Buddhism and Buddhist Art in the South Under the Eastern Chin (317- 420 A.D.)
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CHAPTER ONE BUDDHISM AND BUDDHIST ART IN THE SOUTH UNDER THE EASTERN CHIN (317- 420 A.D.) The Eastern Chin ,I:! ff was established in 317 A.D. from the remnants of the West ern Chin iffi fi' (265-317). From around 300 A.D. northern China had experienced rapid deterioration of stability. Famine and disorder increased during the final years of the Western Chin during the Yung-chia 7j(. Jl (307-313) and Chien-hsing ~ ~ (313-316) eras, exacerbated by the rival claims for the throne known as the "Dis turbances of the Eight Princes" (pa wang chih luan J\.. I Z. IL). Many people fled south, including the Buddhist monks working in Ch'ang-an and Loyang in the late 3rd century. Dharmarak~a, the great Buddhist translator of the Western Chin period, fled east into Honan from Ch'ang-an, where he had been at the head of a flour ishing community of Buddhists and translators. The weak and unstable conditions encouraged the foreign, "barbarian" ethnic groups of the North, who had long been infiltrating northern China and even had become a major part of the Chinese military, to attempt conquests in parts of northern China. Among the five major barbarian groups (sometimes called nations or nationalities) of the time (Hsiung-nu '6!u ~' Chieh 1', Ti ~, Hsien-pi ff l\! and Ch'iang %), the Hsiung-nu were the most powerful. Liu Yuan j1J ml!, the sinicized leader of the Chieh, a branch of the Hsiung-nu, consolidated his forces and set up a base in northern Shansi. After his death in 310, his successor, Liu Ts'ung j1J Ql, established the "Han" ~ state, and sent his fierce generals Liu Yao ltl PM and Wang Mi .3: ~ to attack Loyang, which fell in 31 l with such devastation and suffering that it is remembered as one of the most infamous massacres in Chinese history. The general Liu Yao then captured Ch'ang-an in 31 l, and, despite a brief rally by Western Chin loyalists, recaptured it in 316. By then Ch'ang-an was a de-populated city of death and destruction. After Liu Ts'ung died in 317, in 319 Liu Yao set up his own dynasty, known as the Former Chao 1ru i1n with its capital in Ch'ang-an (ca. 319-329). In the same year a rival state was established in the northeast by Shih Lo ~ '1 of the Chieh, who had been another of Liu Ts'ung's infamous generals. Shih Lo then destroyed Wang Mi in Loyang and went on to conquer Liu Yao in Ch'ang-an in 328 and set up his own dynasty known as the Later Chao ~ i1n (ca. 329-352). Refugees from the North, especially after 311 and 316, once again poured into 6 CHAPTER ONE the South as they had at the end of the Han dynasty, settling now mainly around Chien-yeh ~ ., renamed Chien-k'ang ~ Jl, the capital city of the Eastern Chin (Map 1.1 and Fig. 1.1 ), which was established by Ssu-ma Jui ii] ~ lfl, formerly the military governor of the Southern provinces since 307 under the Western Chin. 1 Many of the refugee families were of prominent lineages in the North and they now began to exert full power in the government of the Eastern Chin, becoming the virtual rulers for a figurehead emperor. The Wang .:E family from Lang-yeh 3l$ lfl3 (northern Kiangsu) were the most powerful in the opening years of this pe riod; however, it contended with other major families throughout the Eastern Chin period.2 The relative peacefulness of the South at this time as well as the keen intellectual climate which flourished among the aristocrats or "gentry" families fos tered a cultural renaissance and a special character to the Buddhism practiced there. From ca. 350 A.D. the South made some attempts to regain the North, notably the instigations of the Huan ffl clan, which was powerful in the so-called "central provinces" (around the Hupei area), but these were only of sporadic and not of long-lasting success. Later, however, in 383, the Eastern Chin won a stunning up set victory at the Battle of the River Fei against the formidable Fu Chien (r. 357- 385), ruler of the Former Ch'in, at that time virtual master of the North. Though the Eastern Chin was unable to capitalize on their success with further conquests in the North at that time, which was actually in shambles following Fu Chien's defeat and then his death in 385, in 418 Liu Yii, whose star was rising under the Eastern Chin and who would soon make himself the first emperor of the [Liu] Sung Dynasty in 420, took advantage of the weakness of the Later Ch'in (386- 417), conquered Loyang and Ch'ang-an, destroyed the Later Ch'in and occupied Ch'ang-an (with his son as governor) for two years until forced by the Ta Hsia under Ho-lien Po-po to retreat back to the South. The complicated rise and fall of the various dynasties in the North will be detailed in Chapter 2. Meanwhile, in focusing on the South of the Eastern Chin,3 after a brief introduction to the cul tural trends and the place of Buddhism in the South, the study of the literary records concerning Buddhist art will be coordinated in three main chronological phases of Early, Middle and Late periods of Eastern Chin. 1 E. Zurcher, Th£ Buddhist Conquest of China, Leiden, 1959, I, p. 59. 2 While some of the powerful families like the Wang clan ofLang-yeh favored Buddhism, there were also many who were Taoist, particularly believers in T'ien-shih 'R. fili Taoism, such as the clan of Hsi Chien ti! )I from the present-day Tsining area of Shantung. Z. Tsukamoto, A History of F.arly Chinese Buddhism, 2 vols., New York, 1985 (translated by L. Hurvitz), I, pp. 319-320. 3 The northern part ofSzechwan and much ofYi.innan was ruled by the governor ofl-chou from around 304 (as the self-styled emperor from 306) as the state of Ch'eng /£ (304-347). Zurcher ( 1959), I, pp. 58-59. Szechwan was later a battle ground for various dynasties, first conquered by the Eastern Chin in 34 7, and later in the 370's by Fu Chien of the Former Ch'in. .