VINAYA: from india to china 195
to have a good contacts with the Emperor Zhongzong, invoked the
help of the imperial court to impose the Dharmaguptakavinaya all over
the country, his request was granted.^186 It was most probably addressed
to Zhongzong when the emperor was fully in power between 705 and
710.^187 After the imperial edict was issued, also the south of China
used the Dharmaguptakavinaya.
6. Conclusion
The rst period of Chinese Buddhism saw an intensive search for
disciplinary rules, parallel to the growth of the Buddhist community.
This search reached its peak in the beginning of the fth century when,
in a relatively short period, four complete vinayas were translated into
Chinese. Once these vinayas were transmitted in China, the Buddhist
community gradually became conscious of the advantages of using only
one vinaya. This was to be the Dharmaguptakavinaya. The main reason for
this choice seems to have been the rm belief among its defenders that
the Dharmaguptaka school was the rst to introduce an ordination to
China. To follow this school thus assured the Buddhist community of
a proper transmission of the ordination since the time of the Buddha.
Political reasons also played their role. The fact of having only one ordi-
nation tradition probably simpli ed state control. In the beginning of the
eighth century, around the same time that the monk Yijing translated
the Mlasarvstivdavinaya in the hope to purify the Buddhist discipline
in China by, as it were, starting all over again, the Dharmaguptakavinaya
was installed by imperial decree as the only right one in China. From
that time until today, it has remained the only vinaya active in China.
Two major supplements, however, have been added: rst, the bodhisattva
rules as a Mahyna supplement,^188 and later, the so-called “pure rules
of Baizhang” that offer a set of rules for the practical organisation of
the Chinese Buddhist monasteries.^189 These typical Chinese sets of
rules, however, have to remain for now the subject of a different study.
Together with the vinaya tradition translated from Indian texts, they
form the core of the Chinese Buddhist disciplinary rules.
(^186) T.2061.50.793c26–27. See also T’ang 1996, vol. 2, pp. 828–829.
(^187) See Heirman 2002b, p. 414.
(^188) See note 51.
(^189) See note 69.