Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism
By: April D. Hughes
198 Pages
- Hardcover
- ISBN: 9780824886264
- Published By: University of Hawaii Press
- Published: May 2021
$68.00
The medieval period was a seminal time in the development of Chinese religious history. The collapse of the long-lasting Han Dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) threw the empire into chaos. Popular rebel movements, invading foreign armies, powerful generals, and members of the landed gentry all sought to take advantage of the situation and claim themselves as the new rulers of the land. This was also the time in which Buddhism first arrived in China. In this context, it is hardly surprising that millenarianism played a central role in the spread of the new religion. Apocalyptic narratives of the coming end-of-days allowed Buddhist institutions to attract followers by promising them salvation, an escape from the harsh daily reality of this fractious age. Indic Buddhist cosmology, with its intricate system of heavens and hells, its belief in reincarnation, and its mechanism of karma mixed with Chinese religious ideas and practices, fundamentally reshaped the religious landscape.
Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism focuses on one specific aspect of Buddhist millenarianism—its political use. Modern scholars of Chinese history often claim that imperial authority was largely based on Confucian ideas that developed many centuries before the arrival of Buddhism. Key among them was the concept of the Son of Heaven, which depicted the ruler as the recipient of a mandate given to them by the ethical deity to rule the world on their behalf. In this convincingly argued and well-structured monograph, April Hughes claims that by the end of the Han Dynasty, this model was supplemented by a new figure of imperial authority—the worldly savior. Based on a combination of Chinese utopian rhetoric and Buddhist eschatological narratives, the ruler came to be presented as a messianic figure whose authority is both political and religious (4).
A main feature of this new model of imperial authority examined by Hughes was the millenarian concept of the Three Ages, which depicts history as a cyclical process comprised of three phases: an initial period of prosperity associated with the birth of a historical Buddha, an intermediate period of gradual decline in Buddhist belief and practices, and a final age, known as the Final Dharma, marked by moral degeneration, clerical corruption, and sociopolitical chaos. The apocalyptic disaster that takes place at the end of this era is followed by a renewal—the birth of a new Buddha who ushers a new cycle. One of the figures unique to the age of the Final Dharma is known as the worldly savior. Unlike divine celestial saviors such as Buddha and Bodhisattvas, the job of this figure was not to guide people toward enlightenment. Instead, it was to offer them a temporary respite in the form of a terrestrial utopia, an area of refuge that allows them to escape the chaos of the world and live in an environment that is free of the harmful influence of sinners (5).
The first two chapters in this book provide the doctrinal and historical context to the emergence of the worldly savior as a new and influential model of imperial authority. Chapter 1 offers a close reading of four apocalyptic scriptures produced in China during the 5th and 6th centuries CE. Drawing on these texts, Hughes outlines the essential components of the figure of the worldly savior and their terrestrial utopias. Chapter 2 uses historical records to demonstrate how rebel groups in the medieval period employed Buddhist terminology to present themselves as worldly saviors to bolster their political authority. While most of these movements failed in their mission to replace the established regime, they did provide inspiration for later rulers to use Buddhist millenarian rhetoric in their claims for imperial authority.
Chapter 3 is dedicated to Yang Jian, the founder of the Sui Dynasty, who was able to reunify China after several centuries of internal chaos. Hughes demonstrates that this was largely due to Yang’s ability to present himself as a worldly savior in the mold of such paragons as the Wheel-Turning King and Prince Moonlight, who feature prominently in Buddhist apocalyptic literature. At the same time, Yang and his advisors were also able to modify the conventional image of the worldly savior from a harbinger of peace to martial salvific figure who uses sanctioned violence to unify the empire and establish a terrestrial utopia in the service of Buddhism (66).
Chapters 4 and 5 focus on Wu Zhao, the only female emperor in Chinese history. Hughes shows how Wu, with the help of her advisors, turned her gender from an obstacle into an advantage. By associating herself with female deities such as the Goddess Pure Light, Wu was able to claim that only a woman was able to establish order in the chaotic age of the Final Dharma. Unlike male rulers, her motherly qualities allowed her to properly nourish the people and guide them toward salvation (92). This task was accomplished by commissioning commentaries on existing Buddhist scripture, as well as sponsoring the translation of new sutras from Sanskrit, all of which helped create the image of Wu as a reincarnation of male worldly saviors, reborn in a female body (102).
The book draws on a variety of primary sources: religious scripture, official histories, and scholarly commentaries composed by medieval Buddhist intellectuals. Hughes’ use of apocryphal sources, written in Chinese but trying to pass themselves off as a translation of an earlier Indian text, is especially important. Throughout history, apocryphal scriptures were viewed with suspicion and omitted from the official Buddhist canon. Many of these texts disappeared forever until the discovery of the Dunhuang library in the early 20th century. This study demonstrates how the synthesis between Indic and Chinese ideas, which is an inherent feature of these texts, was integral in creating the image of the worldly savior that was both a Buddha and a sovereign, reshaping earlier Chinese models of imperial authority for centuries to come. Non-specialists will find Worldly Saviors to be an excellent gateway into the realm of Chinese utopianism and millenarian thought. Given the prominence of apocalyptic and salvific features in religious traditions around the world, this study will undoubtedly prove useful in expanding our understanding of these important topics.
Ori Tavor is a senior lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ori TavorDate Of Review:June 28, 2023
April D. Hughes is assistant professor of religion at Boston University.