CAF dataset

The Toba Wei remained in power until 534 A.D. Their kingdom was then divided into two states, the Eastern Wei (534-550 A.D.) and the Western Wei (535-557 A.D.), with capitals at Yeh and Chang-an respectively. These in turn were replaced by the Northern Chi (550-577 A.D.), with Yeh as the capital, and by the Northern Zhou (557-581 A.D.), with Chang-an as capital. Both were of non-Chinese origin‖ (Singhal 1984:57).

The political power of the Northern Zhou (557-581 A.D.) separated from the Western Wei and lasted a brief period—twenty-four years—until Emperor Wen (Yang Jian), finally unified the country in 589 A.D. under the Sui Dynasty. Even though the early imperial households of the Northern Zhou warred against each other, they continued to pursue various Buddhist activities such as carving statues, building temples, recopying

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sutras, supporting monasteries, and recruiting new members. Buddhism continued to grow, flourishing because of the imperial household‘s two meditating masters, Taozhen

道臻 (Daoxuan 1927:631b) and Tanyan 曇延 (Daoxuan 1927:488c), who were appointed as national Sangha officers to manage the monastic communities. Later, during the regime of the third emperor of the Northern Zhou, Emperor Wu, two doctrine masters, Sengshi僧實 (Daoxuan 1927:558a) and Tanchong 曇崇 (Daoxuan 1927:568a-b), were appointed to be provincial Sangha officers. Both the national Sangha officer and the provincial Sangha officer managed the national and provincial monastic systems and formulated rules for monks and nuns to obey.

Emperor Wu seized power and was crowned in 560 A.D. In 565 he commended Huangfu Xia 皇甫遐for his diligent spirit and filial piety. According to Zhoushu (the History of the Northern Zhou), Linghu Defen (583-666 A.D.) recorded that Huangfu Xia lost his father when he was young, but he took good care of his mother. When his mother died, he built a thatched cottage just south of his mother‘s grave (Linghu 1996:832).

Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou carried out the second imperial persecution of Buddhism between 574 and 577 A.D. Earlier, in 567 A.D., Wei Yuanseng, a Taoist priest, submitted a written statement to Emperor Wu prohibiting the building of new temples because he thought that too many Buddhist temples affected the interests of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. This statement proved to be influential later when Emperor Wu wanted to suppress Buddhism (Daoxuan 1927:132b).

From 569 to 570 A.D. the emperor held religious debates five times. However, he could not decide which religion, Confucianism, Buddhism, or Taoism, was the best.

After a seventh debate in 573 A.D., he gave priority to Confucianism (Lingfu 1996:83).

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The next year, for the first time in the Northern Zhou, Emperor Wu devastatingly suppressed Buddhism and Taoism.

According to the Biography of the Emperor Wu, it is written that ―First, the Emperor Wu restrained Buddhism and Taoism. Buddhist and Taoist scriptures and images were also to be destroyed. Buddhist and Taoist monks were to return to the laity‖

(Zhipan 1927:358c; Lingfu 1996:85) because he wanted to make the country rich and build up its military power in order to unify the south and the north. As time went on, a second round of persecution focused on Buddhism only. This was in 577 A.D., after Emperor Wu took over the Northern Qi (Yu 1984:182). This time Emperor Wu destroyed Buddhist scriptures and images in the whole empire of the Northern Qi, and about three million monks and nuns returned to the laity (Zhipan 1927:358c). Following the death of Emperor Wu, in the next year, persecution of Buddhism drew to a close.

Thereafter, when Emperor Xuan was crowned in 579 A.D., many Buddhists promoted the restoration of Buddhism.

Buddhism was suppressed by Emperor Wu because he believed doctrines of Confucianism to be fundamentally opposed to Buddhism. He believed that monks, who deviated from their filial obligations by leaving their parents and entering a religious life, could not carry out their ordinary duties, including caring for the sick and aged, and worshiping their ancestors. Therefore, Emperor Wu forced the monks to return home.

Everything, according to Emperor Wu, indicated that Buddhism was useless for his country (Daoxuan 1927:153b). Huiyuan (523-592 A.D.) refuted the criticism of Emperor Wu about the behavior of monks and pointed out that ―we established our character by the practice of religious actions that glorify our parents. Therefore, we practice the virtue

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of filial piety‖²⁶ (Daoxuan 1927:153c). Thus, when monks renounced the secular world and awakened to the truth that guided all people to enlightenment, they could truly repay all obligations to their parents and others.

Two examples were quoted by Huiyuan in ―the story of Moggallana,‖ about a Buddhist monk who rescued his mother from the condemnation of a hungry ghost for her unjust life, and ―the story of the Buddha,‖ who carried the coffin of his father to the burial place (Daoxuan 1927:153c). Another story, advocating filial piety, is that of Shanzi, a filial son who spent his entire life helping his blind parents to live reclusive lives in the mountains. This tale appeared in the Sutra of Shanzi (Shengjian 1924:438b-440a).

During this period Buddhists determined that filial piety was the central dogma of all Chinese social life. Thereafter, these stories became elements of Buddhist scripture, as well as popular tales depicted at the Mogao caves and other Buddhist caves in China.

These tales thus became a central part of the Buddhist tradition in China. Chen stated that Chinese Buddhism developed three ideas concerning filial piety:

First by pointing out the numerous sutras in the Buddhist scriptures which stress filial piety; second by forging a body of apocryphal literature which emphasizes piety as a central theme; and third, by contending that the Buddhist concept of filial piety was superior to that of the Confucians in that it aimed at universal salvation…, while the Confucian piety was limited to just one family.

Chen 1973:18