Emperor Wudi Of China Buddhism Impact Study

Buddhism in China made a further progress during the Southern and Northern Dynasties with the boom in the numbers of eminent monk and the translation of sutra. On that reason, Buddhism belief had already spread over various stratums, which changed the attachments on Confucianism and Taoism in spreading. This situation also gradually deepened the conflicts between Buddhism and Chinese traditional culture, but finally fused them.Most dominators in the Southern and Northern Dynasties believed in Buddhism, especially Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiaoyan, who was bent on the inner reform of the Buddhism, even sacrificed himself to it, made himself an Emperor Bodhisattva in his country. During his domination, he was involved into the research of the three sects----Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, to get them into fusion. With his effort, the Buddhism finally took in traditional ghosts and gods’ideas, filial piety thoughts as well as the etiquette system, which accelerated its localization. Among all the contributions to localization Xiao had made, the followings are primary:Firstly, the attempts of relationship between Buddhism and royalty had strengthened the fusion of Buddha dharma and the law, as well as the restriction with each other, which had also intensified the attachment to royalty.Secondly, his effort to fuse three sects had facilitated Buddhism to assimilate the other two ideas, which laid a foundation for sinicizing Buddhism.Thirdly, the reform of the organizational systems in Buddhism disciplines and Ritual practice had changed the forms of living and activities.Based on historical materials of the Southern Dynasty and Xiao’s lifetime, this article strives to combing his impacts on Chinese Buddhism according to the analysis of his policies and measures in detail.The first chapter mainly analyses Xiao’s influences on relationship between Buddhism and royalty, including his image of wheel turning sage king shaped by upholding the Bodhisattva Precepts, sacrificing himself to temple, sermoning others in person and hosting Dharma assembly; his effort of establishing Jian Kang Mission with the royal power, setting up the system of hiring monks, improving the system of Buddhism officials, commanding the development of Buddhism; his policies of using national power to build temples and Buddha and to compile the Buddhist sutras, which initiated the source of collection of sutras by nation, and also helped to bring about the Golden age of Buddhism.The second chapter does a research on Xiao’s impacts on relations among Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. It first separately summarizes how the emperor influenced the development of Confucianism and Taoism. As we’ve talked in the article, Xiao had contributed to the revival of the study of Confucian classics, the progress of filial piety and the specification of system of rites and music in the first aspect. Otherwise, his early belief in Taoism and intimacy with Tao Hongjing indeed helped the development of Taoism. Then the test explores Xiao’s endeavor on the fusion of three sects in depth, including assimilating the theory of human nature, utilizing Confucian classics, accepting the filial piety concept of Confucianism. Even assimilating the thoughts called increasing longevity of Taoism.The third chapter mainly talks about Xiao’s influences on Buddhism disciplines and Ritual practice, which includes some measures like organizing to edit disciplines, promoting Bodhisattva Precepts, taking in the forbidden rules of eating meat and drinking, improving repentance, creating rites and developing Buddhist music.The last part is the conclusion of this article, which discusses the different impacts that the Emperor Wu of Liang had made on Chinese Buddhism, and the relations between the impacts and localization. This part also discusses how to balance Buddhism and politics nowadays, how to bring the social functions into play and the way to promote Buddhism career in our social lives.