An article from the website: https://www.sohu.com/a/241352091_772510 with an automatic translation into English by Google Translator.
“Chen Dacong (Chen Cong) 陈大葱（陈聪), graduated from the Chinese Department of Fudan University in 1985, senior media person (for a long time serving as deputy editor-in-chief of Chongqing Evening News and editor-in-chief of Urban Hot News), collectors connoisseur (the ancient art in the Bashu area is well-known in Tibetan circles, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the key book of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan “Chinese Folk Collection of Ceramics · Southwest Volume”), independent cultural scholar (general consultant of Chongqing Shanzai Cultural Media Company).
History with Material Evidence: The History of Buddhism in Han Dynasty Begins in Bashu
“For me, the happiest thing to do in a museum is to let a forgotten and silent exhibit find my persuasive power back.” (Thomas Hoven “Let the Mummy Dance”)
According to textbooks, Buddhism was introduced to the Central Plains in the Han Dynasty via the Western Regions (now Xinjiang) Silk Road, and then spread to the east and southwest. The earliest Han Buddhist statues appeared in the Sixteen Kingdoms period (about the beginning of the fourth century); After the decline of sculpture activities in the late Tang Dynasty, the Bashu area continued the glorious chapter of the latter half.
Is this really the case? No! Because:
As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were Buddha statues in the Bashu area (now Sichuan-Chongqing area), and there were still a lot of them. About two hundred years later, when the Buddha statue was spreading in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there was no shadow in the north.
The existence of Buddha statues is the most intuitive and powerful evidence for the introduction of Buddhism.
For future generations to learn about the past, they can only rely on legends before there are words; with words, it seems that they can read history books.
In theory, the history of writing can avoid the uncertainty caused by memory errors; but such a determination can only be reflected in the continuity of the sequence of dynasty changes, and cannot guarantee the authenticity of historical facts.
In essence, like myths and legends, the history of writing in any language is selective memory. Fortunately, there is scientific archaeology in later generations. Archaeology can make up for this regret to a certain extent.
Religion is a reflection, struggle, and attempt to redeem human nature. This is a long and arduous process. The farther you look back, the more you can perceive the original intention of the sages with great wisdom to save the people from suffering.
Is there any way that we can break through the finiteness of life and free us from the sense of disillusion that “everything has a dead time”? no. Life and death are not originally an academic issue. But human beings have not given up their futile efforts.
Concerned about the remains of the Eastern Han Buddha statues in the Sichuan-Chongqing area and pondering the history of Buddha statues for many years, they have been silent. I’m afraid of rushing into this long river of history and falling into an academic whirlpool that is difficult to extricate myself; at the same time, I’m also afraid of being washed away by time and the flow of time to take away the responsibility of doing my part, and diminish the persistence that remains in my heart.
Buddhism originated in India and developed in China. It is of great significance to clarify the process of dissemination to China, both in the study of Buddhism and Buddhist statues, or in tracing the blending of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in China.
1. What did the original Buddha statue look like?
Before entering the topic, it is necessary to review the origins of Buddhism and Buddha statues.
Buddhism was founded in ancient India in the 6th-5th centuries BC. However, early Buddhism did not have the practice of worshiping Buddha statues, and even had the rule of “not expressing the Buddha”. The worship of Buddha statues only came into being five hundred years after Sakyamuni’s death. It was not until the 1st century AD when King Guishuang became the ruler of Peshawar that a true Buddha statue appeared in the art of Gandhara for the first time. In the previous centuries, Buddhist art only used symbols such as the Bodhi tree, pedestal, Dharma wheel, and foot prints to imply the existence of the Buddha.
The significant development of the Gandhara Buddha statue is closely related to the emperor worship and portrait tradition of the Kushan Dynasty. Among Buddhists, the notion of deifying Sakyamuni is very strong, and the Buddha is compared to the revolver holy king.
Schematic diagram of the territory of the Guishuang Empire
The earliest Buddhist station recognized by the international academic circle looks like this:
Gold coin of Kagasega I (79 AD). On the front is the statue of the king and the back is the statue of the Buddha. In addition to giving people a sense of security with the fearless seal gesture, the eyes of the Gandhara Buddha statue are half-open and half-closed, in order to attract worshipers to explore the inner spirit of the Buddha. world.
However, the Japanese scholar Mr. Miyajiaki believes that the transformation from Sakyamuni Buddha to Sakyamuni Buddha began with the stone relief called “Brahma Persuasion.” They should be earlier than the Buddha statues on the gold coins and relics.
Brahma’s exhortation shows the story of the Brahma King leading the crowd to ask the Buddha to go to Saryeyuan to speak. This breakthrough shows that Buddhists have a strong idea of deifying Shakya. Brahma urged the image, or the embryonic form of a statue of one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas for later generations.
The pictures of French Oriental linguist Fouché in his “Afghanistan Report” were collected from the ancient Greek-Bactria region (present-day Afghanistan). It is also the subject matter of Brahma’s persuasion.
Miyajizhao believes that “Brahma Persuasion” is a major matter related to Shakya’s determination. The art craftsmen of Gandhara have two ways to express this scene: One is that Shakya accepts Brahma’s request and expresses it in A statue of the Buddha sitting under a bodhi tree; the other is a sign that Sakyamuni is determined to turn the wheel of Dharma, using the sun wheel as a symbol. These two performance methods lasted for a long time in the region.
The next two pieces are also very famous. The Buddha image on the relic box of the special Jiagongsejia relic can be called the female parent of the early Han Dynasty:
The Bimaran Relics in the British Museum. Unearthed in Afghanistan, around the 1st century AD. The main meaning of the inscription is: “The sacred offering of Shivaraksita, the son of Mumjavamda, enshrines the relics of the Buddha in the name of the Buddhas.”
There are two Buddha statues on it. The Buddha with his right hand and his left hand is wearing a Greek robe and is supported by one foot.
The Gai Gai Gai Reli Box in the Peshawar Museum. The age is 78 AD, which is the first year of the Jiao Sega I. The main content of the inscription in the Luwen inscription is: “In order to receive all the teachers who have the ministry, this incense letter is the gift of merit offered by King Kagansega… in the city of Kagansega. With this merit, I wish all beings good fortune. Consummation…”
A rare overhead view. The Buddha sitting in the center and the Brahma and Di Shitian standing on both sides are combined.
It is said that because the Indian people only cared about the present world and history, and were not interested in the transcendental world of reincarnation, the Buddhist art of Gandhara was rejected in Central India. Buddhism began to seek to spread to Central Asia and China.
So a few decades later, a large number of statues similar to the above-mentioned Gandhara Buddha statue appeared in the southwest region centered on Bashu (the Eastern Han Buddha statues discovered in my country so far are only in this region).
2. Remains of Eastern Han Buddhist Statues in Bashu Area
The Eastern Han Buddha statues discovered through archaeological methods in Bashu area are divided into three categories: stone carvings, pottery sculptures, and bronze castings.
According to incomplete statistics, there are 3 examples of stone carvings (1 Mahaoya Tomb in Leshan, Sichuan, 2 Shiziwan Cliff Tombs); 2 examples of pottery sculptures (Pengshan Ya Tomb, Sichuan, one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas 1 piece, 1 pottery Buddha in Zhaotong Han tomb in Yunnan, 1 in Yibin Museum in Sichuan); more than 80 bronze cash cow statues (it is clear that the land of the Buddha statues are Sichuan Leshan, Pengshan, Mianyang, Anxian, Santai, Zitong, Chongqing Zhongxian, Fengdu, Wushan, Kaixian, Chenggu in southern Shaanxi, Qingzhen, Guizhou. The trunk and Buddha statues collected by the National Museum and lost overseas are also unearthed in the above-mentioned areas; there are also several other Buddhist themes.
It is worth noting that the distribution range of the above-mentioned Buddha statues is highly consistent with the distribution range of the cash cow. At the same time, they all appear in the tombs without exception. The sacred tree that carries the dream of ascending immortality is called a cash cow, which is a misunderstanding by convention (a special analysis will be made later).
From the perspective of time span, the “Yanguang Four Years” (125 years) chronological money tree Buddha statue unearthed in Fengdu, Chongqing is the earliest Buddha statue discovered so far (of course, the earliest chronological date, not necessarily the actual earliest); the latest unearthed in Chongqing The money tree Buddha statues unearthed from Tujing No. 5 and No. 14 tombs of the Shu Han period in Zhongxian County. Roughly speaking, the popular time of the money tree Buddha statue in Bashu area is about 100 years before and after.
The shape of the Buddha statue of the money tree, let’s look at a damaged but landmark:
Coin tree bronze Buddha statue and pottery tree seat
Unearthed in Caofanggou, Fengdu, Chongqing. The pottery tree seat is inscribed with “The Four Years of Yanguang” (125 years). The bronze Buddha statue is located on a surviving tree trunk, the remaining height is 5 cm, the lower part is missing, the outline of the huge nape behind the head is faintly discernible, the high meat bun, the big eyes are round, there is a curved upturned lip and moustache, and the right shoulder is bare. , Shi Wuweiyin on the right hand.
This Buddha statue is the earliest Buddha statue discovered in my country so far. It can be used as a chronometer of Buddha statues in the early Han Dynasty, and is also an important basis for judging the age of Buddha statues in India. of). Unfortunately, the Chongqing Three Gorges Museum did not give enough prominent displays.
Is it not clear what the “earliest Buddha statue” looks like? Here are a few similar templates:
A. The same model Buddha statue on the same money tree (collected in Deyang, Sichuan). The Buddha statue is 5.3 cm high and 2.5 cm wide. There is a round nape on the back of the head, a high meat bun, a rounded hairline, wide eyes and a double hook mustache; the right hand is imprinted with fearlessness, and the left hand is holding the corner of the clothes. Three long U-shaped laces extend down to the right wrist, with fine lines.
These two Buddha statues are very similar to the Buddha statue in the “Yanguang 4th Year”. They are intact and have a clear template. They should be in the same period. The full picture of the former can be restored.
B. The same model Buddha statue on the same money tree (collected in Guanghan, Sichuan). The difference is that there is a horizontal oval nape behind the head and no lip mustache. Each of the two statues has a mutilated threat servant, and it is speculated that these Buddha statues have both left and right threats.
Stone carvings and pottery statues that have nothing to do with the money tree are rarely found, and there is only one case of the money tree pottery Buddha statue, which is listed below:
Stone carved high relief statues of Buddha. Discovered in 1940, it still exists in the lintel of Xiangtang tomb of Ma Haoya, Leshan. 37 cm high. The meat bun has a round neckline and is wearing a cassock with full shoulders. Sit in knots. Shi Wuweiyin on the right hand and the corner of the robe on the left.
On the side of the Buddha statue, there is a relief sculpture of King Jing Ke assassinating the King of Qin. This stone carving was popular in the Han Dynasty and no longer exists. In addition, the nearby cliff tombs with the same style are inscribed with the years of Shun Emperor Yonghe (136-141 AD) and Heng Emperor Yanxi (158-167 AD). This tomb should be in the same period.
Line drawing of carved stone relief statues of Buddha. Located in the East Han Dynasty Tomb in Shiziwan, Leshan, Sichuan, not far from Ma Hao Han Tomb, the two sitting Buddhas are also embossed on the lintel of the tomb Xiangtang (heavier wind erosion). The tomb complex has the reigns of Emperor Yonghe of Han Shun (136-141) and Emperor Yanxi of Han Huan (158-167), which were in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Pottery statues of Buddha. Now in the collection of Zhaotong Museum, Yunnan. Unearthed in the Eastern Han Tomb in Shuifu County. With curly hair and high nose, round-necked robe, sits squatly, holding the corner of the robe in the left hand and the ring in the right. Using molding technology (the top of the head is missing when looking at the real object, it looks like a non-independent piece).
Money tree Buddha statue pottery seat
In 1941, Xia Nai presided over the excavation of the cliff tomb of the Han Dynasty in Pengshan, Sichuan. Now in the collection of Nanjing Museum. The Gandhara-style one Buddha and two threats are on top of it. The Buddha statue has a meat bun on the head, with a Wuwei seal on the right hand, and a robe corner in the left hand, sitting with a shoulder-length robe. Standing next to the second waiter, the servant on the right side wears a collar and holds something; the servant on the left side raises his right hand. Plastic dragons and tigers under the seat.
Except for the above cases, all Buddhist statues of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Bashu were cast on bronze cash cows. Among them, the flat cast-line Buddha on both sides of the tree top branches and leaves is the most exquisite. So far, only 3 pieces have been found, similar in powder form; about 80 three-dimensional Buddha statues on the trunk (exist in more than 20 uneven cash cows) . For museums or private collections at home and abroad.
There are bronze money tree leaves with Buddha statues on the front and back. The one on the left was unearthed in Chenggu, southern Shaanxi, and the one on the right was unearthed in An County, northern Sichuan. Constructing patterns with sun lines on a flat ground should be a casting process. Each is incomplete, and you can basically know the whole picture by referring to each other. The branches and leaves of An County are relatively complete, with a height of 20.5 cm, 13 cm at its widest point, and a thickness of about 1 mm. Now in the collection of Mianyang Museum.
In comparison, the trunk Buddha statues mostly use high-relief techniques. Except for the basic features that conform to the rituals of the Buddha statues, most of the image details are not as clear as the Buddha statues on the leaves.
The leaf of this double-sided Buddha statue is the most informative among the three surviving pieces. Solicited in Leshan, Sichuan. The image of “One Buddha and Two Worshipers” on the branches and leaves of the cash cow is complete and clear, which seems to be the same template as the one unearthed in Anxian County. Compared with the early statues of Gandhara, he has not departed from the ritual of “Brahma Persuasion”. The age should be too early.
Hejiashan No. 1 tomb type coin tree bronze Buddha statue. The big meat bun has a mustache, the Xiangguang is reduced and no longer solid, and the left and right sides are no longer threatened. It may be too late. Unearthed in Mianyang. Now in the collection of Mianyang Museum.
Three statues of money tree Buddhas (collected near Mianyang) with similar shapes and small differences. Judging from its decorative accuracy and imaging performance, the casting level at that time was also uneven.
Three Buddha statues of the rising fairy tree in different pink editions. The trunk of the tree on the right has fine water ripples. Solicited in Santai, Sichuan.
The same model Buddha statue on the same money tree (collected in Mianyang, Sichuan). This type is not seen in the collection records. There is no lip mustache, a high bun and a round hair. The right hand is marked with fearlessness, and the left hand holds the corner of the shirt, sitting in knots, wearing a shoulder-length robe and U-shaped clothing pattern. The combination of early Gandhara and Dodder styles has begun to appear.
As you can see, there are many tricks, and there are also early Gandhara’s forms and spirits.
But some experts once said that Buddha statues are used for worship, and those used for funerals should not be regarded as real Buddha statues.
I remembered the sentence “The house is used to live in, not to be used for speculation.” According to the expert’s logic, the house used for speculation is not a real house?
In the past few decades, many cash cows with Buddha statues have been unearthed in Sichuan and Chongqing. Due to the lack of awareness of the Chinese people, a considerable part of these precious cultural relics have been lost overseas; in the early years, they were even sent to waste collection stations as broken copper and rotten iron.
The Buddha statue cash cow in the San Francisco Asian Art Museum is rumored to be from Wushan, Chongqing. In March 1998, Belgian antique dealer Gus Koros sold it for US$2.5 million at the Asian Cultural Festival in New York, setting the highest price for a single piece of ancient Chinese art at that time. Interestingly, when the money tree was first exhibited, it was called the “Christmas Tree from China Two Thousand Years Ago.”
The Buddha statue of the money tree lost overseas has aroused widespread attention in the international academic community, and there have been a series of special discussions, and even the theory of “Sichuan Dunhuang Studies” has appeared. Researchers see it as the focus of exploring the origins of Buddhist statues in the Han Dynasty.
What is puzzling is that all domestic exhibitions of early Buddha statues and seminars on the Belt and Road Initiative have deliberately or unintentionally avoided the fact that the earliest Buddha statues introduced to China were in Bashu.
Let’s continue to look at other relics of Buddhist subjects of the same period:
The picture shows the Eastern Han Dynasty portrait tiles with stupas. This brick was unearthed in Zaojiao Township, Shifang County in 1986, with a height of 6.5 cm and a width of 9.8 cm. Now in the Sichuan Provincial Museum. Judging from the rubbings, the middle part of the dilapidated bricks is an Indian sloping multi-story pagoda-style building with lotus flowers on both sides, and there is no doubt that there are pagodas on both sides. Although the bricks are disabled, they are of great significance! Because it has the earliest image of a stupa in the country .
Bricks with portraits of lotus and beasts in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Solicited in Pengshan, Sichuan. According to the “Sutra of Immeasurable Life”, when all beings are dying, Amitabha, Avalokitesvara, and Da Shi Zhi Er Bodhisattva will hold a lotus platform to welcome those who have passed away from the Ninth Stage. The beasts and the lotus are intertwined, and when there is Buddhism’s concept of transcending life and death, it should be included in it. Therefore, it is speculated that this brick may express the meaning of transcending sentient beings.
The Eastern Han Dynasty Buddhism-themed stone carvings of the Huren seat in the Chengdu Museum. The left hand holds the lotus, and the right hand looks like a fearless seal.
This pottery figurine unearthed from the Eastern Han Dynasty tomb on the construction site of Leshan People’s Hospital, with Wuwei’s seal on the right hand and Han clothes, looks like a line-footed monk. It is now in the Leshan Giant Buddha Museum.
Suspected monks and Han figurines collected in Xinjin, Chengdu.
The thoughts of living people are buried in the tombs. All people’s imagination of the transcendental world cannot completely get rid of the shadow of reality. Therefore, when a certain cultural symbol appears in a tomb in a certain area at a certain time, that culture must be deeply rooted in the local people at that time.
Archeology is like being a historical detective. I am not a professional cultural blogger, and I have no fieldwork experience of “going to work is going to the grave”. Because I am obsessed with the collection of cultural relics, I have a questioning consideration of the history of the literature.
I know that it is difficult to come up with new knowledge that does not shield the predecessors in a country where there is literature superstition. “No record in history” is like a big mountain.
Now, it’s time to answer related questions. After sorting it out, there are roughly the following aspects:
How did Buddhism enter Bashu?
How did Buddhism fit into Bashu folk beliefs?
What role does the Buddha statue play when participating in funeral activities?
Why did the Buddha statue suddenly disappear from Bashu at the end of Han Dynasty?
In the age of reading pictures, I am most afraid of long talks. I try to talk less nonsense.
3. From Bashu to India, the nearest road is of course Dian Burma Road
As a matter of fact, as early as the 1920s, French Sinologist Perch and in the article “Mou Zi Kao” speculated: “When the first century of the era, the passage between Yunnan and Burma, and the passage of the South China Sea in Jiaozhou in the second century, it was also Dharma. The input must go through.” The two roads mentioned in the article are all connected to Bashu, especially the Burma Pass.
The ancient “Shu Shen Poison Road” was called the “Five Chi Road” by later generations. It went from Sichuan to Yongchang, Yunnan, and then along the Nandi River to Bhamo and Myitkyina in Myanmar, and then to Assam, Matula, and Qian in India. Dhara and other regions.
Obviously, this is the most convenient way to go from Bashu to Gandhara.
From the Egyptian sun tree to the Sanxingdui sacred tree to the Bashu cash cow, through the comparison of objects, there is indeed a cultural corridor between the Bashu region and Central Asia.
From the Greek-Bactrian two horse gods in the 1st century AD to the pottery seat of the Queen Mother of Bashuxi and the Three Gorges gilt bronze coffin in the 2nd century AD. Who can say that there is no connection between them?
[more about the plaque]
The existence of this “shortcut” can also be found in many powerful evidences from Chinese and foreign history books. To give an example:
When Qin destroyed Bashu in 316 BC, the son of the Shu king, Pan, led an army of 30,000 to flee, and built the Ouluo Kingdom in northern Vietnam, known as the “King of Anyang” in history (Shu Pan could never have been flown away). According to Vietnam’s “Da Yue Shi Ji Quan Shu”: “The real name of King Anyang is Shu Pan or Kai Ming Pan. He was originally a prince of ancient Shu, but he was a descendant of Turtle Spirit.” There are also records.
The history books of Vietnam refer to the regime established by King Shu Pan of Anyang in Vietnam as the first Shu dynasty in Vietnamese history. The picture shows the Anyang Temple in Vietnam.
In the 1980s and 1990s, archaeologists successively unearthed many ancient craft products from India, Iran, and Myanmar in Shizhai Mountain, Jinning, Yunnan, and Lijia Mountain in Jiangchuan. A large amount of Han five baht was also unearthed in Tengchong. In the Han tombs in Dali and Baoshan in western Yunnan, many “Human figurines” with high noses and deep noses were unearthed. These cultural relics confirm the prosperity of this business road in the past.
The Huren figurines in the tombs of the Bashu Han Dynasty and the Huren on the portrait bricks are not uncommon
“The Book of the Later Han Dynasty·The Legend of Southwestern Yi” clearly records that the people of Da Qin (Romans) entered China through the poisonous way: “In the first year of Yongning (122), the king of Shan Yongyou dispatched envoys to the dynasty to congratulate him, offer music and illusion people. Changes are spitting fire, self-defeating, easy to ox, horse head. Also good at jumping pills, count or even thousands. I say I am from Haixi. Haixi is Daqin, Shan State is connected to Daqin in southwestern China. “The former place of Shan is now in Yunnan and Burma. The border was outside of Yongchang County at that time.
Many scholars have tried hard to verify the existence of this ancient “Shu Shen Poison Path” before Qin Dynasty. I won’t go into details here, and those who are interested can read it on their own.
It is worth mentioning that the earliest Chinese character Buddhist book “Li Hua Lun” was also from the south. It was at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The book is a question-and-answer essay, each with questions and answers to answer the world’s doubts about the new arrival of Buddhism one by one. Among them, the legend of “Emperor of Han Ming Yemeng Jinren” is the earliest recorded in ancient books and is also the most valued. The stories of the first spread of Buddhism in the history books of Chinese characters in the past dynasties are all based on the “Liu Dou Lun”.
To borrow from Professor Tang Yongtong’s words: “Buddhism in the Han Dynasty, vassal alchemy, Wei and Jin Shizi, elegant and Shang Lao Zhuang. Mou Zi is a figure in the transitional era, and Mu Zi’s “Liu Dou Lun” is an important page in the history of Chinese Buddhism.” ( See “History of Buddhism in Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties”)
After the Han Dynasty, especially after Xinmang, the transportation between China and India was mainly by sea instead of land. At the time of Emperor Huan, Daqin (Rome) sent envoys to China also from Nichinan County (now central Vietnam). The appearance of “Liu Dou Lun” in Cangwu (Wuzhou, Guangxi) at the end of the Han Dynasty indicates that the sea route was also one of the first channels of Buddhism.
4. “Laozi’s nonsense” is a backdoor strategy of Buddhism to go public
The introduction of Buddhism into China is undoubtedly a big collision between different regions and cultures.
In my impression, the Buddhist and Taoist families seem to have never stopped fighting over each other. So in the past, I always thought that “Laozi’s nonsense” was fabricated by Taoism to suppress Buddhism.
Later, I was inspired when I read an interesting story: during the Republic of China, when a scholar went to the southwestern minority areas to do fieldwork, he accidentally discovered an epic poem of the Yi ethnic group! Scholars excitedly studied the epic and found that its content was very similar to the “Bible”. Are the memories of ancient times the same in all regions and ethnic groups? Then, I accidentally learned from the old Yi people that the story was told by Catholic missionaries in the late Qing Dynasty… It turned out that the so-called epics were used by Western missionaries to put some of the gods and characters in Yi people’s legends on biblical stories. Missionary!
Could it be that “Laozi turned nonsense” was a strategy when Buddhism was first spread to Bashu?
To this end, the relevant information was consulted.
The Taoist “Hua Hu Jing” was written during the Hui Emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty (290-306 AD). This book later became one of the grounds for Taoists to downgrade the status of Buddhism.
In fact, there was Laozi’s nonsense before the “Hua Hu Jing” appeared. In 166 AD, there was a sentence in Xiangkai’s Shangshu to Emperor Huan: “Or say that Laozi enters Yidi as a Buddha”. This is the earliest information about nonsense that can be seen in the literature.
Before Buddhism was introduced into China, it had completed its own system construction and was a mature religious organization. At that time, Taoism was still in its infancy, and the Huanglaoxian Taoism, which evolved from the primitive witch religion, was popular in Bashu. According to common sense, it would be illogical for Taoists to actively fabricate “Lao Zihua nonsense” to identify and accept the new foreign beliefs.
It is possible that the Buddhist cleverly used the sentence about Laozi in “Historical Records” about Laozi’s “do not know the end”. It aims to express that Buddhism and Taoism share the same origin, and Buddhism is advocated by Lao Tzu. In this way, it also found a reason for the Buddhist reincarnation theory to be integrated into the Taoist belief system of ascending immortals. Speaking of Sakyamuni as the incarnation of Lao Tzu, one step further is to treat Shakya as the same as Lao Tzu. People will naturally not reject Sakyamuni.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taoism was systematically transformed into a religious organization. At that time, Buddhism had successfully backdoored the market through “Laozihua nonsense” and gradually gained popularity in the belief system. Only then has the debate over the status of Buddhism and Taoism for the believers emerged. The Taoist side will also use the plan to make use of “Lao Tzu’s nonsense” to play arbitrarily. Funny to say that the authenticity of nonsense has become one of the focal points of disputes between Buddhism and Taoism in later generations.
However, Bashu is a magical place. Any foreign culture is easy to merge or accompany with the original culture, and once it is integrated, it is difficult to clarify or eliminate it. This seems to be called the depression effect.
During the pre-Qin period, the area has been outside the Greater China cultural circle. It was destroyed by Qin in 316 BC. After that, Qin took Bashu as a strategic base for the unification of the six countries, and Bashu truly became the Han land. It lasted more than three hundred years from the destruction of Bashu by the Qin Dynasty to the turn of the Han Dynasty.
The Bashu region is a mixture of cultures, including the original culture remaining in memory, the powerful brainwashed Central Plains culture, and the foreign cultures from more remote areas in the southwest. Generally speaking, the further away from the Central Plains, the more alienated the culture and the faster the acceptance of foreign civilizations.
After Qin Shihuang completed a unified campaign in 221 BC, he began to unify the writings and burn the books to clean up the books, mixing the myths and legends of various countries into a pot of porridge. The cultural reshaping in the context of Chinese characters has destroyed local history beyond imagination.
Xu Shen’s “Shuowen Jiezi Preface”: In the period of the Seven Kingdoms, “speech sounds different, characters are different.” “The first emperor of Qin and the world, the prime minister Li Si played the same. Let it be those who do not cooperate with Qin Wen.”. It is also said that “Qin burned down the scriptures, cleansed up the old classics… and the ancient texts are thus absolutely extinct.”
The influence of unifying Chinese characters with different forms and synonymous meanings is still the same; the abolition of characters with different symbol systems will destroy the inheritance of regional cultures, which is extinct.
Before the change of Yi to Xia, Ba Shu had his own writing (it is estimated that most people have not seen it):
The Bashu Tu language derived from archaeological excavations may be the key to deciphering the ancient history of the southwest region. But researchers have been tossing about the pseudo-history of Chinese character reconstruction.
In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the historian of Shu, Chang Zhu, who strongly advocated and advertised the orthodox of China, used the words in the Warring States Policy to refer to ancient Shu as “a remote country in the west and the longest of Rongdi” when he wrote “The History of Huayang.” It is “Fu Shu, a remote country in the west, and Rong Di is a neighbor”. This is obviously not in line with historical facts, because the earlier Han Shu of Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty still clearly records: “Ba, Shu, Guanghan Ben Nanyi, Qin did not regard it as a prefecture.”
In order to convert Bashu from Yi to Xia, the pre-Qin history of Bashu written in Chinese characters has since been full of “passage” and “maybe”. Therefore, the great poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty also sighed “Can Cong and Yu Fu, how lost is the founding of the country”.
It can be said that the pre-Qin history of Bashu that we can read today were all modified by Chinese orthodox historians after Qin destroyed Bashu. (About this, I will discuss this in a special article, so I won’t expand it here)
More than ten years ago, I made a post on the Yachang Forum titled “From the Sanxingdui God Tree to the Money Tree in the Han Dynasty-A Dream That Was Originally Unrelated to Money Worship”, which involved the exploration of funeral culture. It was discovered that the spread of Buddhism in the Han Dynasty started from the intervention of funeral activities!
Thick burials were popular in the Han Dynasty, especially in the Bashu area. When the Buddha first came, he went to the village to follow the customs. Since I pretended to be the incarnation of Lao Tzu, the Buddha statue would inevitably be involved in funeral activities. Because funeral behavior is the most concentrated manifestation of folk beliefs. It was an honor for the Buddha to be with Queen Mother Xi, the head of the Kunlun gods.
The name “money tree” was proposed by Feng Hanji when the Central Museum excavated the Han Tomb in Pengshan, Sichuan in the 1940s. The name that is out of the religious background has been passed down to this day, and it has played down its religious significance. The money tree is actually a sacred tree that carries the thoughts of “passing the sky, praying for longevity, ascending to immortality, and reincarnation”. Brother Kong Fang on the tree expressed his wish that he would not be short of money on Shengxian Road.
Not all Bashu Han tombs have cash cows (in addition to economic reasons, there are also dialect-like differences in expression). Not every money tree has a Queen Mother of the West or a bear or a statue of a Buddha. Only the bird that communicates with the world is indispensable, which shows that the first three are all auxiliary.
In the eyes of the ancients, birds are gods who can communicate with heaven and earth. No matter what kind of money tree, birds live on the top of the tree, which means “God”.
Queen Mother of the West is the legendary leader of the Kunlun gods who possessed the elixir of immortality. No matter what carrier it appears on, it is a reference to “praying for longevity”. On the cash cow, the Queen Mother of the West is located either in the tree seat or in the highest position next to the divine bird.
The bear on the cash cow is a totem that symbolizes “ascension to immortality”, and is a reference to the Yellow Emperor in the belief of immortality. According to the “Historical Records·Xia Benji”, the Yellow Emperor originally had descendants of the Xiong clan, and there are many records in the literature about the transformation of bears after the death of Gun and Yu. In order to honour the flag, five flags of east, west, south, north, and central were made. Among them, the bear was the most important symbol of the “Zhongzheng Flag”.
As the totem of the Chinese nationality, the bear can be described as the “root is just the miaohong”, because it is not only the surname of the tribe where the ancestor Huang Di is recognized by the Chinese nation, but also the belief of the first dynasty Xia in Chinese history. According to historical records, “the Yellow Emperor has the Xiong clan”, “it was the son of Xiong Guojun.”
The Buddha statue was originally regarded as the incarnation of Lao Tzu by the believers, or “Buddha statue regarded as Lao Tzu”, and it should imply the meaning of “reincarnation” on the cash cow. The cicadas that can be transformed and reborn are undoubtedly divine in the eyes of the ancients. Taoists used to show their wish for rebirth. When the Buddha first came, he also used local beliefs to replace Brahma and Sakyamuni beside the Buddha with cicadas. To convey the thought of reincarnation.
By the way, this artifact named “Bronze Buddha Money Tree Basin”, now in the Kubo Memorial Art Museum in Izumi City, Japan, is obviously a piece of money tree scraps welded together. Domestic scholars have repeatedly quoted without questioning, making a joke.
In summary, Buddhism was introduced to Han during the Han Dynasty, but only Buddha statues were left in the southwest. In addition to the convenience of the path, there are two reasons for this: First, after the subjugation of Bashu, they were in a cultural confusion period of re-recognizing their ancestors and returning to their ancestors; while other regions insisted on their previous cultural identity. The second is that Buddhism first entered the spread of the belief in immortality, and the scope of the spread must also be restricted by this (in fact, the spread of Buddha statues does not exceed the distribution range of the money tree).
Buddhism was able to take advantage of the emptiness to enter the Central Plains until the Wuhuahuahuahua.
Buddha statues were distributed in the Bashu area in the Han Dynasty, and it lasted about a hundred years from the “Yanguang Four Years” period. At the time of the Shu Han regime, the Buddha was no longer seen in the Shu area; the late money tree Buddha statues were only sporadically found in the Shu Han tombs in Zhongxian County, Wushan and other places in the southeast of Chongqing.
Since then, there has been a blank period in the history of Buddha statues. After decades of silence, the figure of the Buddha reappeared in Wudi of the Three Kingdoms outside the Three Gorges.
What caused the sudden disappearance of Buddha statues in Bashu area?
For problems in the field of religion, we have to start with religion to find the cause.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, a major event with far-reaching influence occurred, that is, the Yellow Turban Uprising. The uprising was initiated by the Taipingdao and Wudoumi Sects, the early organizations of Taoism. “The sky is dead, and the yellow sky should stand.” That’s pretty good! The Yellow Turban Uprising ended in failure, the leading Taoist organization was severely suppressed by the regime, and the cash cow, which was the carrier of Taoist belief in immortality, was naturally reduced to a cult. The money tree disappeared, and the Buddha statue attached to it could not be spared. (This perspective was ignored by researchers before)
Such a change is unexpected by Buddhism. This forced Buddhism to begin to distinguish its relationship with Taoism. But the impression of Buddha among the people has been deeply imprinted by Taoism.
As a result, the big drama of the two families of Buddhism and Taoism fell in love and killed each other.
After Buddhism was backdoor listed in the Han region, it was still a minority belief until the Western Jin Dynasty. The content of Buddhist scriptures is also mixed with Taoist thoughts. Everyone can’t figure out what’s going on in Buddhism, and they call Buddhists “Taoists.” And Buddhists often call themselves “poor Dao”. According to the Southern Song Dynasty Ye Mengde’s “Summer Records”: “During the Jin and Song Dynasties, Buddhism was first practiced, and his disciples had not yet been called Taoists.”
In the mid-Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism and Taoism contended. In both the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were many debates. In order to distinguish them from Taoists, Buddhists changed their names to monks (but this word is not general. Sanskrit means “teacher”. “He” and “Shang” “In classical Chinese, it means high, noble, and sublime).
However, affected by the nonsense, there were still monks who humbled themselves by “poor Dao” in the Tang Dynasty. Xuanzang’s “Story of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty”: “Poverty Taoism seeks Dafa, and fascinates the West”. The debate between Buddhism and Taoism is still fierce. One will destroy the Buddha and the other will destroy the Tao. After Xuanzang returned from the scriptures, the monk returned to the monk’s way.
In the Song Dynasty, Buddhism and Taoism basically merged, plus Confucianism, and some processing. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, the trinity of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism became the Chinese culture and tradition we are talking about today.
In addition, both Buddhism and Taoism both recite sutras. In order to fight for orthodoxy, Taoism calls the scriptures he recites “Truthful scriptures”. Naturally, Buddhists will not answer. Perhaps this is the real reason for Xuanzang’s westward journey. (It seems to be off topic, it’s a small episode)
Even Queen Mother Xi, the main god of Taoism, wore a suit with a large lapel (collected by Leshan Giant Buddha Museum). It shows that the Buddhist and Taoist families have infiltrated and learned from each other from the beginning! It seems that the popularity of Hufu in the Central Plains was in the Tang Dynasty, right?
5. The spread of Buddha statues in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Wei and Jin Dynasties
The Han Dynasty transmission of Buddha statues began in Bashu, and then spread along the Yangtze River, completing the integration with the Silk Road on the sea in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The Buddhas from the sea should land at more points, and the time should be no later than the time when the aforementioned “Theory of Doubts” was produced, that is, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
From the actual archaeological materials, gilt bronze statues and ceramic Buddha statues with chronological evidence appeared during the Three Kingdoms period. During the Western Jin Dynasty, Buddhist statues were especially concentrated on ceramic barn jars and bronze mirror patterns, and they were all distributed in the land of Wu Jing. Other only scattered materials. So far, no physical remains earlier than the following Buddha statues have been found in the northern region (please pay attention to the temporal and spatial relationships):
Three Kingdoms·Wu (262 AD) gilt bronze Buddha ornaments. Unearthed in the Tomb of Dongwu in Lianxi Temple, Wuchang. There are five-year lead land coupons in Yong’an in the tomb. The plaque is about 5 cm high, and there are openwork and thread carved Buddha statues on it. Like Dai Baoguan, he has a neck light, topless, wearing a collar, a streamer, and a skirt. Raise his right hand. Standing on the covered lotus platform, there is a lotus on each side of the lotus platform. The owner of the tomb is Xiao Wei Peng Lu. The purpose should be the decoration of the belt.
Three Kingdoms·Wu (222-280 AD) Celadon Buddha Statue. Tangjiaotou, Echeng, Hubei was unearthed in 1992. Collection of Hubei Museum.
Three Kingdoms·Wu (222-280 AD) Celadon Buddha Fragrance. Unearthed from the tomb of General Sun in Egang in 1967.
Three Kingdoms·Soochow (222-280 AD) Buddha statue on a celadon-brown glaze dish-top pot at the end of the period. Unearthed in Changgang Village, Yuhuatai, Nanjing in 1983. Collection of Nanjing Museum.
Three Kingdoms·Wu (222-280 AD) black-glazed pavilion Buddha statue pottery soul vase. Unearthed in Nanjing, Jiangsu.
Rubbings of Kuifeng mirror of Buddha statue in Western Jin Dynasty (265-316 AD). Unearthed from Anji Meixi. Collection of Anji Museum.
Western Jin Dynasty (265-316 AD) Celadon Meditation Sealed Buddha Statue. Collected by Mr. Chen Wanli in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Is located in Beijing Palace Museum. This kind of meditation seal appeared in Gandhara a long time ago, but it never appeared in Gandhara. This meditation seal has had a great influence on China.
Western Jin Dynasty (AD 265-316) Celadon three-legged basin with Buddha statues. Unearthed from Tomb No. 4, Hanxi Road, Ezhou City. Collection of Hubei Provincial Museum.
Western Jin Dynasty (265-316 AD) Buddha statues on celadon cladding. Collection of Shanghai Museum.
The celadon barn jars of Buddha statues during the Wei and Jin Dynasties were distributed in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The statues on it are very small in size and can be divided into two types: moulded and pasted on the abdomen of pots and various utensils; stacked or moulded on the shoulders of the pot or in the door of the pavilion. (The lotus seated Buddha with mold stamping and plastic is the most typical posture among ceramic Buddha statues)
After the Sixteen Kingdoms in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, statues flourished and grottoes emerged. The ceramic bronze mirror Buddha statue that decorated the utensils with the traditional Chinese gods degenerates and disappears. Their unique combination of shapes and image characteristics never appeared again.
Two gold and bronze statues of the Sixteen Kingdoms period with uncertain origins:
The sixteen kingdoms Buddha statues with a clear date were counted as Zhao Jianwu’s four years (338 years) gilt bronze Buddha seated statues. The statue is 39.7 centimeters high. It is the leading masterpiece among the sixteen kingdoms Buddha statues (the original land is unknown, now in San Francisco, USA Art Gallery).
Seated Sakyamuni Buddha with feathers on his shoulders, during the Sixteen Kingdoms Period (4th century AD), collected by the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University (Rumored to be unearthed in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province). There is still the shadow of the Buddha statue in the knot meditation seal.
6. About “Baoyibodai” and “Beauty and Clearness”
The Sixteen Kingdoms, also known as the “Five Hushua” period, was a mixture of cultures in the Central Plains. The wind of Buddhist cave sculptures introduced from the Western Silk Road, from Maiji Mountain, Dunhuang, Yungang, and Longmen, began to blow vigorously in the Yellow River Basin, and then ignited the whole country, reaching its first peak in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Two hundred years after the introduction of Buddhism to Han, it finally flourished with the power of foreign imperial power, pushing the art of Chinese Buddhist statues to the top. The history of Buddhist statues in the Han Dynasty is now on the official history of Chinese characters. The Buddhist center of the Northern Dynasties was in Pingcheng (now Datong, Shanxi, where there are Yungang Grottoes) in the early period, and in Luoyang (where there is the Longmen Grottoes) in the late period. The Southern Dynasty Buddhist Center is in Jianye (Nanjing) and Chengdu.
For the above content, the academic community has long given it a lot of color. Nor is it the focus of this article. Omit.
With the foundation of folk beliefs laid by the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the cliff statues of the Cave Temple flourished in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Bashu area emerged again. The following only describes its remarkable points.
Represented by the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple (Daci Temple), some Buddhist themes created or transformed by eminent monks and literati painters in Chengdu, such as Avalokitesvara, Western Pure Land Transformation, Ming King Statue, Arhat Statue, Hell Disguised Image, Water and Land Repentance, and various Painting works such as the sage monk became famous for a while.
Especially in the aspect of the sinicization of Buddha statues, Chengdu took the lead in launching the artistic features of “Bao Yi Bo Dai” and “Xiu Bone Qing Xiang”, which are popular all over the country. These two forms seem to be related to Taoism. Especially the expression “Xiu Bone Qing Xiang”, if I replace it with “Dao Bone Fairy Wind”, no one would have any opinions, right? !
Monument of immeasurable Buddha statue. In the first year of Yongming in the Southern Qi Dynasty (483 years), it was the earliest commemoration belt. In 1921, it was unearthed in Bazhong Village, Dongjiaochang, Maoxian County, Sichuan Province. Now in the Sichuan Museum.
One Buddha and two Bodhisattvas. In the eighth year of Qi Yongming (490 years), the remaining height is 64 cm, the seat is 46 cm wide and 22 cm thick, unearthed on Xi’an Road, Chengdu.
One Buddha and two Bodhisattvas. In the second year of Qi Jianwu (495 years), the residual height is 36 cm and the seat width is 27 cm. It was unearthed from the commercial street of Chengdu City and is now in the Chengdu Museum.
I sometimes saw the figure of Taoist priests in front of the statues of the Southern Dynasties. It seems that in the Bashu area, the Buddhist and Taoist families have never split. There is a saying: when you come to Bashu, you will help the gods, like a backdoor listing; after you get to the earth, you will be a Taoist servant, and you will still be the master.
It’s a bit of asking for trouble to write such a text.
I don’t know how many people will pay attention to these things that are not directly related to the present.
Even if it’s an explanation to yourself and your friends.
Fortunately, looking at history does not prevent us from devoting ourselves to daily life and working hard for the happiness of this world;
Being in the mundane world does not affect us to look at gains and losses from a broader perspective, and to understand the long-term value of trivial busyness.
There are many things that I can’t rush. We just need to wait for the flowers to bloom.
December 25, 2017 at Chongqing South Bank
This article has been authorized by the author to publish it“