Buddhist Protect The Country Thought

Religion and Politics are two major co-existence social phenomenon of human society, the Buddhist thought of protecting country is the positive product in the process of Buddhism dealing the relations with politics, thus research on this subject has an important academic and social value.Many Buddhist scriptures appear the word "protecting country", overall, "protecting country" in the Buddhist scriptures not only refers to king and the ruling group, also includes country and people, the main ways it protect the country are "gods protecting", "Dharani protecting" and "Saddharma protecting", moreover "protecting country" also appear widespread in the Buddhist scriptures as appellation nouns. Contemporary scholars have defined the concept of "protecting country" at different perspective, on this basis, I think that the concept of "protecting country" have the broad and narrow sense. In the narrow sense, "protecting country" means that Buddhism stand on the religion position, through the Buddhist gods and specific religious activities to maintain the rule of secular power; broad sense of "protecting country" not only refer to that Buddhism maintain the interests of secular regime, but also means that Buddhism protect the land and all living creatures. What the Buddhist thought of protecting country essentially reflect is that religion service politics.The Buddhist thought of protecting country germinated in India, but highlighted and developed in China, the situation have been determined by ancient church-state relations between China and India. Ancient India is a religious society, religious right is often higher than the secular monarchy, on the contrary, China has always been a political society, religion has always been under royalty. The formation and development of the Buddhist thought of protecting country in China is a product that Indian Buddhism came to China and continued to adapt to Chinese society, it is not only the result that Buddhism compromise and yield to politics, but also the result that Buddhism mix the thought of Confucianism and Taoism. To Buddhism own thought resources, the idea of protecting country is closely related to the Mahayana Bodhisattva practicing thought, gratitude thoughts. Look to the history process that the Buddhist thought of protecting country developed in China, the Wei-Jin-south-north Dynasties is the period of its establishment and development, the Sui and Tang Dynasties is its peak period,after the Song Dynasty is the period of consolidation, in modern times is its new period of development."Sutra of Golden Light" is the most representative protecting country scriptures of the Mahayana Buddhism, it was established before the mid-3rd century AD in ancient India, but its content is constantly expanded with the times. "Sutra of Golden Light" had been translated into many languages, widely circulated in Central Asia, China and the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The translation of this in the history was called of the "Five translations and six versions", only three have been preserved, there are the Bei Liang Dynasty Tan Wuchen version of four volumes, the Sui Dynasty Guibao version of eight volumes, the Tang Dynasty YiJing version of ten volumes, compare to the three Chinese Translation, we can find that its items, the number of content and Dharani are increasing with the times, which confirms its original Sanskrit had a constant process of expansion. Since the "Sutra of Golden Light" has been translated into Chinese, the ancient monks and scholars continue to study and comment it, the commentaries up to dozens, we can see the the important status and deep influence.To its ideological content, the "Sutra of Golden Light" is not only a collection of Buddha long-lived immeasurable theory,Trikaya theory, Confess crime theory, Nirvana theory, Shunya theory, protecting country thought, and other important principles of Mahayana Buddhism, on the interpretation of the content, it also incorporates the thought of Theravada Buddhism, so it be described as "rich content, fit the other scriptures", which is the reason why it be called "king of the scriptures". "Protecting country" in the "Sutra of Golden Light" not only refers to the support of the king as a ruler and the royal family, also includes support for the survival of all living things and the land where sentient beings live. When the "Sutra of Golden Light" elucidates the thought of "protecting country", first highlight the most excellent status of this scripture as foreshadowing, highlight its excellent function of protecting the country and people, and then put the four Deva-kings to the core of protecting country and specifically addressed by the theory of saddharma governing the social as extension. There are three characteristics of the protecting country thought of the "Sutra of Golden Light":First, the object which be protected is extremely broad; Second, the way from which people get the protection is very convenient; Third, it highlights the most important role and function that king play in protecting country and have a strong humanistic color and some political reason.The Buddhist thought of protecting country have a long history and huge impact, wide implications of it reflected in three aspects:First, "Sutra of Golden Light" as a representing scriptures of protecting country widespread and have lasting impact; Second, Buddhist thought of protecting country also spread remotely to South Korea, Japan and other places; Third, the Buddhist thought of protecting country influenced Buddhist daily life, customs and even the whole Buddhist culture profoundly and greatly. The formation and development of the Buddhist thought of protecting country influenced not only Buddhism but also Chinese society and culture, in terms of its positive effects:it increases the ability of Buddhism to adapt to the culture, has won the support of the ruling class, but also promote the practices of monk participating in politics, in modern times it produced positive social significance, enriching the Chinese people's patriotism; in terms of its negative effects:it increased the Buddhist "opium" role, to certain extent it also undermine the independence and atmosphere of Buddhism, moreover the extreme protecting country thought may even result serious social disaster.In short, the Buddhist thought of protecting country is a product that Buddhism adapted to Chinese society, "Sutra of Golden Light" is an important Buddhist scriptures basis of it, today its influence still exists, in contemporary it still has important social meaning...