Buddhism

The Expansion of Buddhism

Before its demise in India, Buddhism had already spread throughout Asia. This expansion started at least as early as the time of the emperor Asoka in the 3d century BC. According to tradition, this great monarch, who was himself a convert to Buddhism, actively supported the religion and sought to spread the dharma. He is said to have sent his own son, Mahinda, as a missionary to Sri Lanka (Ceylon). There Buddhism quickly took root and prospered, and the island was to become a stronghold of the Theravada sect. The Pali Canon was first written there in the 1st century BC ; later the island was to be host to the great Theravadin systematizer and commentator Buddhaghosa (5th century AD). Asoka is also said to have sent missionaries to the East to what is now Burma and Thailand. Whatever the truth of this claim, it is clear that by the first several centuries AD, Buddhism, accompanying the spread of Indian culture, had established itself in large areas of Southeast Asia, even as far as Indonesia.
Also, tradition has it that another son of Asoka established a Buddhist kingdom in central Asia. Whether or not this is true, it is clear that in subsequent centuries more missionaries (especially Mahayanists) followed the established trade routes west and north to this region, preaching the dharma as they went.

China

Central Asia was at that time a crossroads of creeds from all parts of Asia and the Near East, and by the 1st century AD Central Asian Buddhist monks were penetrating in turn into China. It is a matter of some debate what was transformed more in this process - China by Buddhism or Buddhism by China. On the one hand, at an early stage, Buddhists became very influential at the Chinese court, and soon their views penetrated the philosophical and literary circles of the gentry. On the other hand, early translators of Buddhist texts often adopted Taoist terminology in an attempt to make the Indian Buddhist concepts more understandable, and Buddhism adapted itself to Chinese world views, in particular to their stress on the importance of the family.
Buddhism in China also saw the rise of new sects, many of which were later transmitted to Japan. In the 6th century, the monk Chih - i consolidated the T'ien - t'ai school, which sought to order all Buddhist teachings into a set hierarchy culminating in the text known as the Lotus Sutra. During the T'ang dynasty (618 - 907), the so called golden age of Chinese Buddhism, the Hua - yen school (based on the teachings of the Avatamsaka sutra), the Fa - hsiang school (which taught Vijnanavada doctrines and was promoted by the great pilgrim and scholar Hsuan - Tsang), and the Ch'an school (better known in Japan as Zen Buddhism) all prospered. At the same time, Pure Land Buddhism became increasingly popular.

By 845, however, the sangha had grown so large and rich that its tax exempt status now made it a severe drain on the empire's economy. For this and other reasons it became the object of a brief but effective imperial persecution. Many temples were destroyed, thousands of monks and nuns were laicized, and the vast landholdings of monasteries were confiscated. Buddhism, especially the Ch'an school, did recover, but it never regained its former prestige in Chinese life.

Japan

Before 845, a number of Chinese schools had been transmitted to Japan. Buddhism was introduced to Japan from Korea about the 6th century and initially established itself as a superior means of magical power, especially for preserving and protecting the nation. Early in its history, it received the patronage of Prince Shotoku (7th century) and during the Nara period (710 - 84) became the state religion.
During the Heian period, in the early 9th century, two monks, Saicho and Kukai, traveled to China and on their return introduced to Japan the Tendai (or Chinese, T'ien - t'ai) sect and the Shingon sect, which was a form of Chinese Tantric Buddhism. Both of these esoteric sects were to take part in the mixing of Buddhism with various Japanese Shinto folk, ascetic, and magical practices.

The Tendai sect, moreover, became a fountainhead of several later popular Japanese Buddhist movements. One of the Tendai's traits was the worship of the Buddha Amida and the belief in his Pure Land. With Honen (1133 - 1212) and Shinran (1173 - 1262), these Pure Land beliefs were systematized and made the exclusive focus of two new, popular sects, the Jodo and the Jodo Shin. Another Tendai trait was emphasis on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. In the 13th century, the monk Nichiren founded a dynamic and nationalistic sect that made the Lotus its sole basis of worship. Finally, it was also in this same period that two schools of Zen Buddhism were introduced from China.

Under the feudal Tokugawa regime (1603 - 1867), all these sects became tools of the government; temples and priests were means of registering, educating, and controlling the populace. In the Meiji era (1868 - 1912), this Buddhist structure was disestablished in favor of Shinto. Finally, during the 20th century, new religious movements within Buddhism, such as the Soka - Gakkai and the Risshokosei - kai, have arisen in response to the problems of the modern age.