HISTORY

The difference between notions of history in Buddhist literature and those typical in contemporary secular culture is evident when one contrasts certain popular Buddhist narratives with the accounts of modern scholars. One such contrast concerns the very beginning of Buddhism. Historically, scholars say, Buddhism began with the teaching activity of ??kyamuni, the historical Buddha, roughly twenty-five hundred years ago in northern India. Early Buddhist narratives, on the other hand, envision a teaching and indeed a universe with no beginning, say that there were twenty-four buddhas who appeared before ??kyamuni, and recount that ??kyamuni himself remembered his numerous previous lives during the night of his awakening. In the Lotus S?tra (Saddharmapu??ar?ka-s?tra), ??kyamuni reveals that he is eternal and universal, appearing over and over again in innumerable worlds and communicating the all-inclusive and superlative teaching that is the subject of this s?tra. Scholars tell us that the Lotus S?tra was composed around 200 c.e. as an expression of a sectarian movement that eventually gave rise to distinct schools of Buddhism, such as the Tiantai school in China in the 500s and Tendai in Japan in the 800s, as well as the Japanese Nichiren school in the 1200s. In fact, scholarship shows, there is no evidence that any of the discourses were recorded during the lifetime of the historical Buddha; whatever ??kyamuni may have taught, recorded Buddhist teachings were embellishments and often fabrications of his words. What the scholarly work and traditional narratives have in common seems only to be a desire to connect their accounts with ??kyamuni Buddha.

History in its barest sense is a narrative account that connects the present to the past in anticipation of an open future. The recognition of the world as a meaningful sequence of events, one leading to another, lends the word its common double usage: History means both the events themselves and the account of events. Modern scholars also use the word historiography for any written accounts of the past, although they sometimes restrict this term to critical accounts that evaluate multiple sources and try to establish "what actually happened." Thus historicity refers to historical factuality or reality, of a person like ??kyamuni for example. The naturalistic attitude in modern scholarship differentiates fact from fiction and history from myth or legend. This distinction is not at all obvious in traditional histories and stories, which often bear witness to transcendent spiritual realities at work in the course of time.

A few scholars contend that Buddhism has no use for history at all since its doctrines imply that change over time is inherently meaningless. They see Buddhism dhism as sharing an Indian worldview where time is cyclical and events (like the Buddha's awakening) are repeatable, where true reality transcends time. They find no writing in pre-Muslim India at all that deserves the name of history. Scholars like Robert Frykenberg argue that this view is a simplistic stereotype. A. K. Warder proposes that the story of the Buddha's life, the record of episodes after his death in early vinaya literature, and the separate accounts of various schools after their schism, all clearly indicate a sense of history in Indian Buddhism. Buddhist literature in all of Asia contains a rich array of historical schemes used to make sense of a changing world.

The seeming lack of historical consciousness in Buddhism has also become a point of intense discussion in interreligious dialogue linking history and ethics. Jewish and Christian theologians often say that Buddhist philosophy overlooks the possibility that ultimate reality (be it God or ??nyat? [emptiness]) is of consequence to humans only in the vicissitudes of history—that to overcome historical evil we need ethical action, not liberation from karma (action), or that any ultimate liberation will come only eschatologically, through history. Buddhists, for their part, do not recognize a historical battle between good and evil with only humans on earth at stake. They stress insight into the nature of the cosmos and the self more than ethical imperatives or an understanding of anthropocentric history. Mah?y?na Buddhist answers have emphasized the timeless inseparability of nirv??a and sa?s?ra, the endless activity of the bodhisattva, and the perpetual danger of absolutizing the distinction between good and evil. (Another philosophical response is discussed at the end of this entry.) In any case, historical scholarship has found ample evidence that Buddhism has been anything but ahistorical.

Patterns of didactic history: National order and eschatological decline

All scholars recognize the Buddhist chronicles or vamsa literature of Sri Lanka as historical in some sense. These works, composed by Buddhist monks, began in the sixth century c.e. and were continually supplemented until the British occupation in the early 1800s. In the Mah?va?sa (The Great Chronicle), ??kyamuni Buddha visits the island and proclaims that it will become the repository of his teachings. A sequence of kings promotes the dharma and protects the sa?gha, at times against foreign invaders, and Sri Lanka appears as a model for an ideal Buddhist nation. This work organizes past events to demonstrate not only the effects of karma and the reality of anitya (impermanence) but also the necessity of meritorious works and deeds for a better future. Its concern is to understand the progression of human society within a Buddhist worldview; a sense of right intention (a soteriological practice enjoined by the noble eightfold path) rather than factual accuracy guides its author. To modern critical sensibilities, the Mah?va?sa mixes myth and history, religious doctrine and political motive. Its genealogies and arrangement of recognizable events make it historical, but it is didactic history with an agenda: to promote the welfare of the sa?gha through the centuries by legitimizing the Buddhist state.

The motif of a perfect order in the Sri Lankan chronicles contrasts with the motif of decline in Indian and East Asian Buddhist literature. According to some early Indian literature, the dharma will vanish after five hundred years, a doctrine that has been called decline of the dharma. Later texts say that it was the true dharma that disappeared. East Asian texts tell of three ages. In the first, the true dharma flourished and awakening was attainable. The following age of the semblance dharma meant that practice, but no attainment, was possible. In the third or current era of the final dharma, lasting some ten thousand years or virtually all countable time, not even practice is efficacious. Deleterious events, harmful deeds, and political circumstances are the cause of this deterioration; even the Buddhadharma is impermanent. Some texts place this scheme in a larger cycle where a period of ascent begins after the three ages of decline and culminates in the coming of Maitreya, the future Buddha. Karmic conditions governing an entire people, indeed all humankind, must be right for Buddhism to thrive.

Modern scholarship finds that a substantial body of Buddhist literature demonstrates a sense of progression (or decline) through time, and of distinct historical period and the causes for their difference. Jan Nattier argues that the variety of schemes and timetables were in part an attempt to resolve discrepancies, evident to the writers, between previous predictions and current historical conditions, and between the differing teachings of Buddhist schools. In this literature, human actions are significant for changing the world; the future is not the repetition of the past, and the era in which one lives matters greatly, especially when the march of time is toward decline. Instead of encouraging an attitude of hopelessness and inevitability, in medieval East Asia the doctrines of decline generated new teachings, interpretations, and even schools that proclaimed themselves necessary to address an age of crisis where traditional approaches no longer worked. Such doctrines often served to renew rather than weaken Buddhism.

History as seamless transmission and as comprehensive vision

In China, Buddhist texts of various schools often emphasize lineage, the linear succession of patriarch teachers from ??kyamuni to the present. The case of the Chan school is particularly instructive. Although its texts contain divergent lineage charts and a wide variety of stories connecting teachers and disciples, one story line in particular has been popularized: In the sixth century the Indian patriarch Bodhidharma brings the correct understanding of the dharma to China—a nonverbal understanding achieved through sitting meditation and enlightenment, with no place for scriptural study. Bodhidharma's robe, symbolizing the direct transmission of mind from ??kyamuni Buddha through the generations, is passed to his successors one at a time when they too realize this ineffable truth. The sixth patriarch Huineng (ca. 638–713) recognizes several successors, and their lineages eventually form the five houses of Chan and later the seven schools. Teachers in the two extant schools, Linji (Japanese, Rinzai) and Caodong (S?t?), can therefore trace their lineage to Tang China and back to ??kyamuni himself; what the "true dharma eye" sees is retained in an unbroken history.

The research of modern scholars demonstrates that this story line is largely a fabrication that served to legitimize the teachings and practices of a particular group, or to secure its place in a society of competing interests. Taken together, early Dunhuang chronicles, Song-period lamp histories, and other texts present a far more complicated picture of lineages, schools, rivalries, and projections into the past. One might see the lineage charts as evidence of the lack of historical consciousness, insofar as they flatten time into a "continuous expression of a golden moment of the past" (McRae, p. 353) where the primordial event of enlightenment can be ever repeated. Another interpretation understands the lineage charts as proof-texts that the school has transmitted a thread of truth through history and in the midst of a chaotic world.

Be that as it may, there is ample evidence of Chinese Buddhist historical writing in other records that extend beyond biographies of the Buddha and the patriarchs. Beginning in the fifth century, accounts modeled after dynastic and secular histories tried to demonstrate that Buddhism was truly Chinese and did in effect help to make it so. In the Song and Yuan eras, universal histories recounted developments of Buddhism over long periods, usually culminating in a particular school such as Tiantai that deemed itself superior because it included but surpassed all previous teachings. Occasionally these histories tested the reliability of their sources and their chronologies. Though these texts often mix realistic geography with mythical cosmology, they show that Buddhists in China also incorporated critical methods in composing history as a comprehensive vision.

History as regeneration of a cosmological order

Buddhist Tibet is distinguished by its layers of historical writing. According to one group of popular stories, Tibet is converted to Buddhism in the eighth century when the great Indian master, Padmasambhava, wields his magical powers to subdue local spirits and demons and persuades them to take an oath to protect the dharma from then on. He establishes Tibet's first monastery at Bsam yas (Samye). His ability to see the future as well as the past inspires him to hide certain "treasures," including texts imparting ancient or even timeless wisdom that will be discovered in future times when they are needed and can be understood. Many stories celebrate great lamas through the centuries as treasure discoverers. Chronicles about the Tibetan empire, from 650 to the early 800s c.e., also tell of the introduction of Buddhism from China. The very first emperors marry Chinese princesses who bring the new religion to the land. Then about 760 Khri srong lde btsam (Tri Songdetsen) expands the empire into rival China and patronizes Indian Buddhism; it is he who invites Padmasambhava and establishes the first monastery. About 850 the last emperor persecutes Buddhism and initiates the dark ages lasting a century, until Buddhism is revived. Tibet appears as a field of sa?s?ra ripe for the salvific work of numerous bodhisattvas, many appearing as rulers. Their dominion, in some accounts, is like that of the Buddha Vairocana in his own realm.

Modern scholarship reads these accounts as embellished legends recorded centuries later and meant to associate the unification of Tibet with the arrival and flourishing of Buddhism. The later chronicles, along with numerous genealogies and sectarian histories, were composed to ensure political continuity and preservation of a tradition. The "treasure" texts are apocryphal revelations that link a later time to the imperial period. Like the rich tradition of various lamas' autobiographies, they show an awareness of the development and differentiation of time periods. Yet the idea of reincarnation and the reappearance of bodhisattvas, such as Avalokite?vara in the person of the Dalai Lama, extend the sense of historical time far beyond the scope of merely human activity.

Visionary history, critical history, and history as the field of emptiness

Japanese historical writing includes both works that mix eschatological history with indigenous motifs, and others that criticize the scheme of decline and the sectarian biases of Buddhist comprehensive histories. The monk Jien's Gukansh? (Miscellany of Ignorant Views) of 1219 attempts to explain the tumultuous present by the karmic influences of previous times, leading to this age of the final dharma. The emperors, who are of divine origin and occasionally are incarnations of the Buddha, can still wield the dharma and gain the gods' blessings to arrest the decline and establish peace and order. This work envisions a single course of events that shape the nation, have human as well as divine causes, and lead to a variable future depending upon the actions of the rulers. It exemplifies visionary history, a supernatural interpretation of why the present is as it is and how the future can be better. A hundred years later the Pure Land monk Gy?nen (1240–1321) wrote an account titled the Sangoku bupp? denzu engi (Circumstances of the Transmission of the Buddha-dharma in the Three Countries of India, China, and Japan) that disputes the prevailing philosophy of final dharma and explains Japanese Buddhism in terms of Indian and Chinese Buddhism. The transhistorical, unconditioned dharma is mediated by geographical and cultural factors. Gy?nen's work counts as international, if idealized, religious history.

Tominaga Nakamoto's more realistic work of 1745, Shutsuj? k?go (Emerging from Meditation) argues that Buddhism develops by reforming what came before and then appealing to the authority of the founder in order to justify the reforms as a return to original teachings—as if no essential change had taken place. His work articulates several criteria of textual criticism to uncover this process, and concludes that ??kyamuni Buddha could not have taught Mah?y?na Buddhism. His writing represents a rare instance of critical history in the service of Buddhism. Yet as late as 1935 the Pure Land thinker Soga Ry?jin, rejecting naturalist as well as nationalist and Marxist explanations, proposed that Buddhist history is the time-transcendent dharma being realized in time by those who experience and practice it.

Twentieth-century Japanese Buddhist philosophers offer some of the very few attempts to formulate a specifically Buddhist interpretation of what makes history possible. Nishitani Keiji argues that ??nyat? is what enables history to be free of predetermination and thus to be real. For the future to remain open and historical existence to be meaningful, emptiness must underlie each and every moment thus ensuring its absolute newness. Nishitani's history as the field of emptiness does not consider the discrimination required by historians to select events of primary significance. But it does envision the task, common to the Buddhist senses of history sketched here, that the present must be accounted for not only in terms of the past with an eye to the future, but also as a moment in a cosmos that is beginningless, endless, and conditioned by timeless truth.

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John C. Maraldo