wu Ting (武 定), i.e., A. D. 549, by laymen's fraternities of Ting Hsiang hsing (定 裏 縣) in Shan-Hsi-province (山 西 省).
f. Apostscript on the first volume of Pao-liang-ching (寳 梁 経=Ratna rasi-sutra) copied by the monk Hui-K'ai (慧 榿) in the 2nd year of the Yung-Hsi (永 煕) i.e., A. D. 533 (now in the possession of Ohtani University).
g. The Wu-liang-shau-ching-lun-chu (note on the treatise on the
Su-khavativyuha Sutra 無 量 壽 経 論 註) written by the monk T'an-Luan (曇 鷺).
Of these materials, from (a) to (f) though different in expression their import is:
"Not only I cannot accept intimately the teachings of the Buddha because I was born after the death of Sakyamuni Buddha, but also I cannot accept by any possibility the teachings of Maitreya Buddha, because Mai-treya Buddha who, succeeding directly to Sakyamuni Buddha, will come down to this world and become a Buddha, can not but appear till in a distant future," showing very bitter grief of man. In brief, the conscious-ness of a Buddhist, that he can not bask in Sakyamuni or Maitreya Bud-dha's evangelization, who has had a unique, brilliant and fruitful religious
experience such as enlightenment (Bodhi) and as carved in the material
(e) as "between two sages (erh-sheng-chung-chien 二 聖 中 間)", estab1ishing
a feeling of isolation from the two sages. Furthermore, as it is clear from
the word "buddhaless (wu-fo 無 佛)" in the expression of "in this world
of the five corruptions, in the buddhaless period" spelt in material (g), itt imports that the awakening of having no surviving relation with the Buddhaa who leads us to enlightenment, and despair of having no master. The more they hope to, accept immediately the teachings of the Buddha, the stronger this feeling of isolation from the Buddha, deepening the despair. On the other hand. as "to my thinking, I was born in this world full of defilement,
because I was poor in good fortune (Tzu-wei-farpao-sheng-lua-yun, mo 自 惟 幅 薄 生 羅 運 末)" written in material (f), this actual world, where the
practice of Buddhism is performed, comes to be expressly provided for as
aworld full of dust and dirt (rajas羅 閨). This also means, with providing
for this actual world as an ineradicably bad world which is written in material (g) as "in this wicked world of the five corruptions
(Wu-wu-chus-chih-shih於 五 濁 之 世)", which is a cast shadow of the subject of an iso
lation and despair towards this actual world. Such feeling as isolation and despair and its projection towards this actual world may be called a view of a crisis of Buddhists who are born in this world after the death of Sakyamuni Buddha and before the future appearance of Maitreya Buddha.
This view of crisis existed widely among monks in the beginning of the 6th century was never entertained accidentally, and one would find, there a historical inevitability. First of all, an inquiry into the necessity inn the connection with their conation to Buddhist faith in the Northern Wei be made. The tendency of the Buddhist faith, after the capital of the
Nor-thern Wei was transferred to Lo-Yang (洛 陽) at A. D. 493, can be known through the Buddha's images carved in the cave at Lung-Men (龍 門).
Name-ly, as Dr. Zenryu Tsukamoto pointed out already, out of 206 in the total of statues of the Northern Wei period in the Buddhist cave-temples at Lung-Men, the statue of Sakyamuni Buddha amounts to 43, and that of Maitreya Buddha, 35. These amounts to a little over one-third of the total number.
-780-This means that the object of worship at that time was for the most part, Sakyamuni and Maitreya. Furthermore, we see this on the development of Buddhist worship throughout all the Northern Wei period.
In the Buddhist cave-tamples at Yun-Kang (雲 岡) built preceding to
one at Lung-Ment, a biography of Sakyamuni from birth to death, and his former life is depicted. On the other hand, in the case of the Buddhist cave-temples at Lung-Men, their interest in Sakyamuni on this earth changed into a super-humanistic God...a worship to Sakyamuni as a great God who has an infinite love and an infinite power, and an expectation for Maitreya Buddha as a successor of the Buddha. This change in faith of the people of Northern Wei means that their faith for Sakyamuni Buddha advances from the outside to the inside. And it impresses one that such spiritual growth of the Northern Weians involved a necessity to have the crisis view improved.
Furthermore, it is to be pointed out that such prosperous faith towards Sakyamuni and Maitreya has its back-ground in the Buddhistic faith which arose after Buddhism was transplanted into China. That is to say, after Buddhism was transplanted into China, there rose an interest in the founder of Buddhism, realizing, however, that Sakyamuni Buddha had been already gone and they can never see him, as written in the postscript of
P'i-yu-ching (Avadana sutra讐 喩 経) (now in the possession of the Calligraphy Musseum 書 道 博 物 館) copied at the lst year of the Kan-lou (甘 露) in the Ts'ao-Wei (曹 魏), A. D. 256. Still more, with such consciousness, the
devo-tees urged to visit a chain of holy places of Sakyamuni Buddha, the
mother-1and of Buddhism, India, like K'ang Fa-Lang (康 法 朗) who was contem-porary with Tao-An (道 安), and making a journey to India became active
cherishing an ardent passion for bringing on sutras into China, like
Chu-Tzu-Hsing (朱 子 行), Chin-Yen (智 嚴), Chin-Meng (智 猛), and Pao-Yun (寳 雲). On the other hand, like Chin-Yen (智 嚴) and Tao-An (道 安), it pointed
that there was another direction that they would ask for an explanation of things seeing Maitreya personally. A source of such consciousness and movement of Chinese Buddhists can be found in "Shin-erh-men-ching-hsu
(十 二 門 経 序)", "Yin-ckih-ju-ching-hsu (陰 持 入 経 序)" and "Taoti-ching-hsu (道 地 経 序)". Anyhow, such phenomena of Chinese Buddhists are. based on
isolation risen at a time and in a region, and developed in it. In this res-pect, a view of a crisis existed in the first half of the 6th century may be said the peak of a faith for Sakyamuni Buddha since Buddhism was trans-planted into China.
Then, how the view of the crisis formed in a swell of a faith for Sakya-muni and Maitreya was conquered, one would query. First of all, as one may see in material (f) expressing the view of the crisis as well as. in materials (a), (c) and (e), people did not accept the teachings of Mai-treya Buddha, though MaiMai-treya Buddha came down to this earth, but wished to be born in the Pure Land of the Buddha of Endless Life in the West
(Hsi-fang-Wu-liang-show-fo 西 方 無 量 壽 佛). Thus, coming to wish to be
born in the Pure Land of the Buddha of Eternal Life was not brought about out of the faith itself for Sakyamuni and Maitreya Buddhas, it was in needd of another motive. But anyway, it meant that they found out a motive of a conquest of a view of the orisis. Furthermore, like material (g), monk
T'an-Luan (曇 鷺), perceiving this actual world as this wicked world of the
five corruption, and the buddhaless period, came to conquer the view of the crisis in the worship for the Buddha of Eternal Life.
Even then, how could they conquer the view of the crisis by worship ping the Buddha of Eternal Life who appeared on the stage in taking the place of Sakyamuni and Maitreya ? First of all, I can point to the difference of the object of faith. That is to say, as to these two Buddhas, Sakyamuni
and Maitreya, as pointed in Treatise on Buddhism and Taoism (繹 老 志), wei shou (魏 書), sakyamuni Buddha became the Buddha succeeding to the Six Buddha like Sikhin (戸 棄), and Maitreya Buddha will become the Buddha
acceding to Sakyamuni Buddha, and coming down to this earth in future. On that point, these two Buddhas are the Buddha belonging to a worldly series by comparison. In contrast to this, the Buddha of Eternal Life is not a worldly Buddha, but a vision of the Buddha (pratyutpanna-buddha), beyond this world, living in the Pure Land in the West. So far as it is
-778-(6) The Critical Views, or the Sense of Uneasiness, (K. Todo)
concerned that especially the original vow (purva-pranidhana) of the Buddha of Eternal Life which wishes to give succour to all on earth, carries on his work of relief even in the age between Sakyamuni and Maitreya Buddha, the so-called the buddhaless period, it may be said that it does dissolve the view of the crisis. But in order to accept the activity of the original vow and realize the relief, the faith (adhisarnpratyaya adhimukti) to the Buddha of Eternal Life and calling upon His Name are demanded. This recitation of the Name is an action originated in the will of relief of the vow of the Buddha of Eternal Life. The faith is a passive mental attitude to accept an action of the active vow (and is called Other's Power). From this point
of view, the thought that the making a good cause (善 因) such as making
the image of the Buddha seen in the above material (a)...(e) that will bring about a good fortune in life resulting one able to hear the teachings of Maitreya Buddha in future, is attributable to excedingly to rely upon the self-action such as making an image of the Buddha. So that, as com-pared with the above-stated 'by Other's Power' or 'Grace', this must be called the self-effort or power faith attitude. Thereby, as a second reason how the view of the crisis was conquered, one took a change in one's practical attitude from self-power or merit' to Other's Power.
Next, as a third reason mention is made that the activity of the vow, as monk T'an-Luan pointed out, has by far the greater power, surpassing the law of causation. For instance, even for a person of life long erring, if he calls upon the Name of the Buddha of Eternal Life ten times at the moment of his death he would be saved. This denies the law of causation in this world, relief is realized because of the original vow. This must be distinguished explicitly from the faith based on the law of causation, that is, as results of a good cause such as making an image of the Buddha, man can hear the dharmas of Maitreya Buddha.
Thus, the appearance of the Buddha of Eternal Life needs a change in actual attitude of the faith, finding activity of the great vow excel the law of causation, it come to play an important part for conquest of the view
