220 in Figures 6.2 and 6.3); the notable lineages start only after this time
(Dumoulin, 1988: 98; McRae, 1986: 30). Several things are noticeable: none
of the early Ch’an masters had any of the idiosyncracies that we have come to
associate with “Zen”; and there was a tremendous proliferation of Ch’an
lineages starting around 700, at the point when the school began to create its
iconoclastic style.
The nature of the “Zen revolution” is best understood against the back-
drop of the political situation facing Buddhism at this time. As in medieval
Europe, secular stratification penetrated the church. The official temples were
supported by the state and performed ceremonies connected with the imperial
cult, and their leaders had de facto or even legal rank as court officials. The
wealthy urban monasteries and temples were dominated by monks from the
higher gentry, and the great abbots enjoyed lavish lifestyles. Especially in the
leading establishments of the capital, high Buddhist figures held considerable
political influence in a friendly regime. During 672–705, patronage of Bud-
dhism reached its apex. A former concubine of the emperor T’ai Tsung, who
had been for a while a Buddhist nun, became Empress Wu and then de facto
ruler around 680. From 690 to 701 she ruled openly, even establishing a new
dynasty. Although she was deposed and the T’ang dynasty reestablished, in
705–712 another empress and vehement supporter of Buddhism was elevated
to nearly the same power. Empress Wu attempted to supplant Confucianism
and make Buddhism a state religion, with herself as Caesaro-papist ruler.
With the overthrow of female rule came anti-Buddhist reaction. The new
emperor Hsüan Tsung (r. 712–756) had 30,000 monks defrocked and made
Taoism a near-official religion. Yet popular support was too great for Buddhism
to be hurt badly; the Amidaist temples among the people and the Ch’an
mountain monasteries flourished, and there were still some prominent Hua-yen
preachers in the capital. After 755, the central government was too weak to
enforce religious orthodoxy of any sort. A later Hua-yen master, Ch’eng-kuan,
had a position of court influence from about 780 to 820, when the government
was again very pro-Buddhist; Ch’eng-kuan was made National Preceptor and
official supervisor of the monks of all sects in China. In the 840s, the emperor
Wu Tsung wavered from Buddhism to Taoism; under the influence of a circle
of Taoist alchemists, he issued a series of anti-Buddhist decrees, culminating
in the great persecution of 845 confiscating virtually all Buddhist property and
defrocking all monks and nuns. But the next year a new emperor called off
the persecution and had the head Taoist executed.
After the failure of Empress Wu’s theocracy in the 690s, Buddhism was
made subject to increasing government regulation. In 747, people wishing to
become monks were required to get an ordination certificate from the Bureau
of National Sacrifices. In 755, during the crisis of the An Lu-shan rebellion,
Revolutions: Buddhist and Neo-Confucian China • 291