Spreading And Influence Of Chinese Buddhism In Xixia

Centered in Xingqing(now Yinchuan in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), the Tanguts which believed in Buddhism founded Xixia Dynasty. The Dynasty had got Chinese Buddhist Tripi.taka sixes times from 1031 to 1073 because of the ruler's believes, and translated them into Tangut characters, most of the existing Buddhist canons in Tangut characters were translated from Chinese. The activities of translating,collating and handing out sūtras later had advanced the spreading and development of Chinese Buddhism in Xixia.The form and development of Tangut Buddhism was influenced by Chinese one greatly. At its beginning, Chinese Buddhism was flourished and influenced the Uighur, Khitans largely. The primal transmitters were mainly from the Uighurs where Chinese Buddhism was popular. It is researched that the Uighur Buddhism is just another Chinese one in the western regions. The famous tangut-character Tripi.taka was based on the Chinese Kaibao Tripi.taka and it was the Uighurs coming from Qoco uighur kingdom where Chinese Buddhism was also popular host the translation activities. This influence decided the early orientation of Xixia Buddhism. In the late period of Xixia, the influence of Chinese Tripi.taka was still great although Tibetan Buddhism was popular.There were many Buddhist sects in Xixia such as Chan, Tiantai,Jingtu,Huayan,Mi and so on which formed in China during the Sui and Tang Dynasties and served as characteristics of Chinese Buddhism not found in Indian Buddhism. Further more, the Wutaishan worshiping was also very popular. All these phenomena can be the convincing evidence of the influence of Chinese Buddhism to Xixia Buddhism.Xixia not only copied lots of Chinese Buddhist canons, but translated certain sūtras from Sanskrit into Chinese. It shows that the demand of Chinese Buddhist texts in the country was large and there must have many learned monks study Chinese sūtras. Under its influence, Xixia Buddhism developed fast and affected the Liao and Jin greatly. When had conflict with Song Dynasty, they often went to Xixia to get Chinese Buddhist Tripi.taka.All the excavated and ancient literatures show the fact that as the Uighur Buddhism, the early Buddhism of Xixia was actually another Chinese one in the west. It was a good example of national culture influenced by Chinese culture. Although there was long hostility between Xixia and the Song Dynasty, the cultural relationship cannot be cut off by war.