Buddhism, though ultimately more sophisticated than any belief system in China at the time of it's introduction, seemed to the average Chinese to be more like a Taoist mystery cult than a serious religious alternative. Buddhist missionaries quickly realized that this reluctance stemmed primarily from the fact that Buddhism lacked any kind of emphasis on values a typical Chinese would consider vital. The best example of this is the absence of filial piety as a theme in the Buddhist sutras. A quick glance through the Confucian Analects will reveal almost the exact opposite - it's hard to find an analect that doesn't touch on filial piety at least obliquely. To the Chinese of the time, the most important relationship in the world was the one that they had with their parents. Buddhism, which evolved in a land where one's caste was more important than one's parents, had only a few isolated stories with this theme. These few, such as the Jataka, which told the story of a son who so loved his blind parents that he dressed in a deerskin to go into the forest and obtain the fresh deer milk they required, were all quickly translated and distributed. In this particular tale, a lord out hunting accidentally shoots the son, and upon realizing his error, swears to see that the boy's parents are taken care of. The boys parents were so overcome with grief they uttered the Act of Truth (a powerful Buddhist prayer) with such emotion Sakka himself descended and restored the boy to life. (Ch'en, 20)

Another traditional Buddhist sutra that appealed to the Chinese was the Yu-lan-p'en-ching, in which a son, Mu-Lien, upon attaining arhatship after his death, wished to repay his parents for the love they had given him. To his dismay, he found that his mother was banished to the Avici Hell, tormented forever for her greed in life (which she had kept hidden from him). Mu-Lien then appealed personally to the Buddha himself on his mother's behalf. The Buddha instructed Mu-Lien to prepare a great feast including the hundred delicacies, and on the 15th day of the 7th moon to offer it to the monks of the ten quarters on behalf of his ancestors (specifically his mother). This was done, and Mu-Lien's mother was released from the Avici Hell. (Ch'en, 26)

Such stories were not common in India, due to their lack of popularity, but the Chinese loved them. Soon, it became apparent that traditional Buddhist scriptures did not offer enough of these stories of filial piety to compete with Confucianism. Sutras began circulating that, suspiciously, seemed to have no Indian counterpart prior to their �translation.� These forged sutras helped close the gap considerably between Buddhism and China. One of the best known forged sutras is the Fu-mu en-chung ching (Sutra on the Importance of Parental Love). This sutra appears in a multitude of variations and titles, and appears almost like a Confucian analect at it�s beginning: �the Buddha said, �In this world our parents are closest to us. Without them, we would not be born...�� (Ch�en, 38. From the Fu-mu en-chung ching) The sutra goes on to describe how being a good Buddhist is a really good way to show your parents that you love them. Though this sutra, and others, were forgeries, they still became part of the canon of Chinese Buddhism. This is one major way in which Confucian thought and practices directly influenced the evolution of Buddhism.

Another way in which Buddhism was subtly altered during the attempt to make it more appealing to the Chinese was the adaptation of the five Silas (or Cardinal Precepts) of Buddhism to match the Five Norms of Confucianism. (Banerjee, 90) The Cardinal Precepts are not to lie, steal, kill, commit adultery, and drink intoxicating beverages. The five Norms are human heartedness, righteousness, propriety, knowledge, and trust. The correlation between these two sets is described in another blatantly invented sutra, the T�i-wei Po-li-ching: �Not to kill is paired with human-heartedness, not to steal is paired with righteousness, not to commit adultery is paired with knowledge, to not drink intoxicating liquor is paired with propriety, and not to tell lies is paired with trust.� (Ch�en, 57. From the T�i-wei Po-li-ching) One Chinese scholar (Chih-I) even assigned the Chinese five elements and five directions to the five Silas, further weaving Buddhism into Confucian Chinese culture, and vice-versa. (Ch�en, 59)

Another major way in which Buddhism was modified was in the translation of the Sutras themselves. This was more troubling that it might at first appear. First of all, Sanskrit and Chinese are different in almost every way, and many different characters in Chinese seems to mean the same thing to foreign interpreters but carry entire loads of different connotations for the Chinese. Also, the original sutras tended to be rather matter-the-fact, telling what happened and why and what can be learned, with a minimum of frills and poetic language. A direct translation of such sutras would certainly not appeal to the detail and metaphor loving Chinese. Also, there was a lack of characters available to describe Buddhist concepts, so dharma often became Tao and nirvana became Wu-Wei due to the lack of any other way to present them. Also, the sutras were modified to emphasize control of women rather that the slightly more respectful status they sometimes earned in Indian society. (Wright, 35-37)

Due to it�s growing appeal in the masses of China, and also to the weakened state of Confucianism after the fall of the Han dynasty, Buddhism became the dominant belief during the Six Dynasties period. When the Sui reunited China in 581 Buddhism was commonplace, and when the T�ang took over in 617 It became practically a state religion. (Schirokaur, 114-115)

With the near disappearance of Buddhism in India, its evolution in China is of the utmost importance. Nowhere else on Earth was the Buddhist tradition being carried on by a powerful, civilized culture. The changes that the Confucian tradition imposed, however unintentionally, on the religion modified virtually all sects of Buddhism, and are vital for us to understand it as a religion today.

Bibliography

Banerjee, Anukul C. Studies in Chinese Buddhism. Calcutta: Firma KLM (P) Ltd., 1977.

Chai, Ch�u and Winberg. Confucianism. Woodbury, NY: Barron�s Educational Series, Inc. 1973.

Ch�en, Kenneth K. S. The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.

Schirokauer, Conrad. A Brief History of Chinese and Japonese Civilizations, 2nd ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch College Publishers, 1989.

Wright, Arthur F. Buddhism in Chinese History. Stanford: Stanford university Press, 1959.