A Study On Buddhist Temples In Luoyang

Buddhist temples in Luoyang is an important literature in the Northern Dynasty period. This paper verifies Buddhist temples in Luoyang from the perspective of philology. It carries on the textual research on Buddhist temples in Luoyang from four aspects. The main body of the research is divided into four chapters.First, the paper inspects the biographic details of Yang Xuan-zhi, the author of Buddhist temples in Luoyang, including his family name, native place and official career. The issue of Yang Xuan-Zhi’s family name and birthplace has been controversial in the academic circles. This paper, after reviewing the mainstream opinions in academia, the related historical annals and chorography literature, and taking the bihui into consideration, reaches the conclusion that Yang Xuan-zhi’s family name should be "Yang", and his birth place should be Pingzhou, Peiping (today’s Baoding, Hebei) in the Northern Wei. What’s more, based on the time when Yang served in the imperial court, this paper presumes that his birth time should be around the year 509, his service as Fengchaoqing in the court should be near the year 529-530, his trip to Yongningsi Pagoda with Hu Xiaoshi should be between 528-534 during which he also had encounters with Bodhidharma, his post as the prefecture chief in Qicheng should be before the year 538, his post as military officer should be before the year 547, and as Mishujian during 548-549.Second, the paper exams the background of Buddhist temples in Luoyang. Based on the related historical documents including the text of Weishu · Shilaozhi and Buddhist temples in Luoyang, the paper exams the piety of Beiwei rulers and people toward Budadhism, and investigates the reasons why the nation vigorously built temples. These are the historical background of composing Buddhist temples in Luoyang.This paper holds the opinion that the influences of Jingdu Dafu mainly include the following two points:the orthodox ideology of Central Plain, and the dual purposes of compliment and satire. Jingdu Dafu had had the traditions of complimenting the Eastern Capital Luoyang-because of its unique geographical advantages, the Northern Wei rulers conscientiously converge to the culture of Central Plain. This leads Yang Xuanzhi’s approval of the Yuanwei orthodox ideology-he praised the magnificence of the Buddhist temples in Luoyang. However, Yang also criticized the way that the Northern Wei rulers disregarded financial resources of the people and squandered them on building the temples. This shows Yang’s acceptance of the compliment-satire purpose of Jingdu Dafu. These are the literary background of composing Buddhist temples in Luoyang.The paper also looks into the general cyclopedia and ancient annotations for scattered or lost Luoyang topographic materials, to investigate the literature creation situation in Northern Wei and the academic background of Yang’s creation of Buddhist temples in Luoyang.The paper also focuses on the comparative study of Yang’s Miao Ji and Buddhist temples in Luoyang to compare the genetic relationship between the two texts from four aspects, and analyzes the comprehensive composing background of Buddhist temples in Luoyang.Third, the paper researches on the characters in Buddhist temples in Luoyang. The 204 characters in Buddhist temples in Luoyang are divided into five categories (officials, imperial family, common people, monks and others) to compare with the characters in official history one by one. The paper focuses on the examination of dates of birth and death, native place and official career of the characters in Buddhist temples in Luoyang, and explores the similarities and differences between it and the official history to judge the literature value of Buddhist temples in Luoyang in supplying deficiencies in official history.Fourth, the paper reviews the Buddhist temple in Buddhist temples in Luoyang. The 44 temples mentioned are sorted into five categories:the Buddhist temples in the city, temples to the east of the city, temples to the south of the city, temples to the west of the city and temples to the west of the city. The paper searches, collects and notes descriptions of the same temples in other literature materials, and compares the similarities and differences between the descriptions in Buddhist temples in Luoyang and the ones in other materials to judge the literature value of Buddhist temples in Luoyang in Buddhism history and architectural history.The paper has three appendixes:the first is the record of Buddhist temples in Luoyang of all previous dynasties; the second is the index of academic paper on Buddhist temples in Luoyang.(1958-2014); the third is the collection of related material of Buddhist temples in Luoyang. These three appendixes provide necessary and valuable resources for further study on Buddhist temples in Luoyang.