East Asia: Center of the World - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 283

Figure 10-1 1
This is called “White Horse Pagoda.” It was built
by a Buddhist monk in honor of his faithful horse
who carried him along the Silk Route. Photograph
courtesy of B. A. Weightman.

vealed developments in Mahayana Buddhism, as well as
China' s communications with the outside world.
Fa Xian traveled the Silk Route to Afghanistan and
later went on to India. From the Ganges Delta, he visited
Sri Lanka and Sumatra before returning to Shandong in
414. Then, with the support of various rulers who hosted
thousands of visiting monks from India, Buddhism made
a phenomenal rise in China.

When I visited rural and urban homes in sev-
eral regions of China, I noticed that many new
pieces of furniture were painted either red or green.

THE COMING OF BUDDHISM
Buddhism entered China from India in the first century
AD This new religion spread quickly along the Silk
Route (Figures 10-10 and 10-11). By the time of the Sui
Dynasty (589-618), it was the dominant faith among the
merchants and soldiers travelling the trail. Buddhist
monks constructed monasteries at oases, and these be-
came inns and even banks for travellers. Dunhuang be-
came a significant staging point: this is where travellers
would choose between the northern or southern route as
the safest passage westward.
Dunhuang housed a large and elaborate Buddhist art
treasury . Around 366, monks began to cut caves into
cliffs and then carving and painting the interiors. This
labyrinth of caves contains nearly 500,000 square feet of
murals and 2,000 statues of various sizes. In the Tang
Dynasty (618-906), there were more than 1,000 caves.
T Today there are 486. These Mogao Caves are one of
China' s prized tourist attractions.
In the political chaos following the Han Dynasty (see
the next section), Buddhism' s nonsecular belief system
appealed to many people and Buddhist monks were able
to assert their authority . Because there were few texts and
many questions, in 399 the pilgrim Fa Xian (Fa Hsien)
journeyed to India for manuscripts and advice. His ac-
count of his trip, A Record of the Buddhist Countries , re-

Dynasties Rule the Middle
Kingdom

For more than 3,000 years of its history , the vast region
of China was held together with varying degrees of suc-
cess by a series of dynasties . These were periods of rule
by one family . Under the dynastic system an emperor
ruled for life. Upon the emperor' s death, his heir became
the new emperor. If the dynasty kept the Mandate of
Heaven, its future was safe. If it lost this all-important
favor, it could cease to exist altogether.
Natural disasters and disturbances of order were seen
as portents of Heaven' s displeasure with the mistakes of
rulers and as cause for rebellion. During the Han Dynasty
(206 BC -220 AD ) the emperor presided over special rituals
at the imperial capital to intercede with Heaven for appro-
priate rain, bountiful harvests, and freedom from natural
and human-made catastrophes. Even so, many dynasties,
having become weak and corrupt, collapsed in coincidence
with calamitous events. Floods were often precipitated by
the emperor' s failure to maintain water-control works.
Eventually , a just leader would come to power and bring
order to the land and the dynastic cycle would begin again.