The Court Of Wu Zetian Period Of Buddhist Activities

Buddhist activities were prosperous in palace at Emperor Wu Ze-tian's period. At that time, many famous Buddhist temples emerged in the two capital area, Chang'an area and Luoyang area. The inner place for Buddhist ceremonies, called neidaochang, was established in the imperial palace. And the famous Fa'men Temple was developed into an imperial neidaochang exclusively open for imperial and noble family to take part in Buddhist ceremonies, because there deposited the real Buddhist relics left after the cremation of Buddhas, known as sheli, and the imperial family paid special attention to it. A lot of famous monks were calling on to go into the capital city, participating in the activities of translating, explaining, and reciting Buddhist scripture, welcoming and worshipping the bone of Buddha. During that period, Buddhist activities were universally flourishing in palace.The flourish of the Buddhist activities had much effect on almost all aspects of society, including politics, thoughts, Buddhist theories and culture. In the political aspect, Buddhism was gradually seeping into the upper political life. The relationship between politics and Buddhism was becoming closer and closer, showing the trend of interactive development. In the aspect of thoughts, Buddhist thoughts had intruded into the life of some noble people, and had been changing their thinking method and living custom. In the aspect of Buddhist theories, the flourish of palace Buddhist activities promoted the development and complement of Chinese-style Buddhist theories such as the Huayan Faction and the Chan Faction. In the social and cultural aspect, the flourish of Buddhism on one hand brought burden to the social economy and on the other hand accelerated the prosperity of native culture and the communication of international culture.