An Exceptional Category of Central Monastic Officials in the Tang Dynasty: A Study of the Ten Bhadantas During the Reigns of Gaozu, Empress Wu, and Zhongzong

In most periods of the Tang Dynasty, central monastic officials were typically appointed from among government officials, while Buddhist monks could only serve as the Three Monastic Superintendents (sangang 三綱) in the Buddhist state monasteries at the local level. However, during the reigns of Gaozu, Empress Wu, and Zhongzong, a distinct group of monastic officials known as the “Ten Bhadantas” (shidade 十大德)—entirely composed of Buddhist monks—emerged as central monastic officials in exceptional political contexts, overseeing Buddhist affairs throughout the empire. Gaozu’s ten bhadantas were a temporary appointment, yet they constituted a centralized monastic administrative structure and institutional power center at the national level in Chang’an, tasked with supervising Buddhist affairs and monasteries across the empire. This arrangement provided substantial religious support and political guarantee at a time when religious policy remained unsettled and national governance was unstable during the early years of the Tang Dynasty. It helped the newly established regime overcome the difficulties of managing religious affairs in its formative period. Under Empress Wu, the ten bhadantas of the Dabiankongsi chapel offered powerful Buddhist theoretical support for her seizure of the Tang throne and the consolidation of the Wu-Zhou regime. They contributed to the sacralization, authorization, and legitimization of secular imperial power through appeals to heavenly mandate or Buddhist prophecy, thereby securing the reverence and acknowledgment of both monastic and lay communities. During Zhongzong’s reign, the ten bhadantas of the Linguang chapel aided him in leveraging Buddhism to expand his political influence and vigorously cultivating support from both monastic and lay Buddhist adherents within the government and across society, thereby consolidating his rule. Based on the above, this indicates that the ten bhadantas, a special institutional formation in the Tang Dynasty characterized by the functions and status of central monastic officials, exemplified a complex and tension-filled model of state–saṃgha relations. This model vividly reflected the ongoing historical process in which Buddhism was increasingly Sinicized and secularized.