Since an enthronement on Apr. 8, 502, Wudi(武帝, 464~549), the emperor of Liang Dynasty ruled nearly half a century until his starvation to death in 549 after the Hou-Jing's revolt. It is evaluated that his ruling has a strong Buddhist coloring with...
Since an enthronement on Apr. 8, 502, Wudi(武帝, 464~549), the emperor of Liang Dynasty ruled nearly half a century until his starvation to death in 549 after the Hou-Jing's revolt. It is evaluated that his ruling has a strong Buddhist coloring without parallel in Chinese history. This paper illuminates his honor and respect to Buddhism in the framework of " Buddhist policy."The Buddhist policy of Wudi is roughly divided into 3 stages. Stage 1 is the Tianjian(天監) period (502~519). During this period, the Buddhist organization of the Liang Dynasty which was relatively independent of imperial power was reorganized around the emperor Wu. This is a stage which he was maintaining a friendly and amicable relation with the Buddhist organization while focusing on the research of Buddhist reason and good sense, like compilation or translation of Buddhist scripture and an annotation business, etc. Stage 2 is the period in which the research of Buddhist reason and good sense was roughly coming to an end, which spanned from the end of Tianjian period to the foundation of the Tongtai(同泰) Temple in 527. During this period, through the ordination of Bodhisattva Rule and the precepts of Buddhist discipline, Wudi, as a Cakravartin King, attempted to control the Buddhist organization. The last Stage 3 is a period in which the image work for Cakravartin King, the image of Buddhist sage was fully shaped, which spanned from after the foundation of the Tongtai Temple until the last years of emperor Wu. The Buddhist activities of Wudi were expressed as sacrifice himself, Buddhist ceremonies and the lecturing of Buddhist Sutras, and the cult of Asokan Statue and Asokan Stupa, much of which was made around Tongtai Temple and big in size. Contrary to the Stage 1, during this period, Wudi's activity of honoring and respecting Buddhism was focused on an external activity.
Since Wudi's death until the seventh century, emperors in China, Korea and Japan competitively imitated Wudi's Buddhist policy and especially the activities of honoring and showing respect to Buddhism which were performed in Stages 2 and 3 became a standard of a many number of emperors who wanted to become a Cakravartin King.