The historic Buddha Buddhism was founded by Siddharta Gautama, a prince of the Shakya familiy that reigned over a small kingdom in modern Nepal. His epithet Shakyamuni (chin.: Shijiamouni ÄÀ­{¦È¥§) means "Wise of the Shakya", other epitets are arhata "Thoroughly saint" and tathagata "Thus Come One" (chin.: Rulai ¦p¨Ó). He was born in the Lumbini grove during the 6th century BC and was kept free from knowledge of daily suffering in the palace. During a ride he first became aware of human suffering in shape of an sick person, an old man and a funeral. Very upset by these visions of true life, Siddharta left his family and for seven years lived as an ascetic, only to find out that the extreme ascetic life was not able to solve from suffering. He further relied upon meditation (dhyana, chin.: chan ÁI) to arrive at the conclusions that made him a Buddha ("Enlightened Man", chin.: fo ¦ò or Zhengjue ¥¿Ä±), after being tempted by the evils of the world sent by the hell spirit Mara or Yama (chin.: mo Å], yemo ©]¼¯), under a fig tree ("Bodhi tree", chin.: putishu µÐ´£¾ð). In Isipattna/Benares, the Enlightened began to teach his sermons, the "Wheel of Teaching" (dharmacakra, chin.: falun ªk½×; a wheel is the symbol of Buddhism, sometimes stylized as svastika ÉÃ, chin.: wan), in Kusinara Buddha died and entered the nirvana ("extinction", chin.: ji ±I), free from the misery of karma (intended deeds and their accumulated results, the eternal rebirth; chin.: yinguo ¦]ªG) and the rotation of the world (samsara, chin.: zhuanlun Âà½ü). The stories of his life and enlightenment (chin.: wu ®©, jap.: satori) are accounted in the jataka tales (chin.: fo zhuan gushi ¦ò¶Ç¬G¨Æ; especially birth stories, chin.: shousheng ¨ü¥Í). Among his close disciples was the famous Ananda (chin.: Anantuo ªüÃøªû).

Teachings (dharma) of the Buddha Buddha found out the Four Noble Truths (chin.: sidi ¥|¿Í) that lead to rebirth, the form of which is a result of doings and behaviour accumulated during the past lifes of a person: life is suffering, and the cause for the suffering is craving for existence and sensual pleasures. This suffering can be suppressed by the Eightfold Path (chin.: bashengdao ¤K¸t¹D): right views, right intentions, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfullness, and right concentration (yoga). To successfully walk on the eightfold path, it is necessary to observe a strict moral discipline, not to commit evil, but to do good, and to purify one's own mind by mental discipline, fixing it at the important part of doings. Lead by intuitive wisdom (prajna; chin.: zhihui´¼¼z), the meditating person is able to know that he has to give up imaginations of a permanent self or soul in favour of the non-self (anatman, chin.: wuwo µL§Ú). During life, a person is only a conglomeration of the five aggregats or factors (skandha, chin.: wuyin ¤­³±: se ¦â, shou ¨ü, xiang ·Q, xing ¦æ, shi ÃÑ): body, sensation, perception, predisposition and consciousness. Another pattern of explanation is the chain of causation, ignorance being the base, leading to predisposition, consciousness, name and form, the six senses, sensation, contact, craving, grasping, becoming, leading to birth, and birth leading to age and death. A normal being that is not able to enter the nirvana at least tries to become a heavenly being (deva, chin.: tian ¤Ñ or Da Fan Tianwang ¤j±ë¤Ñ¤ý). The Three Jewels (sanbao ¤TÄ_) of the Buddhist religion are Buddha, his teaching (dharma, chin.: fa ªk) and the community (sangha, chin.: seng ¹¬). Buddhist cosmology bases on the Hindu world image that is much more complex than the unsystematic chinese cosmic picture. Mount Sumeru (short: Meru) is the center of this world, which is only one of millions of worlds that will perish after millions of years only to be replaced by a new one. Every world has its own Buddha who acts as world master, therefore depicted by huge Buddha sculptures.

Small and Great Vehicle The early history of Buddhism is less then clear. There have been a handfull of conciles to fix the teachings of the Buddha, the concile of Pataliputra in 245 BC tried to fix the teachings in book form, the so called "Three Baskets Canon" Tripitaka. It is fully preserved in Pali language and consists of the writings about discipline (vinaya, chin.: l? «ß), teachings (sutras), and comments (abidharma ½×). When Buddhist parishes divided into different sects, is not known. The more conservative form of Buddhism is the confession Theravada (or called Small Vehicle, Hinayana, chin.: Xiaosheng ¤p­¼ [not cheng!]), basing on the Pali canon. It is a discipline for personal salvation by the individual, possible only for those who join the monasteric order as monk or nun, at least for a short time, to accumulate enough meritorious karma for one's own salvation. In this way, Buddhism is only a caste-less Hinduism that makes it possible to escape rebirth. Theravada Buddhism spread over Ceylon, Burma and the Indochina Peninsula.  The confession of the Great Vehicle, Mahayana (chin.: Dasheng ¤j­¼), instead spread from Kashmir, Gandhara, Soghdia and Inner Asia into China, and further to Korea and Japan. It teaches that salvation is possible to all sentient beings because they posses the Buddha nature in them and hence all have the potentiality of being enlightened. Enlightenment is simply achieved by faith and devotion to Buddha and the religious ideal, the Bodhisattva (chin.: Pusa µÐÂÄ), Pratyekabuddha (chin.: Pizhifo ¹@¤ä¦ò) or Arhat (chin.: Aluohan ªüùº~, short: Luohan). These beings, though qualified to enter nirvana, delay their final entry in order to bring every sentient being across the sea of misery to the calm shores of enlightenment. The most important Bodhisattvas are Manjushri (chin.: Wenshushili ¤å®í®v§Q), the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Avalokiteshvara (chin.: Guanshiyin Æ[¥@­µ, short: Guanyin), the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and Samantabhadra (chin.: Puxian ´¶½å), the Teacher. Buddha appears in different shapes, according to the belief that Buddha appears in every age in a special appearance, like Amitabha (chin.: Namo Amituofo «nµLªüÀ±ªû¦ò, jap.: Amida) or Vairocana "Universal Illuminator" or Lokeshvaraja (chin.: Pilushena Ïi¿cªÙ¨º, short: Lushena), the Buddha of the Past, Maitreya (chin.: Milefo À±°Ç¦ò), the Buddha of Future. The Light Buddhas are clearly an influence of Iranian religion with the god of light, Ahuramazda. Popular Great Vehicle Buddhism is very fond of describing and depicting hells and heavens and the many Arhats, best seen in the wall paintings of Dunhuang.

Buddhism in China The first Buddhist parishes are found in China in the 1st century AD and focused mainly on the suppression of passions by means of meditation, charity and compassion. The monastery claiming to have been the first in China is the White Horse Monastery (Baimasi ¥Õ°¨¦x) near Luoyang. Many similarities with Taoism made Buddhism look like another sect of Huang-Lao-Taoism; both religions have no sacrificial ritus, believe both in immortality and operate with concentration, meditation and abstinence. The early translations of Buddhist sutras all used Taoist terms to paraphrase the complicated construct of Buddhist metaphysical philosophy, like dao ¹D for dharma, bodhi, yoga, or zhenren ¯u¤H as arhat, wuwei µL¬° as nirvana, and ming ©R as karma. Later translators were more cautious in translating Buddhist terms and sometimes did not even dare to translate it. Nirvana was simply transscribed as niepan ¯I½L, abhidharma as apidamo ªüÏi¹F¼¯. Experienced tranlators of Tang dynasty finally were able to define exact terms of translation: ji ±I and lun ½×, in our example. The first great time of Buddhism in China was during the Eastern Jin dynasty, when the new religion entered the gentry class. Disappointed and not more interested in governmental officials, the landowning class joined the Buddhist community. But also scholars, that were more interested in Taoism since the end of the Later Han dynasty, became fond of the new religion, that gave both groups a stronghold in a time of ceaseless war. The Non-Chinese rulers of the Northern Wei dynasty converted to Buddhism and saw themselves as personification of the Buddha. The maturity and great age of Buddhism in China was the Tang dynasty when emperors spent their wealth to establish monasteries and sculptures in different Buddhist caves. But this age was not free of persecution, especially by Confucian oriented statesman that wanted to get rid of the foreign religion. Many people converted and entered a monastery to escape military service and tax paying. The revival of Confucianism under the Song dynasty caused the decline of Buddhism as a state religion. But as popular belief, Buddhism is still very widespread, but highly mixed with Taoist belief. The transition of the foreign religion into a Chinese one was made easy especially by the ideal of charity and compassion of Great Vehicle Buddhism. Both terms are quite similar to the Confucian idea of filial piety and the compassion of the ruler for his subjects. Other concepts of Buddhism are quite contrary to Confucianism (suffering - enjoying; celibacy - family; mendicant monks - productive farmers; monastic community - subordination under the state), but the missing of a central power during the 3rd and 4th centuries gave room for the Buddhist religion of salvation of the individual. The power of spells and charms had a great attraction not only to Chinese peasants, but also for the foreign rulers in the north. Finally, many people escaped military service and tax duty by entering a monastery. Looking at Confucianism, we see that this state doctrine is totally lacking the aspect of the spiritual world (except ancestor veneration), and it is quite understandable that people found a good way to meet their religious needs in Buddhism. Buddhism and its representant objects became part of the Chinese culture like dragons and chopsticks. The Laughing Buddha ("Pot-Belly Buddha") is the transformation of an Indian askete into a deity objecting Chinese ideals. The Indian stupa, a small buildings that contains relics of the Buddha or his scholars, and at the same time symbolizing the center of the Indian universe, mount Meru, became the Ceylonese dagoba, the Thai chedi, the Tibetian cherten (the most beautiful being erected in Katmandu/Nepal), and finally the Chinese nine-floor pagoda (ta ¶ð).

Eminent monks: translators, teachers, and travellers The first monks in China all were foreigners, the first Chinese clerics are found from the 4th century on. An Shigao ¦w¥@°ª (mid 2nd cent.) was the first translator of Buddhist sutras (chin.: jing ¸g) from Sanskrit (chin.: Fan ±ë) into Chinese. During the Jin dynasty, the teaching of prajna ("sage wisdom") became prevalent, manifested in the sutra Prajnaparamita ("Perfection of wisdom"), translated by Dharmaraksha (chin.: Zhu Fahu ªÇªkÅ@) in 291. Other representatives of this school were Zhi Dun ¤ä¬Þ (d. 366) and Xi Chao Óû¶W (d. 377). The 4th and 5th century brought up a number of famous monks of Chinese and Non-Chinese origin who tried to translate accurately Buddhist sutras into Chinese and to make the early translations free from Taoist tought and terms: Fotudeng ¦ò¹Ï¼á (d. 349), Kumarajiva ¹§¼¯Ã¹¤° (413), Faxian ªkÅã who travelled in 399 to India to bring back the whole corpus of Vinaya texts "Rules of Discipline" (chin.: l? «ß) and translated them into Chinese, Daoan ¹D¦w (d. 385) who compiled a catalogue of sutras and promoted the Maitreya cult, Huiyuan ¼z»· (d. 416) who promoted the Amitabha cult and together with Buddhabhadra ¦òªû¶[ªûù (chin.: Juexian ı½å) the practice of meditation and yoga, and Daosheng ¹D¥Í (d. 434) who focused on the Nirvana-sutra, like Dharmakshema (chin.: Tanwuchen ¾èµLÆ@, around 400). The Chinese monks did not only translate the sutras that Indian and Inner Asian missionaries had brought them, but many translators brought back the Buddhist writings from India themselves, like Dharmaraksha, Faxian, Huisheng ¼z¥Í, Xuanzhao ¥È·Ó, Buddhadharma, Yijing ¸q²b and Zhihong. But the most famous pilgrim was the translator Xuanzang ¥È®N who even figures as the main person in the Ming time novel Journey to the West. With the closure of the trade routes by the Arabs and Tibetians, the decline of Tang central government and the proscriptions of Buddhism in the 840ies, pilgrim travels were ended.

Chinese Buddhist literature By the end of Tang dynasty, almost all Buddhist scriptures were translated into Chinese, and many catalogues have been compiled to collect the different translations of all the sutras. The most important catalogues are: Zongli zhongjing mulu ºî²z²³¸g¥Ø¿ý "Comprehensive catalogue of sutras" by Daoan ¹D¦w, unfortunately not preserved Chu sanzang jiji ¥X¤TÂðO¶° "Collection of records concerning the Tripitaka" by Sengyou ¹¬¯§ Zhongjing mulu "Catalgue of collected sutras" by Fajing ªk¸g Kaiyuan shijiao lu ¶}¤¸ÄÀ±Ð¿ý "Catalogue of the Kaiyuan era on Buddhism" by Zhisheng ´¼ª@ The whole corpus of Chinese Buddhist writings is compound in the so-called Tripitaka "Threefold basket". The modern edition of that corpus was made in Japan under the Taish? emperor from 1922-1933, therfore called Taisho Daizokyo ¤j¥¿¤jÂøg "Great Sutra Storehouse of the Taisho era" (chin.: Dazheng Dazangjing). It is divided into 86 volumes, distributed into the discourses of the Buddha; the Vinaya writings (rules of discipline; chin.: l? «ß); the Abhidharma writings ("Higher Subtleties"; chin.: lun ½×); Madhyamika ("Middle path", i.e. Great Vehicle; chin.: zhongdao ¤¤¹D) and Vijnanavada (Idealistic School; chin.: Weishizong °ßÃÑ©v) writings; sh?stra (treatises; chin.: lun ½×); commentaries by Chinese monks; literature of the various Chinese schools; historical records; encyclopedias; catalogues. The core of the Buddhist writings are of course the sutras or "sermons" and teachings of the Buddha. Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarika-sutra, chin.: Miaofa lianhua jing §®ªk½¬ªá¸g) Vamalakirti-nirdesha-sutra (chin.: Weimojie suoshuo jing ºû¼¯©Ò»¡¸g, short Weimojing) Nirvana-sutra (chin.: Niepanjing ¯I½L¸g), and Mahaparinirvana-sutra (chin.: Daban niepan jing ¤j¯ë¯I½L¸g) Diamond Cutter Sutra (chin.: Jingangjing ª÷­è¸g; sanskr.: Vajracchedika-sutra) Heart Sutra (chin.: Xinjing ¤ß¸g) Prajnaparamita-sutra (chin.: Banruo boluomi jing ¯ë­Yªiù±K¸g, short Banruojing)  Damingdu jing ¤j©ú«×¸g Zhenghuafa jing ¥¿µØªk¸g Puyao jing ´¶Â`¸g (sankr.: Lalitavistara) Guangcan jing ¥úÆg¸g (sanskr.: Pancavimshatisahasrika-sutra) Sanlun ¤T½× "Three treatises": Zhonglun ¤¤½× (sankr. Madhyamaka-shastra), Shiermen lun ¤Q¤Gªù½× (sanskr.: Dvadasanikaya-shastra), and Bailun ¦Ê½× (sanskr. Sataka-shastra) Huayanjing µØÄY¸g "Garland Sutra" (sanskr.: Avatamsaka-sutra)  Lankavatara-sutra (chin.: Lengga abaduoluo baojing ·«¦÷ªü¶[¦hùÄ_¸g, short: Ru Lengga jing ¤J·«¦÷¸g) Other writings comprise a vast diversity of biographical, philosophical, encyclopedical and even poetry writings, some freely translated from the Sanskrit original, but there exist also many Buddhist writings by Chinese Buddhists: Buddhacarita (chin.: Fo suoxing zan ¦ò©Ò¦æÆg), by Ashaghosa, translated by Dharmakshema Gaoseng zhuan °ª¹¬¶Ç by Huijiao ¼z²®, biographies of eminent monks Mouzi lihuo lun ¦È¤l²z´b½×, an essay about controversies between Buddhism and Chinese tradition (3rd cent.) Zhao lun »F½×, a discussion of problems of Buddhist philosophy in China, by Sengzhao ¹¬»F (around 400) Hongmingji ¥°©ú°O, an apologetic text of Buddhism by Sengyou ¹¬¯§ Dazhidu lun ¤j´¼«×½×, a treatise of Great Vehicle philosophy and practice by Kumarajiva Foguo ji ¦ò°ê°O "Record of Buddhist kingdoms", a report of the traveler Faxian (around 400) Fayuan zhulin ªk­b¯]ªL, an encyclopedia by Daoshi ¹D¥@ Many rulers and eminent persons wrote poems about Buddhism and Buddhist life, among them the empress Wu Zetian.

Important schools of Chinese Buddhism The Pure Land School (Jingtu ²b¤g©v, jap.: Jodo, kor.: Ch?to) that focuses on the simple Amitabha (chin.: Namo Amituofo «nµLªüÀ±ªû¦ò; jap.: Amida) cult, was already founded by Huiyuan ¼z»· during Eastern Jin, but the monk Shandao µ½¾É (d. 681) was its forming patriarch. Its basic writing is the Sukhavativyuha-sutra (chin.: Jingtujing ²b¤g¸g) in a short and a long version. Both decribe the Western Paradise, the access to which is possible by meritorious deeds as well as faith and devotion to the Amitabha Buddha. A central deity in Jingtu Buddhism is the Guanyin (jap.: Kan'on) Bodhisattva, the Chinese form of the Avalokiteshvara. Shandao wrote that five activities could lead to rebirth in the Western Paradise: uttering the name of the Buddha, chanting the sutras, meditating on the Buddha, worshipping and singing praises to the Buddha. The Pure Land School is one of the most popular of Buddhist schools and has still many believers today.  The Tiantai School ¤Ñ¥x©v (jap.: Tendai) was founded by Zhiyi ´¼óª (d. 597), basing on the Lotus Sutra. According to Zhiyi, the Buddha taught different Sutras during his lifetime. Because the early sermons, recorded in the Garland Sutra Huayanjing µØÄY¸g (sanskr.: Avatamsaka-sutra), were too complicated for the mass, the Buddha relied on simplier "Scriptures" (agama, chin.: ahan ªü§t) to preach. Later on, he preached the elementary vaipulya "broad and equal" (chin.: fangdeng ¤èµ¥) sutras of the Great Vehicle, to end with the "Sutra of Perfection of Wisdom" (Prajnaparamita-sutra) and the Nirvana and Lotus Sutras. A central teaching of the Tiantai school is the Threefold Truth: voidness of all things, temporariness of all phenomena, and the synthesis of emptiness and phenomenal existence as the truth of the mean or middle. The absolute mind embraces the universe in its entirety, small and huge things. To separate one's consciousness from worldy phenomena (dharma), spiritual concentration and insight consiousness help to become aware of the non-existance of all appearance and that all is a manifestation of the absolute mind. The Buddha nature can even be found in inanimate things. Fazang ªkÂà (d. 712) founded the Garland School (Huayan, kor.: Hwa?ng) µØÄY©v, basing on the Garland Sutra. The empty phenomena are thought to arose simultaneously by themselves. The static principle (li ²z) and the dynamic phenomenon (shi ¨Æ; things and their appearance) of the emptiness are interfused and mutually identified. No phenomenon can exist independently and alone, all things depend on others and are combined to a whole. This system of totality finally points to the Buddha in the center. A very special school that renounced dogma, asceticism, rites and the traditional monastery system, was the Chan School ÁI©v (jap.: Zen, kor.: J?n; a term deriving from the Sanskrit word dhy?na "meditation, yoga"), founded by Bodhidharma (chin.: Putidamo µÐ´£¹F¼¯; d. 524) and Huineng ¼z¯à (d. 713; see an excerpt from his writing "Altar Sutra" Tanjing). The believers of Chan relied on riddles (gongan ¤½®×) and spontaneous actions to achieve enlightenment. Because of the emptiness (shunyata; chin.: kong ªÅ) of reality, the Buddha nature can only be apprehended by intuition. Avoiding conscious thought, reality is expressed by silence or negation of the object in mind. It was the Chan School that also developed the worldwide known fighting techniques (gongfu ¥\¤Ò, "Kung-fu") in the Shaolin Monastery ¤ÖªL¦x. The spontaneity thought of Chan Buddhism is familiar to Taoism and the nature-near spontaneous action of the free individual.  The Idealistic School (Faxiang ªk¬Û©v) was founded by the great pilgrim Xuanzang ¥È®N (d. 664) and based on the Mahayana-samgraha "Compendium of the Great Vehicle". According to the idealistic teachings, the external world is but a fabrication of our consciousness and does not really exist and is only an illusion. The five sensual consiousnesses like sight, hearing, and so on, are helped by the conscious mind, which forms conceptions out of the perceptions received from outside. A seventh consciousness is the thought center, and finally the storehouse consciousness, which stores and coordinates all the ideas reflected in the mind. This school did not survive the great persecutions of 845 AD.  A less popular sect was the School of Three Stages (Sanjiejiao ¤T¶¥±Ð), founded by Xinxing «H¦æ (d. 594) during the 6th century. This school divided the Buddha's teachings into three periods, the present stage being one of decay with depraved rulers. Followers believed that every being, even animals, inherit the Buddha nature and are worthy of being revered. This school was abolished during the early 8th century.

Tibetian and Mongolian Buddhism (Lamaism) The native religion of Tibet is the so-called Bon religion, a belief in spirits, demons and ghosts in nature, that can bring good and evil. Sorcery and magic were influential instruments of Tibetian religion. Buddhism was introduced into Tibet during the 7th century by a Tantric master named Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpotche), but it was only during the 11th century that Buddhism gained a real foothold in Tibet. The resulting religion was Lamaism (tibetian bla-ma means "Superior"), that is Tantric Buddhism mixed with a good portion of the Bon religion. A special feature of Lamaism is that abbotship of a monastery is inheritable, thus creating monastery dynasties. When the Tibetians submitted to the Mongols during the 13th century, the nomadic people was quite ready to replace their shamanism by the the more subtle and systematized magic of Tibetian Buddhism.  Tantric Buddhism, also called Tantrayana, Mantrayana or Vajrayana (vajra means "thunderbold" or "diamond", chin.: jingang ª÷­è), in the West sometimes called "Diamond Vehicle", is a third confession of Buddhism. According to Tantrism, freeing from ignorance is possible by esoteric consecration, diving into the cosmic relations. Magic spells are of great importance to defend oneself from evil and temptation. Tantra (chin.: mi ±K "secret", jap.-chin.: shingon ¯u¨¥ "true words"), esoteric literature, borrows many items from Hindu mythology but gives them a new meaning. Gods and their femals counterparts are symbols of function, energy and will of the universe. Four kinds of instruments help to transform knowledge into action: Mantras (chin.: zhou ©G) like the famous "om mani padme hum" (Oh, the jewel in the lotus!) are mystic syllables sometimes without real meaning, are seen as a shortcut to enlightenment. Mandalas (chin.: ti Åé) are cosmograms, a picture of the universe with all its deities and beings, easily being destroyed to show the vanity of what the five senses feel. Mudras (chin.: yin ¦L) are gestures by a particular position of hand and fingers, showing words without sound. Abishekas (chin.: huanding ³») are sacraments like baptization and yoga practices. A special yoga practice is the unio mystica or sexual unification of a priest symbolizing a deity and a virgin, showing his counterpart. Only known in Tibetian Buddhism are the prayer mill, prayer flag, while prayer rosaries are also known to Chinese Buddhism. Depictings of Tantrist deities show a god and his corresponding goddess, like the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (tibet.: Chenresi) and the female Tara-Dolma. Another kind of presentation in Tantrism is the emanation of a deity, that means that above the head of Buddha or the god of death appear heads of the deity itself, - the Buddha is multiplied, having eleven watching heads and thousand helping arms. The counterpart deity of Bodhisattva Manjushri is Yamantaka, the god of death. Tibetian Buddhist art makes use of rolled pictures, called thanka, that are rolled out during festivities and then cover a whole mountain slope. In proper China, Tantrism could only flourish for a short time during the 8th century, and was obstracized because of the obscenity of its secret cults. The head of Tibetian Lamaism is the Dalai Lama, a title granted to the head of the Yellow Cap sect by the Mongols who helped the Tsong-ka-pa to reform Tibetian Buddhism and to fight against the old Red Cap sect. The second highest person is the Panchen Lama, the third is the Karmapa who belongs to another school.

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