Admiring The Medicine King:A Stydy On The Buddhists' Burning Bodies In The Wei,Jin,Southern And Northern Dynasties

Buddhism originated from India had a long-term development in China during the Wei,Jin,Southern and Northern Dynasties.Self-immolation had become a kind of remarkable religious practice among Buddhists and burning bodies was relatively common.In the ancient Indian,there was the phenomenon of burning the body in pagans before Buddhists.This was a part of the tradition of Indian religious asceticism.It was also associated with the fire worship in the India primitive religion.Burning the body was thought to have the effect of eliminating sin and rising to heaven.Sakyamuni also had an ascetic experience before his enlightenment,but the ascetic didn't conform to the "middle way" concept advocated by the Buddha.The Buddhistic discipline prohibits suicide,too.Therefore,burning the body means violating the rules of theTheravada Buddhism.In the early Buddhism,it was not considered as reasonable action.However,with the development and propagation of Buddhism,Buddhism began to absorb a lot of other beliefs in various places and the tantric elements increased gradually.Burning the body and burning the fingers was gradually recognized as a kind of Mahayana Buddhism acition which was promoted in some classics.The chapter "The Original Acts of The Medicine King" in Lotus Sutra was the most important classic of them.The self-immolation reflects the concept of alms in Mahayana Buddhism and burning the body as a body lamp is also a way to support the Buddha.Many examples about burning the body in the Buddhist scriptures only have metaphorical meaning,but this is not understood by Chinese Buddhists who are accustomed to image thinking.They preferred to understand Buddhistic scriptures literally,not to mention that ordinary people did not acquire Buddhistic knowledge through difficult Buddhistic scriptures in ancient China.Before the introduction of Buddhism,there were already narratives about burning bodies to pray for rain that Confucianism acquiesced conditionally.In this context,Buddhists began to compare self-immolation with Confucian ethics such as benevolence,righteousness,loyalty and filial piety.Confucians advocated filial piety and opposed the destruction of the body.The behavior of burning the body and fingers in the Buddhism gradually faded the religious devout meaning and transformd into a kind of folk practice with weak religious color in later generations.This was also one of the Buddhism's localization aspects.Burning the body and fingers in the Buddhism was not the same as the self-ignition in the Taoism.The ideological basis of the two was not consistent.The self-ignition in the Taoism was not as common as burning the body and fingers in the Buddhism,but the Buddhists used some taoist alchemy in the process of burning bodies.The popularity of Buddhists' burning bodies in the Wei,Jin,Southern and Northern Dynasties was closely related to the social conditions of the period.The combination of burning bodies and ascetic practice was a reflection of Buddhistic doctrine understood by the bottom Buddhists.As a kind of symbol,burning the body and fingers was almost one of the features of Buddhists.This kind of practice was associated with politics at the time because of burning bodies' confrontation atmosphere.The Chinese Buddhists' burning the body and fingers behavior had formed a relatively fixed model in the Buddhistic history books.The auspiciousness described in them also showd the great of the Dharma.Burning bodies in the Wei,Jin,Southern and Northern Dynasties was more likely to occur in the margins where Buddhism did not infiltrate deeply,and there was a tendency to transfer to the forest.The burning bodies of the female Buddhists in the Wei,Jin,Southern and Northern Dynasties reflectd the activeness of female Buddhists during this period.With the strengthen of theautocratic imperial power,the secular regime was afraid of the actions such as burning bodies to gather people and the suppression measures had become more strict.However,with the weaken of Chinese Buddhism 's philosophical interest since the late Tang Dynasty,the burning bodies in Buddhists had not diminished,and it had become a part of popular Buddhism that combined with folk beliefs.Burning bodies reflects the indifference to the Buddhistic theory.Since the main body of Chinese Buddhism lied in theeminent monks'Buddhism,burning dodies did not achieve complete legitimacy inside and outside Buddhism.It is not appropriate to overestimate burning bodies in Chinese Buddhism.