Buddhism In The Eastern Jin Dynasty And Southern Dynasties With Kuaiji Society

After Buddhism was introduced to ancient China,the period of Wei,Jin,Northern and Southern Dynasties is important time for its sinicization and setting the basic path of future development.The interaction of Buddhism and region society is a nature sub-topic under the topic of sinicization of Buddhism,as well as specific practice of the latter.It should come to us that though different regions in China may have something in common such as politics,economic and culture,distinct region features also exist.Therefore,Buddhism should pick different spreading paths in different regions.What’s more,the political situations in Northern and Southern Dynasties were always changing,thus making the development process of Buddhism more complicated.Take Kuaiji region as an example,in this society,we may be impressed with the booming of Buddhism in the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties,but the regional and dynamic features during this process are often ignored,and they deserved to be dug deeply.Aside from the introduction and conclusion,this thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter1 focuses on the general situations of monks,nuns and temples in Kuaiji,presenting that these elements formed an appropriate space-time structure to the population and residents’ demands for religion.Chapter2 focuses on how sangha in Kuaiji dually be integrated to the social orders led by political power in southern China,meanwhile its internal affairs were influenced to a great extent.This process took place under the background of flowing of new Buddhism knowledge and revaitalization of imperial power.The emperors in south China eventually established the orders of sangha’s organization,behaviour and mind by summoning monks,nominating administrators in sangha and compiling sutra.Chapter3 is set to find major Buddhist events in Kuaiji including academic and practical ones.The Loutus Sutra(Saddharmapundarika Sutra)is particularly prevalent in Kuaiji,besides,classics like Prajnaparamita Sutra,Abhidharma,Nirvana Sutra and Satyasiddhi Shastra were once popular one after another.Worship of Maitreya and Amitabha especially their Sukhavati is also popular in this region.All these phenomena reveal the rapid secularization of Kuaiji Buddhism after the Eastern Jin Dynasty,catering to the most public religion demand.Chapter4 is about the relation between Confucianism,Buddhism and Taosim in Kuaiji.Powerful clans in Kuaiji once remained the orientation of Confucianism and Taoism,but due to the transformation of family culture and pursuit of political interest,they began to accept Buddhism on the basis of old preferance.Yu clan in Yuyao county and Kong clan in Shanyin county are typical examples.Talking to the relation between Buddhism and Taosim from the perspective of space,both sides intended to keep certain distance from each other in Kuaiji region so as to avoid direct conflicts.Chapter5 is about the historical influence of Buddhism development in this period on Tang Dynasty.After Sui Dynasty united the whole country again,the structural pressure from Jiankang in religion disappeared,the Buddhism in Kuaiji(known as Yuezhou in Tang dynasty)revitalized as a leading role in south of the Yangtze River.However,Tang people didn’t view these Buddhist heritages from a religional angle.Instead,they reshaped the implications of them by relating them to the culture fashion in Tang Dynasty creatively.To sum up,by exploring the conditions and patterns in the interaction process of Buddhism and Kuaiji society,this thesis inteds to promote the research and understanding of religon,region society and country in the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties from one side.