Buddhist Policy In The Early Ming Rulers Duality And The Development Of The Ming Dynasty Buddhist Trend

This paper is used the viewpoint, stand and method of the historical meterialism analysing and studying the Buddhism policy in the early Ming Dynasty and the new tendency of Buddhism development during the Ming Dynasty.According to the specially historical background and the rulers' personal experience, especially Zhu Yuan Zhang's and Zhu Li's .The rulers' who were in the early Ming Dynasty adopted some Buddhism measures which not only restricted Buddhism but also took advantage of Buddhism. Zhu Yuan Zhang made himself become the first founder of the Ming Dynasty by launching the religious uprising during the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.Zhu Li who was the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty took over power by appointing Dao Yan as his counselor.Both of them deeply knew that the power of the religion by summarizing the historical experience, so they made use of the religion. In addition, the rulers' in the early Ming Dynasty tried their best to adopt the principle which was using both Buddhism and Confucianism ,and making them compensate for the shortage and leakages each other in order to perfect the feudal legitimism thought. Furthermore, all kinds of folk religions which related to Buddhism and were in vogue for a time caused trouble continually and seriously threatened the political power of the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of the establishment of the Ming power .So the rulers in the early Ming Dynasty had to adopt the policy which not only confined the development of Buddhism but also made use of Buddhism.In order to defend and consolidate the feudal ruling , the rules in the early Ming Dynasty firstly adopted the ruling thought that was "Confucianism first, Buddhism second ".Secondly ,they popularized the dual policy which was confining and exploiting Buddhism in the fields of politic ,economy ,national relations, diplomacy and so on .Thirdly, they established the Buddhism management system. This effectively overall system not only continued to be used by the later successor but also had made a far-reaching influence. The rulers in the early Ming Dynasty severely attacked the folk religions which related to Buddhism in order to consolidate Buddhism. They so rigorously controlled the development of Buddhism in order to effectively brought Buddhism into the management system of organization of the feudal country by setting up an organization which was used managing the Buddhism monks, making the system which was taking perfected vigorously enforcing the system which was becoming a monk, letting the specialized monks run the temple's economy , restraning the expand of the temple's economy and so on .The rulers in the early Ming Dynasty broadened the ruling foundation, and gave some economic aid to the temples by selecting some Confucian monks as the feudal officials. For example, the rules in the early Ming Dynasty consolidated the ruling to both Tibet and Mongolia depending on Buddhism, expanded the external influence by using Buddhism, emphasized the Buddhism morality which was "Do more good thingsinstead of evil things", strengthened the monarchical centralization by exaggerating the Buddhist mysterious elements. The measures taken by the rules in the Ming Dynasty above had been used giving great service to the feudal dynasty and yielded notable results.Buddhism in the Ming Dynasty developed along the direction of the "dual poling "which was drawn up by the rulers in the early Ming Dynasty, was comprehensively influenced by the politic ,economy , culture in the Ming Dynasty ,transmuted a new developmental tendency so that it enriched the cultural connotation and made a widespread and profound influence on every social aspect and national consciousness. The first one was Buddhism developed along the secular direction-the Buddhism of the landlord class in the Ming Dynasty was so prosperous, which not only promoted the cultural development but also opened up a new field of making Buddhism be secular and socialization .The way of the Buddhist development became mo...