Exploration And Discussion Of Worship For Buddhism Empress Dowager CiSheng Li In WanLi Years

In the past few years, the study of society in the later Ming Dynasty was gradually increasing, which had led the upsurge of studying Buddhism of the later Ming Dynasty. The scholars discussed the Buddhism of later Ming from different aspects, which enable us to have deeper understandings. Empress Dowager CiSheng played an important role in Buddhism of Later Ming Dynasty, but her activities about believing in Buddha have not been expounded systemically, so this article is mainly talking about this question.The first chapter will briefly introduce the closed relation between the Buddhism and the Chinese emperors since it was introduced into China until the Ming Dynasty. Although Buddhism had entered the so-called decline times, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty still respected and believed Buddhism, they constituted the policies which are advantageous to the development of Buddhism. There was full of the religious atmosphere in Forbidden City, the tradition of believing in the Buddha provided many advantages. In the WanLi years, CiSheng was respected as the"Huang Taihou", and she had been making use of the superior condition of inside and outside the Imperial family to launch the movement of believing in Buddha lasting for more than 40 years.The next four chapters are the main parts of this article,which could be divided into Initial stage, the early period of middle stage, the later period of middle stage and later stage. The activities of beliving in Buddhism of CiSheng will be discussed respectively.The period from the first year to 14th year in WanLi is the first stage of CiSheng's worship for Buddhism. At that time the main honoring movement was in Beijing, which was also a character of her Buddha honoring. The article discusses the issue from two aspects that include building Buddhist temples and the communication with Buddhist. The time clue of this stage is quite clear so the article is based on it. The activities were going on and the situation of inside and outside the palace changed, the scale of worship for Buddhism gradually enlarged, and she didn't only construct the temples and the donation didn't belong to the temple Buddhist priest. The 14th year of WanLi, CiSheng proclaimed and executed DaZangjing that had already been printed. It indicated that the movement of her worship for Buddhism was entering in the thorough stage.It was the turning point to promulgate DaZangjing, worship for Buddhism had expand the Famous mountains and temples, which made Buddhism's revivals in these places. But the monks that associated with her also further increased, and the relationship was closer than the preceding stage. At that time some eminent monks such as Hanshan, Zhenke and so on positively advocated, they constructed the Buddhism vigorous development prosperous aspect together. The article has carried on the textual research on its situation.When the worship for Buddhism was in the progress smoothly time, political situation changed in the 23rd year of WanLi. The WanLi years contend for a crown prince towards the foundations, CiSheng and ShengZong didn't agree each other about the crown prince question. It caused Hanshan to be involved in, he became the political sacrificial victim to be sent to Guangzhou. This event had the bad influence on Buddhism, simultaneously also affected CiSheng's worship for Buddhism. At the same time, because three big wars in WanLi years that costed excessively much, the royal government's finance was in difficulty, which led CiSheng's worship for Buddhism into the quiet time. It hadn't been changed until about the 27th year of WanLi, and CiSheng seized the opportunity to push the worship for Buddhsim into the high tide. The worship for Buddhism in the later period of WanLi years was the high point, The center was the famous mountains and temples which were outside Capital. At the same time, CiSheng started to build a lot of buddhist temples, and donated ample granting to every leaders of temples, the scope was broader than the former. Sichuan Omei, Shanxi Wutai mountain and South China Sea Puto so on, because their reputations were remarkable all the time, received special favored treatment, so they took on prosperous aspect which was unusual.After two high points of worship for Buddhism, about the WanLi 35th year, CiSheng's started to restrain her activities. Her worship for Buddhism entered into epilogue. In last chapter, in the later period of WanLi, GuimaoYuanYu, Buddhism's significant event, is analysed. Zhenke was victim of the political struggle. This matter became the turning point that Buddhism'reviver finished in later Ming. But this didn't have worse influence. Along with CiSheng dying in Wanli 42ed year, Her worship for Buddhism acivities was finished. Several years later, the ShenZong still carried on some Buddhism activities for commemorating his mother.The last part of this article appraised the influence that CiSheng had on Buddhism. She made the political context loose that had provided the powerful political condition for Buddhism's developement and pushed Buddhism into the revival together with the Buddhist priests and laymen person. At the same time, the article also analyzed why the CiSheng worshiped for Buddhism, which will make the CiSheng's image more clearly.