Expansion and decline of Esoteric Buddhism in China

Abstract

Nowadays, most people with enough knowledge on the matter will associate the term Esoteric Buddhism with Tibetan Buddhism, also referred to as Vajrayana Buddhism, due to the fact that it was this form of esoteric Buddhism that managed to survive to today. Fewer people will be aware of the Shingon school of esoteric Buddhism from Japan. Even fewer people will be aware of its Chinese predecessor, the Zhenyan school of esoteric Buddhism. This was a school that during the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) managed to reach an impressive amount of influence with the imperial court, in particular under the Sogdian monk Amoghavajra, which only makes the speed of their disappearance more astonishing, lasting only a few decades as an independent school in China. The reasons for the lightning rise and then fall of this school of esoteric Buddhism are mostly due to the nature of the teaching and rituals it brought to China as well as how these were transmitted in the school. Of particular interest for the political powers of the time was the focus on rituals capable of bringing material outcomes, such as bringing rain, longevity and even killing opponents. At the same time, this influence with the imperial administration did not translate into a broader influence among the Chinese populace in great part due to the school’s transmission of its teaching being a very elite, secret and time-consuming process that made it impossible to have a large body of trained monks that could propagate its teachings. The Zhenyan school was therefore unable to resist the eventual loss of imperial favor in China leading to its disappearance from East Asia minus Japan. It did leave behind traces in rituals and deities that would be adopted by other schools of Chinese Buddhism.