The Research On The Northern Buddhist Sangha In China In The Period Of Sixteen Kingdoms

The Buddhism in China was imported from India, but eventually developped into onepart of Chinese traditional culture, seeping into People’s Daily life together withConfucianism and Taoism. It is a long historical process that happened in terms of thecompatibility of Buddhism. To promote the process, the powerful Chinese cultureacted as the external pressure, the internal motive is the efforts of buddhist monksthrough the ages. As a result of this historical process, the formation and developmentof Buddhist sangha advanced it directly. After the dispute of the last years of theWestern Jin dynasty, the spread of Buddhism in China gradually entered blissfulcircumstances. The endless wars in the period of Sixteen Kingdoms provided the rightconditions for the wide and rapid spread of Buddhism. Buddhist sangha first appearedin the northern China where the disasters gathered in this period, and moved to itsforming stage quickly. They got support by their wisdom and magical skills, keptdoing missionary work, and had a large number of followers. They established asuitable religious disciplines by summarizing the experiences, and radicated theBuddhist principles during the interact with the secular regimes. The work they haddone promote the exchanges of south and north cultures, by making the developmentof Chinese Buddhism present the communication trend that spread from north tosouth. Amonge the numerous sangha, ShiDao′an sangha become the typical case withits own characteristics and outstanding contributions in this period. This article takesthe northern Buddhist sangha in the period of Sixteen Kingdoms as the research object, focusing on the establishment, the rules and the effects of Buddhist sangha,and taking ShiDao′an sangha for example to explore the problems of China’s Buddhistsangha.