Research On Chengguan, The Four Ancestors Of Huayan

As a foreign religion originating in the ancient Indian region,Buddhism had been faced with many cultural and political challenges since it was introduced to China,which mainly showed how to complete the integration of Buddhism and Chinese culture and how to get the cooperation and support of the secular regime.The former relied on the efforts and communication between believers in Buddhism;the latter relied on good communication and interaction between Buddhists and the the secular regime outside.Therefore,to every believer who was interested in practicing Buddhism and spreading Buddhist faith,dealing with his relationship with other Buddhists and the secular regime is an important topic in his life.And in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,Cheng Guan,who is the fourth founder of Huayan Sect,dealt with this kind of relationship best.Cheng Guan,roughly living in a period of the middle and late Tang Dynasty,which is from the last years of Kaiyuan period to Kaicheng period,is one hundred and two virtual years old.This age is also a period when Buddhism and politics changed great in the Tang Dynasty.First of all,with the decline of these sects paying attention to studying Buddhist theoy,including Tiantai Sect,Sanlun Sect,Weishi Sect and Huayan Sect,other sects paying attention to practicing Buddhism,including Zen,Pure-land Sect,Esoteric Buddhism and Vinaya Sect,began to becom strong,and even surpassed the former.Among these sects,Zen,especially its southern sect,paid attention to everyone's inner experience and daily practicing Buddhism,and didn't attach importance to studying Buddhist theoy,even to some extent opposing studying these theories which are expressed by the words of Buddhist classics.This kind of contradiction led to a kind of Buddhist disagreement,which had seriously affected the development of Huayan Sect in China,and become a difficult problem to be solved at that time.Secondly,Cheng Guan experienced the period of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity and stability in Kaiyuan and Tianbao years to the unrest after An-shi Rebellion.This rapid changes in the political situation had seriously affected the relationship between Buddhism and the secular regime,and thus affected the relationship between Cheng Guan and the secular regime.However,despite facing the complex and ever-changing environment of the times,as a man who had decided to dedicate his own life to practicing and spreading Buddhism,Cheng Guan still showed his superior intelligence when he dealt with the relationship between he and other Buddhists,and dealt with the relationship between he and the secular regime.This intelligence not only created a new way to solve the problem of Huayan Sect development at that time,but also very cleverly dealt with the relationship between Cheng Guan and the secular regime,so that Cheng Guan can still get the secular political elite's support in such a sinister and complex political environment,and finally made Huayan Sect come back to activity.It is of great significance to the development of Chinese Buddhism at that time and later.