Regional Buddhism in Action: The Rise and Fall of Lingyan Monastery from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty

Abstract

Lingyan Monastery, located in Jinan, Shandong Province, was a Buddhist monastery with a history of about 1600 years. It was first established in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, experienced several ups and downs, and arrived at its heyday in the Tang Dynasty. However, the history of Lingyan Monastery was rarely described in the historical records before the Song Dynasty. This dissertation thus will focus on the history of Lingyan Monastery from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty in an attempt to sketch out its rise and fall on the basis of the existing gazetteers and Jinshi zhi. Moreover, it will explore the causes counting for the rise and fall of this renowned monastery. As a local Buddhist monastery, the rise and fall of Lingyan monastery was not the result of a single reason but a combination of factors both on the state level and on the regional level. The dissertation will employ the newly developed approach of Regional Religious System to investigate how these various factors interacted with each other to shape and transform Lingyan Monastery. The history of Lingyan Monastery within the scope of investigation is divided into three sub-periods. The first is the period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms period, in which Lingyan Monastery was established and rose to fame through the struggles with the indigenous religions in Shandong. The second is the period of the Northern and Southern, and Sui Dynasties, in which Lingyan Monastery established strong relationships with the local and central officials and became a well-known monastery with the bloom of Shandong Buddhism. The third period is the Tang Dynasty, in which the reputation of Lingyan Monastery spread across China, but at the same time, crises were hidden behind the prosperity which finally led to its decline. The rise and fall of Lingyan Monastery reflects the trend of Buddhist development in China in general on the one hand; on the other hand, it embodies distinctive regional features that have played important roles in the formation and transformation of Lingyan Monastery.