ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the milestones that lined the pathway of Chinese Buddhism’s remarkable journey to integration with relationalism. Although Chinese Buddhism enriched the Chinese mind with its esoteric ideas and visions, Buddhism was not “made in China.” Its importation to China from India was carried out by random Silk Road travelers; hence the introduction of early Buddhist messages was quite fortuitous and highly fragmented in form and nature. From its initial arrival in the 200s C.E. to its acceptance as a doctrine of China’s own in about the 1000s, Buddhism weathered hostile resistance and, at times, violent persecutions like the Hui Chang Suppression (840–864 C.E.) which almost completely wiped out Buddhism’s foothold in China. But Buddhists’ perseverance prevailed. This chapter recounts the evolutionary course that Chinese Buddhism took to overcome such adversaries as fragmented sutras, language barriers, opposition from established Chinese ideologues, discrimination from the people and the government, and, as its own growing pains, conflicting doctrinal mindsets within its own ranks. From the Sect of Pure Consciousness to the Sect of Tian Tai and eventually to the Sect of Zen, Buddhist tenets went through serious transformations and finally made their peace with relationalism.
