2.1. Marco conceptual
2.1.12. Definición de Estrategia
Despite the respect in which the India -returned Chinese scholars were viewed in their own country, including the royal patronage they often received, it is important not to overlook the resistance to Indian - particularly Buddhist - influence that was also widespread in China. The resistance to Buddhism in various periods of Chinese history con tained, among other elements, a strong belief in China's sense of intel lectual invulnerability, and in particular the persuasion that ideas generated outside China could not really be very important. Han Yu, an anti-Buddhist intellectual in the ninth century, who would be much championed later on by Confucians, put the issue starkly in his 'Memorial on Buddhism' written in 8 I9:
The Buddha was of barbarian origin. His language differed from Chinese speech; his clothes were of a different cut; his mouth did not pronounce the prescribed words of the Former Kings; his body was not clad in garments prescribed by the Former Kings. He did not recognize the relationship between prince and subject, nor the sentiments of father and son.
Han Yu even offered an illustrative proof of the wrongness of Buddhist ways:
[Emperor Wu of the Liang] dedicated himself to the service of the Buddha. He refused to use animals in the sacrifices in his own ancestral temple. His single meal a day was limited to fruits and vegetables. In the end he was driven out and died of hunger. His dynasty likewise came to an untimely end. In serving the Buddha he was seeking good fortune, but the disaster that over took him was only the greater. Viewed in the light of this, it is obvious that the Buddha is not worth serving.
Daoist (or Taoist) opposition to Buddhism also had a strong element of Chinese intellectual nationalism and a sense of superior ity of Chinese ways. As it happens, Buddhism and Daoism have many similarities, but that only made the battle even harder, and the issue of temporal priority, too, figured in this conflict. For example, in the early fourth century a Daoist activist, named Wang Fu, wrote a book called Laozi Hua Hu ]ing ( 'The Classic about Lao-tzu's
CHINA AND INDIA
Civilizing the Barbarians'). In this account� Laozi (or Lao-tzu, to use the old but perhaps more familiar spelling), the founder of Daoism (who is normally placed in the third century BCE), was put on an imagined civilizing mission to India, especially to influence Gautama Buddha (who, as it happens, had died a few centuries before Laozi's alleged arrival). Charles Hucker has pithily described this intensely polemical work and the rather bizarre controversy it generated:
[Wang Fu's] basic thesis is that Lao-tzu, on departing China, traveled across Central Asia into India and there either ( r) magically transformed an accom panying disciple into the historic Buddha, (2) converted Buddha to Taoism, or . ( 3 ) became Buddha himself, depending on which version of the text one reads. Buddhists fought this Taoist attack primarily by moving the life of the Buddha back to earlier and earlier times, and Taoists responded in kind by reassigning dates to Lao-tzu. 14
As Leon Hurvitz and Tsai Heng-Ting have discussed, the ques tion, 'Why should a Chinese allow himself to be influenced by Indian ways?' was, in fact, 'one of the objections most frequently raised by Confucians and Daoists once Buddhism had acquired a foothold on Chinese soil'. rs The loss of the central position of China
in the order of things in the world was among the concerns. The Buddhist response took varying forms, but helped to open up some issues of universalist ethics at least in some of the responses to anti Buddhist polemic. Mouzi, a vigorous defender of Buddhism and of the compatibility of the Buddhist outlook with being a good Chinese, even asked the question in his combative Lihao lun ( 'Disposing of Error' ) whether the Chinese should claim to be uniquely central in the world, and articulated a strong claim in favour of Buddhist universalism:
The commentary says, 'The north polar star is in the center of Heaven and to the north of man.' From this one can see that the land of China is not neces sarily situated under the center of Heaven. According to the Buddhist scrip tures, above, below, and all around, all beings containing blood belong to the Buddha-clan. 16
THE ARGUMENTATIVE INDIAN
One of the positive contributions Buddhist connections produced in China is the general sense that even the Chinese must, to some extent, look outwards. Indeed, not only did Buddhism suggest that there were sources of wisdom well outside China, but it also led to the tendency of many Chinese intellectuals to go abroad, in particular to India, in search of enlightenment and understanding. Furthermore, since these visitors to India came back with tales of wonderful things they had seen in India, it was difficult to take an entirely Sino-centric view of world civilization. There were also other admirable sites and achievements they could see on the way to India. For example, Xuanzang in the seventh century marvelled at the gigantic Bamiyan statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan, which he saw as he approached India from the West (on the circuitous route he had taken via Khotan). ��
In fact, some Chinese commentators felt threatened not only by the dilution of China's centrality, but - worse - by the tendency of some Buddhists to take India to be actually more central than China. 17 Even
though India was commonly referred to, at that time, as 'the Western kingdom' (giving China a more central position), the Buddhist per spective tended to favour placing India at the centre of things. For example, Faxian's fifth-century book on his travels described India as 'the Middle kingdom', with China as a frontier country. r s
While all this was intensely irritating for believers in China's centrality, such heterodoxy did bring in a challenge to what would otherwise have been China's monolithic self-centredness. This was certainly a moderating influence on China's insularity, and might even have made an indirect contribution to the interest and enthusiasm with which Chinese mathematicians and astronomers greeted Indian works in these fields (to be discussed presently).
On the other side, Buddhist connections also helped to moderate Indian self-centredness and sense of civilizational exclusiveness. Suspicion of foreigners has been a continuing factor in parts of Indian thinking. Even as late as the eleventh century, Alberuni, the remark able Iranian visitor, in his book Ta�rikh al-hind ( 'The History of India'), complained about the Indian attitude towards foreigners:
·�These were the statues of Buddha that were destroyed recently by the Tali ban, thir teen centuries after Xuanzang wrote eloquently about them.
CHINA AND INDIA
On the whole, there is very little dis
p
uting about theological topics among themselves . . . . On the contrary all their fanaticism is directed against those who do not belong to them - against all foreigners. They call them mleccha, i.e., impure, and forbid having any connection with them, be it by intermar riage or any other kind of relationship, or by sitting, eating, and drinking with them. r9That attitude did receive a challenge from Buddhist universalism and from the fact that Indians became, for many centuries, closely linked to other people through the common bond of a shared religion.
As it happens, despite the spread of Buddhism beyond the borders of India, locally confined Indian Buddhists did not always recognize what a world religion Buddhism was becoming. In the early fifth century, Faxian noted that when he met some Buddhist monks at the Jetavana monastery in India, he was surprised by their sense of uniqueness. The account, in third person, recounts the experience of Faxian and Dao Jing, who had accompanied Faxian:
The crowd of monks came out, and asked them from what kingdom they were come. 'We are come,' they replied, 'from the land of Han. ' 'Strang
e
, ' said the monks with a sigh, 'that men o f a border country should b e able to come here in search of our Law!' Then they said to one another, 'During all the time that we, preceptors and monks, have succeeded to one another, we have never seen men of Han, followers of our system, arrive here.'20-
The reach of Buddhism and the presence of Chinese Buddhists in India would have done something to challenge the tendency to see the world in narrowly Indian terms.
Buddhist educational institutions, particularly that at Nalanda in east India, with many distinguished Chinese and other foreign students, provided a good basis for overcoming that mistrust. The conflicting attitudes came out very sharply at the point of Xuanzang's departure from Nalanda, in the seventh century. The Nalanda estab lishment greatly admired Xuanzang and wanted him to stay on, and they had offered him a leading position in the academic staff there. Xuanzang's disciple Hui Li reports the attempt by the Nalanda academic staff to give a plethora of reasons to persuade Xuanzang to make India his home:
THE ARGUMENTAT IVE IND IAN
The monks of Nalanda, when they heard of it [Xuanzang's plan to return to China] , begged him to remain, saying: 'India is the land of Buddha's birth, and though he has left the world, there are many traces of him . . . . Why then do you wish to leave having come so far? Moreover, China is a country of mlecchas, of unimportant barbarians, who despise the religious and the Faith. That is why Buddha was not born there. The mind of the people is narrow, and their coarseness profound, hence neither saints nor sages go there. The climate is cold and the country rugged - you must think again. 21
To this Xuanzang replied with two counterarguments. The first dis puted the syllogism by invoking Buddhist universalism without questioning the empirical premise: 'Buddha established his doctrine so that it might be diffused to all lands. Who would wish to enjoy it alone, and to forget those who are not yet enlightened?' Xuanzang's second argument disputed the empirical premise about China, in a spirit of national pride, without contradicting his own universalist outlook: .
Besides, in my country the magistrates are clothed with dignity, and the laws are everywhere respected. The emperor is virtuous and the subjects loyal, parents are loving and sons obedient, humanity and justice are highly esteemed, and old men and sages are held in honour . . . . How then can you say that Buddha did not go to my country because of its insignificance?
Xuanzang returned to China in 64 5, but continued his communi cations with India. A few years afterwards he received a letter from his olp friend, Prajfiadeva, from Nalanda, who sent his regards along with those of other Indian friends of Xuanzang, and added:
The Upasakas [students and trainees] always continue to offer their saluta tions to you. We are sending you a pair of white cloths to show that we are not forgetful. The road is long. So do not mind the smallness of the present. We wish you may accept it. As regards the Siitras and the Sastras [Sanskrit texts] which you may require, please send us a list. We will copy them and send them to you.
Xuanzang replied by first noting that he had heard the sad news of the death of one of his teachers in Nalanda, and then by taking up Prajfiadeva's offer to help in sending useful documents from India:
CHINA AND INDIA
I learnt from an ambassador who recently came back from India that the great teacher Silabhadra was no more. This news overwhelmed me with grief that knows no bounds . . . . I should let you know that while crossing the Indus I had lost a load of sacred texts. I now send you a list of the texts annexed to this letter. I request you to send them to me if you get a chance. I am sending some small articles as presents. Please accept them.
Through the normal sorrows and tragedies of human life, the border less engagement in pursuing a common understanding continued. But the foreign contacts generated through Buddhism had, at least temporarily, shamed the self-centred arrogance of some of the leading Indian intellectuals of the time.
The broadening effects of Buddhist connections on the self centredness of both Chinese and Indian intellectuals are among the significant secular consequences of these linkages. They added a psy chological and perceptual dimension to the other - more palpable - secular consequences of Buddhist connections, over such diverse fields as mathematics, astronomy, literature, linguistics, music, fine arts, medicine and public health, which I take up now.