The Tang Dynasty Buddhist Officer Temple System Research

The thesis focuses on the institutions of Buddhist state monasteries in Tang dynasty from the following aspects:discussing the institutions of Buddhist state monasteries established in the first year of Qianfeng in Gaozong Reign of Tang dynasty, the enforcement of the ordinances to establish Buddhist state monasteries in Tang, the discrepancy between the capital and regional prefectures in the enforcement of the institution of Buddhist state monasteries in Kaiyuan Period, the particular functions of Buddhist state monasteries, the shift of the status of Buddhist state monasteries and its effects afterwards, as well as the relationship between the Buddhist state monasteries and the construction of political legitimacy of the half-independent Fanzhen(藩镇)in Middle and Late Tang dynasty.The entire thesis could be divided into ten chapters. The first chapter is "Introduction", which includes presenting the background and academic significance of the topic, formulating the extant academic achievements both in China and overseas, clarifying the concepts of the research objects and introducing the material resources and methods used here.The second chapter is titled "Study on the institutions of Buddhist state monasteries in Qianfeng Year of Gaozong period of Tang dynasty", which primarily uses "the tablet inscription of Jingxing monastery" written by Lu Cangyong and the Dunhuang document named "chorography of Shazhou Dudufu" to integrally discuss the institutions of Buddhist state monasteries established in the Qianfeng Year of Gaozong period of Tang dynasty. The argument is that the group of these Buddhist state monasteries was all named Jingxing monastery due to the Jingxing(景星)auspicious omen appeared when the emperor made sacrifices to Mount Tai in the first year of Qianfeng in Gaozong Reign of Tang dynasty. Indeed, this institution of Buddhist state monasteries is the original version of those established three times afterwards. Moreover, the reason why this group of Buddhist state monasteries went into oblivion over time is that the passive enforcement of the ordinances and some were renamed as Dayun monasteries in the first year of Tianshou period.The third, fourth and fifth chapter individually collects and criticizes the resources contained information about Dayun monasteries, Longxing monasteries and Kaiyuan monasteries from various texts, in order to identify their temporal and spatial factors. The following passage is to discuss the three enforcements of the ordinances to establish the institution of Buddhist state monasteries from the spread extent of these Buddhist monasteries with specific designated name; and to discuss the evolutions of the institution in terms of time, which mainly refers to the co-existence and substitutions of several Buddhist state monasteries and the transfer of their status.The sixth chapter is titled "Differences between the capital and regional prefectures in the enforcement process of the institution of Kiayuan Buddhist state monasteries". The substantial argument is that in the enforcement of the institution of Kaiyuan Buddhist state monasteries, there was no Kaiyuan Buddhist state monasteries in the Capital of Chang’an. However, Xuanzong of Tang dynasty renamed Wangji monastery as Xingtang monastery, and granted it similar status and functions as Kaiyuan Buddhist state monasteries in other regional prefectures, which made the two types were not completely the same. The result was that Xingtang monastery became a shadow of Kaiyuan Buddhist state monastery, and the former was actually the later in nature but without recognized by name.The seventh chapter is named "Particular functions of Buddhist state monasteries of Tang dynasty". The logic here is that the Buddhist state monasteries at least assume the following four functions:namely, promoting political propaganda and images, providing accommodation for both foreign Buddhists to China and domestic official guests, undertaking the rituals of burning joss sticks on the death days of former emperors and empresses and of performing celebration ceremony on the birthday of emperor on the throne, as well as in charge of the affairs of Buddhism in a prefecture. Besides, the specific functions of Buddhist state monasteries were continually growing and increasing. Since these functions were granted by political powers, it is safe to conclude that the development of the functions for Buddhist state monasteries resulted from the gradually close connections between Buddhist state monasteries and political powers and tight control on Buddhism from the state.The eighth chapter is "Shift of the status of Buddhist state monasteries and its effects afterwards". This chapter concentrates on a legend based on the establishment of Kaiyuan Buddhist state monasteries in the26th year of Kaiyuan period. Through exploring the evolution of three different versions of legends prevailed in Late Tang and Five Dynasties, Southern Song and Yuan Dynasties separately, the passage aims to study the shift status of Buddhist state monasteries over time and the position of these state monasteries in the regional monastic hierarchies afterwards. The fact that the creation of the legend appeared in Tang Dynasty was related with the anxiety brought about from another fact that the setup of Kaiyuan Buddhist state monasteries didn’t timely substitute the status of earlier Longxing Buddhist state monasteries. Morever, the development of the legends afterwards revealed that Kaiyuan Buddhist state monasteries still ranked high in the regional monastic hierarchies later.The ninth chapter is titled "Relationship between the Buddhist state monasteries and construction of political legitimacy of half-independent Fanzhen in Middle and Late Tang dynasties". The attention here is focused on the fact that Tian Chensi and Zhang Yichao separately renewed the Buddhist state monasteries at the time of the military governor Weibo(魏博)and of Gui-yi-jun(�'义军). Based on the criticism of concerned tablet inscriptions, with analysis of the political background of the renew actions of the two, I would argue that the two expressed their loyalty to the central government through these actions, which also were critical measures for themselves to construct political legitimacy in their domains. To summarize, Buddhist state monasteries became important cultural resources for the half-independent Fanzhen in Middle and Late Tang dynasties to establish their own political legitimacy.And the last chapter is "Conclusion", whose purpose is to induct, summarize and promote from the former discussions.