Study. Tang Dynasty Relics

The faith of Buddha relic in China, with the introduction of Buddhism gradually formed, and also had a major impact on the development of Buddhism in China. The worship of relic opened a door on the spread of Buddhism in China. Buddhism gradually took root, sprouted, until the Tang Dynasty to bear the fruits of a magnificent culture. Tang Dynasty was an important period of Buddha relic development in China, from emperors to the civilian population, they had has a very high enthusiasm about relic worship, so that the development of Buddhism reached a new climax. In 1987, Famen Temple excavated Buddha's finger bone relic, attracting broad attention of the scholars. Recent decades, with the development of archaeological excavations, excavated a large number of Stupa and underground palaces, and provided a great deal of physical information for our research. The comprehensive and integral·studies on Buddha relic of Tang Dynasty not only help people have a basic knowledge about the meaning and type of Buddha relic, but also has played important role on the study of history of Tang Dynasty and religious history. In this article, we make "Buddha relic of Tang Dynasty" as the research object, from four aspects to carry out the depth research on the Buddha relic of the Tang Dynasty.PartⅠ: The connotation and extension of Buddha relic. Relic translates from Sanskrit "Sarira", which means body bone. Originally, it's only Buddha relic, which is divided into bone relic, meat relic and hair relic. With the passage of time, the scope of relic gradually expanded, the remains of a higher moral monk we also called relic. As a result of the limited number of Buddha relic and the widespread needs of Buddhism, the substitutes of Buddha relic have appeared. In this article, the only explanation of relic is the Buddha relic and its alternatives.PartⅡ: The origins, the spread situations and the distribution of Buddha relic. Large number of Buddha relic in Tang Dynasty, and the origin is also different. Generally, they can be divided into two major categories, imported from overseas and appeared from telepathy. In Theory, Buddha relic originated from India, or took by the Indian or Western monks from India, or brought back by the Chinese monks from India or the Western Regions. However, along with the need for the faith of Buddha relic in China, there have been some substitutes, which appeared magically. As a result of Buddha relic appeared from the different dynasties, some relic had experienced a number of dynasties, until the Tang Dynasty, they also had been preserved. While others appeared in Sui or Tang Dynasty. Some Buddha relic appeared earlier, there are a variety of legends in the course of its spread, so that the situations of Buddha relic become blurred, and this also bring some difficulties to our research. In addition, the appearance of some relic is magical, it's difficult to make the right judgments about the nature of relic. In Tang Dynasty, the distribution of Buddha relic is a wider scope, and the quantity of Buddha relic in the North more than the Southern, and the Buddha relic relatively concentrated in some areas. In Northern, the capital as the center, radiated to Northeaster, Luoyang and Taiyuan are relatively dense zone. In Southern, Buddha relic mainly concentrated in Yizhou and Jiangnan Suhang.PartⅢ: The main types and nature of Buddha relic. Buddha relic is divided into real and artificial. According to the specific shape can be divided into Buddha's finger, Buddha's tooth and bead-like relic, and so on. After the cremation of Buddha's body, from the ashes, finding part of the head bone, two scapula, four teeth, a middle phalangeal, some hair and a large number of bead-like relic, which are called real relic, believed by the Buddhists. Due to the number of Buddha relic limited, can not meet the widespread needs of Buddhism, the substitutes of Buddha relic have appeared. This has been confirmed from the archaeological.excavations. Indeed, many of artificial relic exists in the underground palace of Tang Dynasty, and the texture of substitutes are very rich, some are gold, silver, glass, crystal, agate and other precious treasures, and some are animal bones, herbs, bamboo root ganglion, sand, and so on. In addition, the types of artificial relic varies, some look like the Buddha's finger, some look like the Buddha's tooth, while others are like bead-like relic, and so on. However, these factors will not affect the Buddhists worship of the relic.PartⅣ: The faith of Buddha relic and its impact on social life in Tang Dynasty. The faith of Buddha relic reach out all the groups, form a large group of believers. The emperor as the center of this group, from top to bottom, run through all layers of society in Tang Dynasty. In the course of worship, gradually formed a series of processes and norms—hide under the ground, the course of welcome and farewell, people's support, which have Chinese characteristics. Large-scale religious activities had a certain impact on the political, economic, cultural and other fields, some effects are positive, others are negative.The main innovation of this article is that we collect a large volume of valuable information from a large number of Buddhism books and other books of Tang Dynasty, and carry out in-depth discussions and the overall research about the type and distribution of Buddha relic in Tang Dynasty, and then explain the social impact of the faith of Buddha relic. In addition, we find out the generations and differences of Buddha relic. This is not only an important academic value, but also the study has a profound practical significance in China today.