Ii, Iii, Of Akiyoshi The Political Achievements And Cultural Contributions

Based on collecting, differentiating and analyzing firsthand material in the Qing Dynasty such as archives, historical records, biographies of monks, annals of temples, recorded utterance of monks and diaries of scholars, this dissertation executes an overall and profound research on the political achievements and cultural contribution of the second and the third ICang-skyas by absorbing the important research achievement at home and abroad; furthermore the author analyses the policy on Tibetan Buddhism of the early Qing Dynasty.In this article, some valuable questions are found and elaborated for the first time; some important research contents mentioned by former scholars are deepened; some wrong viewpoints in research achievement and records in ancient material are corrected upon the basis of careful differentiation and textual criticism.The relative research results consider the first ICang-skya a common Tulku of the Gelug School of the Tibetan Buddhism. With academic and Buddhist material, this article argues that the first ICang-skya is an outstanding lama with talent and virtue.The Qing court conferred the second ICang-skya title and made the ICang-skya lama family one of four famous lama families in the Qing Dynasty. The reason is not only to strengthen the management on theMongolian ethnics but also to practice the political policy of conferring more lamas to weaken the main power of the Gelug School. At the same time, identity, virtue and talent of the second ICang-skya is also of great importance. For the first time this article points out that the second ICang-skya is from Qinghai and of virtue and ability, which is one of the important reasons favored by Emperor Kangxi. The second ICang-skya carried out two political activities: building the Huizong Temple and taking charge of the enthronement of the sixth Dalai Lama.With outstanding political wisdom, splendid character, great Buddhist accomplishment and superb capability, the third ICang-skya was of the broadest social influence and made the greatest contribution in the history. He was favored and conferred important religious authorities by Emperor Qianlong. He was dispatched to Tibet and many political difficulties concerning religion were solved under his endeavor. Based on the biography of the third ICang-skya, much research has made a general conclusion about the recognition of the incarnation of the seventh Dalai Lama. This article has made a correction according to two secret memorials submitted to Emperor Qianlong by the third ICang-skya.The third ICang-skya successfully put down a possible social turmoil by a letter and maintained the union and stability of the country. In addition, he served as a mediator between the Qing court and the Tibetan and Mongol people by taking charge of the Tibetan Buddhistmatters in Beijing, inner-Mongolia, Chengde, Qinghai and Mount Wutai. His efforts eased the tense religion-politics situation in Qinghai, strengthened the connection between religion and politics and put forward the development of Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing and Chengde.The third ICang-skya has made large cultural contributions. He wrote more than a hundred Buddhist books, including the most important one On the Formation of the Buddhist Cults. This article introduces the content of the book and makes systematic and profound analyses on its Buddhist thought.The third ICang-skya was proficient in Han, Mongolian, Manchu, Tibetan and Sanskrit. He served as editor in chief of imperially decreed projects to compile Buddhist canonical texts in Mongolian and Manchu. He compiled some Buddhist books and created new characters on the canonical mantras in Manchu. The making of the Buddhist images in Qing court was also directed by the third ICang-skya. He wrote two relevant books and participated in the construction of many lamaist temples and monasteries in Beijing and Chengde.As religious leaders, the second and the third ICang-skyas played an active role in social life. Tibetan Buddhism mainly performed active social function at that time.The successful religious policies of the Qing Dynasty, the intimate friendship between Qianlong and the third ICang-skya as well asQianlong's belief on Tibetan Buddhism have contributed to the political and cultural attainments of the second and the third ICang-skyas.In all, guided by dialectical materialism and historical materialism, based on combination of macro-study and micro-study, supported by union of history and logic, armed by such research methods as sociology and sciences of document and history, this dissertation executes an all-round and profound research on the political achievements and cultural contributions of the second and the third ICang-skyas. The policy on Tibetan Buddhism of the early Qing dynasty is also discussed from this perspective. Some breakthroughs and new ideas are presented. However, further research on some questions is still needed.