The Communications Of East Asian Buddhism In The Middle Of 10^thCentury

Buddhist communication is an important part of East Asian cultural communications.Studying the communications of East Asian Buddhism will help us deepen the understanding of the history of East Asian Buddhism and the understanding of the history of political,economic and cultural communications between East Asian countries.In the middle of 10th century,Chinese Buddhism,which experienced the difficulties of the opposition of Buddhism from 842 to 846 and the wars during the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties,fell from a very high to a low point,while Wuyue,the so-called "Southeastern Buddhist Nation" located on the eastern coast of China,developed its Buddhism culture.Wuyue had played an important role in the communication of East Asian Buddhism during this period.The export of the metal Ashoka-pagodas made by the king of Wuyue added new content to Buddhism of Japan and Goryeo.The copies of classics of Tiantai School,which were returned from Japan and Goryeo,brought hope for the revival of Chinese Buddhism.The book Four Teachings of Tiantai Schoo/written by Goryeo's bhiksu Chekwan is a significant achievement of East Asian Buddhist communications.This series of Buddhist communications had a profound impact on the development of East Asian Buddhism.The first chapter of this thesis is introduction,which introduces the motivation and purpose of this research,then summarizes the domestic and international relevant achievements,and finally explains the significance of the works done in this thesis.The second chapter focuses on the metal Ashoka-pagodas made by Qian Hongchu,the last king of Wuyue.In this part,I analyzed these pagodas' Buddhist and political implications in details and investigated their roles and influences in the communications of East Asian Buddhism at that time.The third chapter looks at the history of which Qian Hongchu sought the lost classics of Tiantai School abroad.Based on the historical background and communications between East Asian countries,I compared and analyzed relevant historical documents,and showed the fact that Qian Hongchu had sent the request for the copies to Goryeo.In the fourth chapter,I focused on the achievements of Goryeo's bhiksu Chekwan,who brought the copies of lost classics of Tiantai School to China.Firstly,I discussed the identity and mission of this great bhiksu,then I turned to his book Four Teachings of Tiantai School and researched the meaning of coming of Chekwan to the development of East Asian Buddhism.The conclusion part takes the contents of this study as examples to discuss the significance and value of communications of East Asian Buddhism.Overall,there are two innovations in this thesis.The first one is breaking the limitations of academic fields when we are studying the metal Ashoka-pagodas.By investigating the delivery of metal Ashoka-pagodas,we can see the circumstance of communications of East Asian countries in the middle of 10th century.The other one is analyzing big events of Buddhist communications with regional perspective of East Asia.This method can help us to know the achievements of communications and interactions of East Asian Buddhism at that time.