The Care For Folk Of Dun-Huang Buddhism In The 9～(th) And 10～(th) Century

In the late Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties, the inland Buddhism was inclined to decline, while the Buddhism in Dun-Huang region was at the zenith of its development. During the period of government of Tibet and Gui-Yi-Jun, that is, around the 9th and 10th century, to some extent Dun-Huang Buddhism deviated from the track of inland Buddhism, emerging an alienation- Tibetanization and an tendency to be native in culture of Dun-Huang Buddha. Under the complete control of alien race, it is unavoidable that Dun-Huang Buddhism is deeply influenced by Tibetan culture. During the period of Gui-Yi-Jun, all the successive governors were obedient to the inland Dynasties, however, because of the turbulent political situation and inconvenient transportation, the communication with the inland areas is very limited, therefore, in a large sense the regime of Gui-Yi-Jun is independent and closed. So did the development of Buddhism culture, it formed a unique regional feature, inconsistent with the inland Buddhism and even deviated from the religious discipline.Due to the deviation from Buddhism, generally people have a negative and critical attitude towards Dun-Huang Buddhism. But while consulting the Dun-Huang documents, we may notice an irrefutable fact that Dun-Huang Buddhism circle had made great contributions to the people's life and social stabilization in Dun-Huang area. First of all, the Buddhism circle took an active part in the activities of charity and public welfare.By way of medical care to relieve the suffering of the patients, building the bridge, the road and water conservancy facilities, harnessing the flood, and digging wells etc., the disciples practiced those activities so that people could have a better living condition. Then, the monastery, through relief, helped people pull through their hard times. On the basis of the previous study results, this paper will make an attempt to discuss objectively about the interest of loan, and holds that in the prevalence of the usurious loan, the Buddhism monastery still provided interest-free loan for the local people. Meanwhile, for some various reasons, sometimes monastery offered loan with interest at that time.