A Study On The Interaction Between Emperor Yongle And Tibetan Buddhis

Compared with the Yuan Dynasty,Ming China’s way of governing the Tibetan frontier was quite special and manifested itself in the adoption of a “divide and rule”policy by religious and cultural means.The “divide and rule” policy toward the Tibetan area was to some degree tacitly begun in the Hongwu period(1368-1399),but was formulated and perfected during the Yongle period(1403-1424).While also practicing certain forms of Tibetan Buddhism,Emperor Yongle(1360-1424)utilized Tibetan Buddhism to the utmost extent as a means to customize and consummate the“divide and rule” policy,which in turn was to achieve a long-term stability at the Tibetan borderland.The interaction between Yongle and Tibetan Buddhism was not only an important event in the history of Sino-Tibetan relations in the Ming Dynasty,but must also be considered as a significant subject of research for Tibetan studies,frontier studies,Tibetan history in the Ming,Tibetan Buddhism in the Ming,and even the study of Yongle himself.Grounded in the interaction between Yongle and Tibetan Buddhism,the dissertation raises and endeavors to answer the following seven questions:1.Where and when did Yongle become acquainted with Tibetan Buddhism?How did his attitude towards it gradually develop?2.What Tibetan Buddhist activities did Yongle engage in? How are they narrated in the Chinese and Tibetan historical records?3.What are the similarities and differences between the Sino-Tibetan historical record and foreign appraisals,and why did they resonate/collide with each other?4.What were the results of Yongle’s Tibetan Buddhist activities? How did these achievements reflect Yongle’s connection with Tibetan Buddhism?5.Was Tibetan Buddhism Yongle’s only religious belief ? How did Yongle deal with Taoism and Islam? How did he integrate the conflicts and interests amid diverse religions in a confucian society?6.How did Yongle understand the Tibetan area? Based on Tibetan Buddhism,how did Yongle incorporate his religious interests and political considerations into his strategy of managing the Western border region?7.What influence,if any,did the interaction of Yongle with Tibetan Buddhism exert on the Sino-Tibetan relationship,on Sino-Tibetan cultural communication,on the diplomatic relations between the Ming Dynasty and Central Asian countries adjacent to Tibet,as well as on the spread of Tibetan Buddhism?Born in 1360,Yongle was no doubt introduced to Tibetan Buddhism as he was growing up.The social and historical context in which he was born,his courtly education,and later his presumed ambition to be as great an emperor as Tang Taizong(598-649)and Qubilai Qan(1215-1294),in combination,provided Yongle with objective conditions and superior resources for him to get in touch with Tibetan Buddhism in a very personal way.My research shows that Yongle’s understanding of Tibetan Buddhism had exponentially developed during the period of his Beijing fiefdom as Prince of Yan(1370)– he lived in Beijing from 1381-1402.There is evidence that Yongle’s deep interest in esoteric Buddhism,tantra,had alreadybeen present prior to the Fifth Karmapa De bzhin gshegs pa(1383-1415)of the Karma Bka’brgyud school arrived at the Ming Court.In the early days of Yongle’s accession to the throne(1402-1416),he vigorously launched numerous Tibetan Buddhist religious activities in the manner of successively sending emissaries to invite the Karmapa V and Kun dga’ bkra shis(1349-1425,Tsong kha pa Blo bzang grags pa(1357-1419),and also Tsong kha pa’s main teacher Red mda’ ba Gzhon nu blo gros(1349-1413),all of whom belonged to the Sa skya pa school.Almost at the same time,he granted five imperial titles of chos rgyal(fawang)to five Tibetan local chieftains.Tsong kha pa wasn’t able to go to the Han area and sent his disciple Shākya ye shes(1354-1435)instead to fulfill Yongle’s wish.The three Tibetan Lamas performed various kinds of religious activities for Emperor Yongle on a large scale.Yongle also confided to them and corresponded with them through frequent letter writing and gifts bestowing.Having been empowered by these three Lamas,Yongle regularly received tantric teachings that focused among other deities on Amitayus,Mahākāla and Hevajra.This dissertation uses for the very first time Tibetan manuscripts that were preserved in the Nationalities Library of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing.It contains an edict from Yongle to Kun dga’ bkra shis,sixteen letters from Kun dga’ bkra shis to Yongle and his sons,two versions of Kun dga’ bkra shis’ s biography,and it is also based on several other versions digitized by BDRC,and one letter from Red mda’ ba to Yongle.These primary sources are used to analyze the interaction between Yongle and Kun dga’ bkra shis/Red mda’ ba,and seeks to excavate some undisclosed details that will add to previous research.The dissertation includes a discovery that Kun dga’ bkra shis was very motivated to go to the Ming Court and meet Yongle.That was mainly because,as the representative of Sa skya School,he was eager to take back the administrative authority of Sa skya monastery’s towering Lha khang chen mo institution from Phag mo gru rule.As a consequence,Yongle fulfilled his wish by ordering the Phag mo gru ruler to return the administrative authority over this institution to Sa skya monastery.This indicates that the Ming central government exerted absolute leadership over local Tibetan political and religious affairs.While Emperor Yongle routinely embarked on many Tibetan Buddhist religious activities,a large number of Tibetan Buddhist works accordingly came into being.Dividing into three categories: the first category consists of building monasteries and performing Tibetan Buddhist rituals according to Yongle’s imperial decrees,compiling Buddhist scriptures,composing Buddhist songs and prefaces;the second category are the cultural relics resulted from Yongle’s activities related to Tibetan Buddhism,including imperial edicts,decrees,seals,rewards,inscriptions,etc.;the third category is the Tibetan Buddhist art works,such as Tangka,murals,statues and so on.Many of these Tibetan Buddhist achievements have been publicized,but some of them still hang in the air.This research will be the first work to publicize the manuscript of the imperial edict issued by Emperor Yongle to Kun dga’ bgra shis,one letter written from Kun dga’ bgra shis to Emperor Yongle and a letter from Red mda’ ba to Emperor Yongle.Furthermore,by disclosing Red mda’ ba’s letter,this research provokes a new topic to Sino-Tibetan studies,namely the correspondence between Emperor Yongle and Red mda’ ba.Karmapa Scroll is a world-famous cultural relic produced from Yongle’s Buddhist activities.The preceding studies such as Chen Nan’s work The New Examination of Tibetan History and H.E.Richardson’s work The Karma-pa Sect.A Historical Note had studied the Tibetan scripture in Karmapa Scroll.On the ground of both of their accomplishment,this article add new resource,videlicet,History of the Karma bka-’brgyud-pa Section,written by Si tu pa(?) chen chos kyi’ byung gnas(1700-1774),to compare and collate the Tibetan part in Karmapa Scroll.Furthermore,it also juxtaposes Karmapa Scroll and The Imperial Pronouncements on Lamas(Lama Shuo),makes a comparative analysis on the Chinese,Manchu,Tibetan scripture concerning with the Ming Dynasty part in Lama Shuo with Karmapa Scroll.The above argument validates that Emperor Yongle is a devout Tibetan Buddhist.However,historical records in Chinese and Tibetan context shares inconsistent perspectives on Yongle’s Buddhist preference.Overseas scholars also review this issue in different ways.This article grabs and sums up the related historical information from both Chinese and Tibetan historical books,anatomizes the complex relations between them.It finds that Ming literati’s interpretation on Yongle’s worship of Tibetan Buddhism had been consciously and successively whipped into a stereotype mechanism which followed the routine like this: firstly affirm Yongle’s Buddhist interest;then neglect the emperor’s personal Buddhist especially tantric practice in official historical recordings;and then throw light on Yongle’s Tibetan Buddhist actions from political considerations;finally put whatever appertaining to the emperor’s Buddhist behaviors on the coat of traditional Confucianism.However,due to the remote distance between Ming court and Tibet and the inconvenience of transportation,it is inevitable that sometimes Tibetan historians didn’t get to know what exactly happened in the far eastward places.Those who were in charge of taking notes on important historical events are usually lamas residing in monasteries.Morever,some overseas scholars bear special cognition on this issue.American scholar Elliot Sperling held the opinion that Emperor Yongle invited the Fifth Karmapa De bzhin gshegs pa out of sincere religious interest.However it is Ming Dynasty’s economical demand that acted as the key factor for Yongle to invite De bzhin gshegs pa,in order to obtain Tibetan horses to maintain the Ming economy.In response to this,this article combs the horse management during Yongle period,calculates and speculates that the main sources of Ming’s imperial horses in Yongle period are completely independent from Tibetan horses.Yongle’s active contact with Tibetan Lamas carries many more complicated motivations.Based on this,the article continues to investigate how Emperor Yongle reacted to other religions other than Tibetan Buddhism,and compare the different attitudes and measures that he adopted upon Taoism,Islam and Tibetan Buddhism.In Ming Shi Lu it shows that before De bzhin gshegs pa initiated the luxury Buddhist activities in Ling Gu Temple according to Yongle’s own wish,Yongle had already summoned the most esteemed Taoists to perform Taoist rituals for Ming Taizu and Empress Ma.Nonetheless,the scale and degree of rewards for Taoist event is far less large than the Tibetan Buddhist event in Ling Gu Temple in Nanjing.Emperor Yongle did not believe in Islam,but he respected it and also promulgated a number of measures to protect Islam and Muslims.The King of Herat Shah Rokh Mirza(1377-1447)tried to persuade Yongle to convert to Islam.Yongle,albeit refused to convert,still expressed and exchanged friendship with Shah Rokh especially on economical affairs.Yongle and Shah Rokh frequently wrote to each other.The letter An account of Embassies and Letters that passed between the Emperor of China and Sultan Shah Rokh,son of Amir Timur,and the Edict from Emperor Yongle to Shah Rokh in the seventeenth year of Yongle Reign(1419)manifested their intimate friendship.In the midst of this,Chencheng was the most important envoy who contributed to promote and maintain the amicable diplomatic relations between the Ming Dynasty and Herat in Central Asia.Shah Rokh and his son Ulugh Beg(1394-1449)were both chinese silk and porcelain lovers who enacted particular decrees to protect chinese silk and porcelain.Ulugh Beg even built Porcelain House(Chinikhana)to store and display chinese porcelains.In addition to the three religions listed above,Emperor Yongle also employed Confucianism to reconcile the conflicts amid different religions,rendering all the religions to benefit his rulership.It turned out that Tibetan Buddhism exists as a very special position among his multi-belief.To summarize,the study divides Emperor Yongle’s interaction with Tibetan Buddhism into four phases.1.The puberty period in Nanjing and Anhui(1360-1380);2.The fiefdom period in Beijing(1381-1402);3.The peak period highlighted by inviting Tibetan Lamas(1403-1416);4.The last period marked with reflecting and systematically managing Tibetan Buddhism(1417-1424).The dissertation concludes that Emperor Yongle is a devout Tibetan Buddhist.Except for Tibetan Buddhism,he also expressed unstoppable zeal in Taoism.Particularly intriguing is Yongle’s perplexing behaviors committed to the somehow “exotic” Tibetan Buddhism on the one hand and to the native Taoism born and bred thoroughly in China on the other.Nonetheless,he was much more an imperial ruler of the secular world than a religious king chakravartin or the Great Emperor Zhenwu since his rulership was totally guided and operated by Confucianism.As a Chinese ruler who pursued to be a great emperor like Tang Taizong(598-649)and Kublai Khan(1215-1294),Yongle strove in integrating everything possible into his political scheme.Tibetan Buddhism,from the point of political view,is another crucial tactic for Yongle to manage the spacious western borderland affairs.It worked as a powerful leverage for Yongle to hamper the remnant Yuan Mongolia forces from reuniting with Tibetans against Ming Court.In a manner of speaking,except for tea and horse,Tibetan Buddhism should be juxtaposed as the third most dominant element that supports and prolongs harmonious Sino-Tibetan relationship.Even though most literati in the Ming Court embraced some ambiguity on the territory and boundary affairs,Yongle,as the ruler,possessed a strategic foresight of the territory in the Ming Dynasty.Undoubtedly to state,Tibetan Buddhism helped him better understand Tibet.Not only did he pay more attention to Tibetan Buddhism because of his awareness on Tibetan frontier business,but also he paid more attention to the Tibetan frontier administration because of his interest in Tibetan Buddhism,thus he conceived a set of very precise policies toward Tibet.Tibetan Buddhism was mighty in communicating national relations and carrying out great power diplomacy during Yongle period.By means of dispatching Buddhist emissaries,Emperor Yongle opened up lots of diplomatic activities in Central Asia and South Asia.For example,he sent Zhiguang,Houxian to take care of domestic affairs in Tibet and visit countries near Tibetan such as Nepal ect..He sent Buddhist eunuch Zhenghe many times to visit South Asian countries along Indian and Pacific ocean.These Buddhist emissaries especially eunuchs were the somehow private representatives who executed the emperor’s territorial ideas and policies.It was through Houxian and Zhiguang’s mission to Nepal that the Ming Dynasty got to know the kings,aristocrats and local culture of Nepal,simultaneously came to discern the geographical features and customs of Nepal’s adjacent countries.Regions along these diplomatic activities is not only the artery of “the Silk Road of the Plateau”,but also an indispensable part of the the Silk Road on the South Asian corridors.Last but not least,the interaction between Emperor Yongle as a ruler and Tibetan Buddhism has provoked prosperity to Tibetan Buddhism,brought out deep influence to history,and has generated rich enlightening significance to our current governance in Tibet borderland.