From Sacred Relics of India to Sacred Sitesof China: Changes in Buddhist Ideologyand Foreign Relations in Medieval China

According to the Buddhist world view, India was regarded as the center of the world, while China was merely a borderland. Following the transmission of Buddhism, this India-centered perspective came into conflict with China’s indigenous Sinocentric world view, leading the Chinese to develop a borderland complex. During the 6th and 7th centuries, under the traditional Tianxia(天下) system in which the emperor governed “China” as the Son of Heaven(Tianzi. 天子), Buddhist emperors and the sangha－who had no choice but to depend on imperial authority for the protection of Buddhism－were compelled to find a way to reconcile the Buddhist perception of China as a peripheral region with the traditional Sinocentric world view. By the 8th century, however, this borderland complex among the Chinese had been to some extent overcome. This transformation was reflected in a shift in Buddhist ideology－from the worship of Indian relics to the veneration of sacred sites within China. This paper seeks to study how this ideological transition contributed to resolving the conflict between competing world views and to the eventual overcoming of the borderland complex. The veneration of Indian relics refers to the worship of ‘true relics(śarīra)’ and ‘true images(zhenrongxiang, 眞容像)’, which originated in India and were thus regarded as possessing authentic Buddhist legitimacy. From the 6th century to the early 7th century, this was most prominently represented by the worship of stupas and Buddha statues that were believed to have been created by Emperor Ashoka of India. A quintessential example of this is found in Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty－known as the “Buddha-worshiping emperor”－who devoutly revered Ashokan stupas and Ashokan images. In the latter half of the 7th century, the ideology emerged that Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, to whom the Dharma had been entrusted, resided permanently on Mount Wutai in China. As a result, the veneration of Indian relics declined. The emergence of sacred sites within China－where bodhisattva were believed to dwell－reflected a growing perception that China was no longer a borderland of Buddhism, but its center. Consequently, through the construction and recognition of such sacred sites within China, the Chinese gradually overcame the borderland complex. The shift in religious devotion during medieval China－from the worship of Indian relics to the veneration of Chinese sacred sites－unfolded as a gradual and nuanced process. This transformation was closely linked to changes on multiple levels, including the development of Chinese Buddhist scholarship, shifts in the relative power dynamics between China and India, evolving perceptions of India, and broader changes in foreign relations during the medieval period.