A Study On The Buddhist Qigong Power Method Of "Song Monk Biography" As Clue

Various Chinese ancient technics of self-cultivation are collectively called Qigong; those based on Buddhist theories are called Buddhist Qigong. Since Buddhism has been spreading in China for such a long time and Chinese historiography tradition plays an assistor role, Chinese Buddhism leaves abundant document materials to pass on, much of which are relevant to Buddhist Qigong.The traditional Chinese medical Qigong is aimed at preserving health and curing diseases, and therefore it is different from other factions of Qigong. All Qigong technics that have an effect of preserving health and curing diseases can be concluded in the scope of traditional Chinese medical Qigong science. Traditional Chinese medical Qigong, as a discipline, has a history of no more than 20 years. Meanwhile, only a relatively small number of people are professionals engaging in traditional Chinese medical Qigong. As a result, Buddhist Qigong has not been systemized yet, though many of Buddhist Qigong technics can be defined as traditional Chinese medical Qigong technics.Buddhism was introduced into China in late Han Dynasty, and developed dramatically fast in the following hundreds of years. During the period of Sui and Tang dynasties, Chinese Buddhism reached its historical summit. The core tenet of Buddhism is to discard bitterness to gain happiness. Approaches to realize the tenet can be summarized as Jiemen and Xingmen. Jiemen is to learn about Buddhist theories by studying classics, while Xingmen is to confirm the classic theories by personally practicing according to corresponsive theories. Both are indispensable and equally important.Eminent monks in ancient China abided by this basic principle for all their lives. Unfortunately, since Song and Yuan dynasties, Buddhism has been experiencing a long-term recession. Compared with Xingmen, Jiemen is easier to maintain because of its classic explanation and commentaries. However, Xingmen, i.e. practice, suffered severe recession.The renaissance of Buddism in late Qing Dynasty is not only self-drive of Buddhism, but Chinese people’s public activity stimulated by the Western ideological trend. Western cultures lacked the tradition as Buddhism that knowledge and practice are both of importance. Furthermore, in late Qing Dynasty Chinese people lost confidence in traditional Chinese culture. Accordingly, Chinese people unconsciously assessed Buddhism from the perspective of Western philosophies and religions.In the eyes of Chinese scholars in late Qing Dynasty, Buddhism is a religion of polytheism, which was considered lower in terms of Western religions. And the philosophy of Buddhism belongs to idealism and is very exquisite. Therefore, since the late Qing Dynasty, scholars with or without faith in Buddhism have placed their research passion to theory analysis and studied Buddhist theories as a philosophy. Such study approach has academic value, but conclusions received by such an approach are partial and cannot comprehensively reflect Chinese Buddhism because of ignorance of monks’practice.The approaches of this essay include document research, theoretical and comparative study, field study and quantization study, taking The Biography of Eminent Monks in Song Dynasty as a clue. Based on those above, this essay systematically explores the self-cultivation ways people employed in Tang and Song dynasties. The ultimate purpose is to systemize the Buddhist ways of self-cultivation in Tang and Song dynasties, further to provide references for the development and spread of traditional Chinese medical Qigong; the second purpose is to present a new perspective to learn about Chinese Buddhism.This essay consists of seven parts:The preface, An overview of Buddhist Qigong in The Biography of Eminent Monks in Song Dynasty, The characteristics of Buddhist Qigong, Buddhist Qigong of observing by following the documents, Buddhist Qigong of observing the true mind, Buddhist Qigong of observing the delusive mind, and Mutual reference of Buddhist Qigong and traditional Chinese medical Qigong. The essay discusses about self-cultivation via Buddhist Qigong in Tang and Song dynasties, in order to completely illustrate the general picture of Buddhist Qigong.The preface discusses about the general conditions of Buddhist self-cultivation in China from the historical perspective. Since Sui, Tang and Song dynasties are the summit period of Chinese Buddism, this essay chooses this period as the research target. Besides, the preface presents the purpose and value of this essay, the referred materials and adopted approaches.In the chapter of "An overview of Buddhist Qigong in The Biography of Eminent Monks in Song Dynasty", it is explained why this book plays the role of the research clue. A statistics analysis is conducted on the documents relating to Monks’practicing Buddhist Qigong, to acquire a primary understanding of general popularity situation of Buddhist Qigong in Tang and Song dynasties. At the end of this chapter, readers will read about the standard to distinguish Buddhist Qigong and Buddhist self-cultivation activities.The following chapter of "The characteristics of Buddhist Qigong" introduces general characteristics of Buddhist Qigong by comparing Buddhist cognition about self-cultivation and cognition of Qigong science about Buddhist Qigong. The essay holds that observation ways are standards to distinguish different Buddhist Qigong factions. Buddhist Qigong in Tang and Song dynasties are categorized into three fractions, including observing by following the documents, observing the true mind, and observing the delusive mind.Buddhist Qigong of observing by following the documents refers to the technics following certain ritual procedures. This chapter takes chanting, writing chants and sermon for examples to illustrate these technics’popularity, ways of self-cultivation and Qigong implication.Buddhist Qigong of observing the true mind means the technics guided by Avatamsaka1 special teachingtheories. This chapter presents such examples as chanting by observing and meditating, observation of getting rid of desire and recovering original nature, conscious confession and Dongshan Buddhist approaches. Based on these examples, this part introduces these technics’popularity, ways of self-cultivation and Qigong implication during self-cultivation process.Buddhist Qigong of observing the delusive mind refers to technics guided by Tiantai2 highest teaching. Examples in this chapter includes Foli samadhi, Yixing samadhi and Fangdeng samadhi. This chapter discusses about these technics’popularity, ways of self-cultivation and Qigong implication during self-cultivation process.The last chapter discusses how to refer to each other to mutually develop for Buddhist Qigong and traditional Chinese medical Qigong. The aim is to better conduct practice of spreading and developing Qigong.