On The Evolution Of The Religious Beliefs Of The Kushan Kings And Its Primary Reasons

In the introduction of the paper, the author introduces the recent domestic and foreign scholars'research situations about the religion in the Empire Kushan. There are some characters in the research which could be summarized to the two points: the first is that except the Buddhism, others were comparatively not enough; the second is that the researches almost did not probe into the primary reasons in the course of the evolution. In the current level of research, this paper will acquire the both theoretical and realistic significance. Besides, in the introduction, this paper lists the adopted sources: the historical texts, the engraved inscription materials and the coin information. The body of this paper is constructed by three chapters. In the chapter one, this paper makes a general description about the foundation of Empire Kushan and Central Asia's religious background before Empire Kushan. The paper points out that there were two religious background characters in Central Asia before Empire Kushan: one was the diversification of religious beliefs; the other was the convergence during the spread of all kinds of religious beliefs. In the chapter two, this paper comments on the kings of Kushan who transfered their beliefs from Buddhism to ?iva of Hinduism; and the revival of Buddhism;and evolutional traces of other beliefs. From the angle of buildings of Buddism, temples of ?iva, arts of Buddhism, coins, this paper reviews Kushan kings'beliefs. In chapter three, from three aspects of the political, economical and the religious development, this paper reveals historical background of Kushan kings'different religious beliefs. In the end, the conclusion is the evolution of Kushan kings'religious beliefs is the result of the political, economical and religious fusion factors. The political and economical are dominant factors, and religious fusion offers indispensable conditions to this evolution. The conclusion of this paper makes a summary about all opinions in this paper.