crown prince convinced him of the prudence of this action,
but he nevertheless maintained the sacerdotal paraphernalia
in secret.
Kou Qianzhi died in 448, and in 450 Cui Hao was exe-
cuted along with his entire clan for including unsavory as-
pects from the lives of the emperor’s ancestors in the official
history of the dynasty that he had been commissioned to
write. With the passing of this duo, anti-Buddhist strictures
began to relax. But full restoration occurred only after the
assassination, by a eunuch, of Taiwudi in 454 and the acces-
sion of his grandson, Wenchengdi.
Buddhism had been subject to state control since the be-
ginning of the dynasty, when Emperor Taizu granted the
Chinese monk Faguo the official title of daoren tong (director
of monks). In that capacity Faguo set a precedent in Chinese
Buddhist history by identifying the emperor with the
Tatha ̄gata and requiring monks to bow down to him, an act
in clear violation of monastic precedent. The daoren tong,
which was abolished with the proscription of Buddhism, was
revived with the restoration under a new name—the jianfu
cao (office to oversee merits), a name later changed to zhaox-
uan si (office to illumine the mysteries)—and presided over
by a Kashmiri called Shixian. The new office was the center
of a network, more finely woven than ever before, of govern-
mental control over religious affairs.
Tanyao was Shixian’s successor and held the post, now
called the shamen tong (office of the ́sraman:a superinten-
dant), for more than twenty years. It was he who took advan-
tage of the augmented interpenetration of government and
religion to expand and glorify the Buddhist church.
One of his first important accomplishments was to per-
suade the new emperor, who was anxious to reverse the kar-
mic effects of his grandfather’s crimes, to undertake the cost-
ly project of chiseling into the walls of the Yungang caves (a
few miles west of the capital) massive images of Buddhas and
bodhisattvas, works still considered some of the greatest
achievements of Chinese Buddhist art. The first group of
caves (nos. 16–20 on modern charts) contains five Buddhas,
one seventy feet tall, representing the first two emperors of
the dynasty; the then-reigning emperor Wenchengdi; his fa-
ther, Crown Prince Huang (who never reigned); and the in-
famous Taiwudi. The association of the imperial family with
Buddhism could not have been represented in more intimate
terms.
Another step taken by Tanyao to expand the influence
of Buddhism was the establishment of Sam:gha Households
(sengji hu) and Buddha Households (fotu hu). A Sam:gha
Household was a voluntary association of a certain number
of families responsible for paying sixty bushels of grain to the
local branch of the shamen tong. That office then stored the
grain for distribution to the poor in times of famine. Those
Sam:gha Households faithfully fulfilling their responsibility
were exempted from taxation.
Buddha Households consisted of a group chosen from
among criminals or slaves who as bondsmen of the monas-
tery had the responsibility of cultivating its fields and main-
taining its buildings and grounds. With numerous monaste-
ries under construction under Tanyao’s leadership, amnesty
after amnesty was granted to provide them with Buddha
Households.
The Sam:gha Households and the Buddha Households
were important for other reasons as well. On the one hand,
they served the state by opening up new lands for cultivation
during the years when war-induced underpopulation left so
much land uncultivated that there were frequent famines.
They also lightened the government’s burden of supporting
prisoners. On the other hand, they provided the church with
a source of revenue and a pool of potential converts.
In addition to his many administrative accomplish-
ments, Tanyao also translated scripture. His translations of
the Sam:yuktaratnapit:aka Su ̄tra (Za baocang jing), completed
with the assistance of Indian monks in 462, and the compila-
tion Fu facang yinyuan zhuan, both containing many stories
in the Ja ̄taka and Avada ̄na genres, provided edifying themes
for sculptors working in the Yungang caves.SEE ALSO Kou Qianzhi.BIBLIOGRAPHY
For the traditional account of Tanyao’s life, see his biography in
Daoxuan’s Xu gaoseng zhuan (T.D. 50.427c–428a). Tsuka-
moto Zenryu ̄ ’s authoritative study of the Northern Wei peri-
od, Shina Bukkyo ̄shi kenkyu ̄: Hokugi hen (Tokyo, 1942), in-
cludes a wealth of valuable material on Tanyao and his
intellectual and political milieu. The chapter on Tanyao has
been translated by Galen E. Sargent as “The S ́raman:a Super-
intendent T’an-yao and His Time,” Monumenta Serica 16
(1957): 363–396. See also Leon Hurvitz’s Wei Shou on Bud-
dhism and Taoism (Kyoto, 1956), a translation of the Shilao
zhi, and Tsukamoto Zenryu ̄ ’s Daisekibutsu (Tokyo, 1953).
New Sources
Huntington, John C. “The Iconography and Iconology of
the ‘Tan Yao’ Caves at Yungang.” In Oriental Art (1986):
142–159.
Tsukamoto Zenryu ̄. A History of Early Chinese Buddhism: From Its
Introduction to the Death of Huiyuan. Translated by Leon
Hurvitz. Tokyo, 1985.
MIYAKAWA HISAYUKI (1987)
Revised BibliographyT’AN-YAO SEE TANYAO
TAO-AN SEE DAO’AN
TAO AND RE SEE DAO AND DE
TAO AND RE 8995