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Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (Hardcover)
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Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (Hardcover)
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Although scholars have long assumed that early Chinese political
authority was rooted in Confucianism, rulership in the medieval
period was not bound by a single dominant tradition. To acquire
power, emperors deployed objects and figures derived from a range
of traditions imbued with religious and political significance.
Author April D. Hughes demonstrates how dynastic founders like Wu
Zhao (Wu Zetian, r. 690-705), the only woman to rule China under
her own name, and Yang Jian (Emperor Wen, r. 581-604), the first
ruler of the Sui dynasty, closely identified with Buddhist worldly
saviors and Wheel-Turning Kings to legitimate their rule. During
periods of upheaval caused by the decline of the Dharma, worldly
saviors arrived on earth to quell chaos and to rule and liberate
their subjects simultaneously. By incorporating these figures into
the imperial system, sovereigns were able to depict themselves both
as monarchs and as Buddhas or Bodhisattvas in uncertain times. In
this inventive and original work, Hughes traces worldly saviors-in
particular Maitreya Buddha and Prince Moonlight-as they appeared in
apocalyptic scriptures from Dunhuang, claims to the throne made by
various rebel leaders, and textual interpretations and assertions
by Yang Jian and Wu Zhao. Yang Jian associated himself with Prince
Moonlight and took on the persona of a Wheel-Turning King whose
offerings to the Buddha were not flowers and incense but weapons of
war to reunite a long-fragmented empire and revitalize the Dharma.
Wu Zhao was associated with several different worldly savior
figures. In addition, she saw herself as the incarnation of a
Wheel-Turning King for whom it was said the Seven Treasures
manifested as material representations of his right to rule. Wu
Zhao duly had the Seven Treasures created and put on display
whenever she held audiences at court. The worldly savior figure
allowed rulers to inhabit the highest role in the religious realm
along with the supreme role in the political sphere. This
incorporation transformed notions of Chinese imperial sovereignty,
and associating rulers with a Buddha or Bodhisattva continued long
after the close of the medieval period.
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