Talk:Buddhism in China

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The "modern Buddhism" section was renamed "Buddhism in Contemporary China", and it should (in addition to my renaming it) be deleted or almost completely rewritten.

The majority of the section seems to discuss the situation of Buddhists in China, how Buddhism compares to Christianity and/or Communism there...the author digresses almost immediately into speculations and assumptions about the nature other people's assumptions, without delivering any of the basic facts about modern buddhism. (Normal use of the term "modern" engenders expectations of a history extending forward from about 1800; we need a paragraph or two that describes those features of the religion's history. What about the era in which the six schools (Pure Land, Ch'an, etc.) begin to combine with one another?

There's nothing in here about Bodhidharma and Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism at the Shaolin Temple... the fusion of Taoism and Buddhism.. Was this event significant in the overall picture of Buddhism in China, or were the Ch'an practitioners a minor offshoot of mainstream Buddhism? How should this be worked in? Kwertii 21:17, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Current status of the article is way far from complete. Feel free to add those topics into the article. kt2 00:40, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Contents 1 Imperial favour 2 Obscure vs. Highly Regarded 3 A minor inaccuracy 4 Moton and Chufarlan

[edit] Imperial favour

"Buddhist monks enjoyed imperial favour" is inaccurate. There is no single sovereign of the Han dynasty who supported Buddhism systematically in China over a significant period.

A extract from the Zizhi tongjian: "Since the time of the Yongping period [of Emperor Ming: 58-75 AD] there were officials and common people who had practised the arts of Buddhism, but the Son of Heaven himself had never paid them attention. Emperor Huan was the first to give this teaching respect and take a personal interest in the ceremonies. Because of this, the Buddhist doctrines gradually gained influence, and it was for that reason Xiang Kai mentioned them."

Although Emperor Huan was known to have been a worshipper of the Buddha and Laozi, his religious practices were generally criticised by Confucian officials. During his reign a number of shrines in the provinces were destroyed for heretical abuses. Nevertheless, Buddhism probably reached a level of "acceptance" but not "imperial favour" around the 2nd century.

The official Xiang Kai (mentioned in the above extract): "Again, I have heard that sacrifices have been held within the palace to Huang-Lao and the Buddha. Their teachings are those of purity and emptiness, with particular emphasis on action only in accordance with the way. They love life and hate killing, they eliminate desires and reject ostentation."

--Jie 04:21, 25 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Obscure vs. Highly Regarded

This is a fairly drastic edit. I will be fact-checking this. Could the editor possibly give a reference? Knexfreak111 17:55, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A minor inaccuracy

I am not an expert on translation, but even from primary school I learned the "Yuezhi"(liberally) should be pronounced as "Rouzhi" which is closer to its origin. Perhaps this linguistic legacy is better passed on than left into oblivion.

Comment: This is already discussed in the article on Yuezhi, which is probably a more appropriate place. P345 17:44, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Moton and Chufarlan

Can anyone provide a justification for these two names? The Wikipedia standard is Hanyu Pinyin, in which case the names should be transliterated as Moteng and Zhu Falan (since Zhu is an ethnonym which was treated as a surname in classical Chinese usage, it should be separate from the rest of the name). I am unable to discover the source of "Moton and Chufarlan" though I suspect the old French EFEO romanization system; many English-language Web usages seem to mirror Wikipedia. I don't want to cut them out if there is a reason to keep them -- can anybody provide one? Meiruo 03:05, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

In the absence of any response to this, have gone ahead and changed the page to reflect the pinyin standard Meiruo 00:44, 6 January 2007 (UTC)