The history of Japanese Buddhism has been spelled out in plenty of websites and books, to the point that it’s as well-known as other major groups, but Chinese Buddhism is still relatively unknown. I admit I know very little of its history, so I found this great website, which provides a nice overview of the Chinese Buddhist sects during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), which is generally regarded as the most “Buddhist” period in Chinese history. China at the time was heavily importing teachings from India, and many schools flourished, though most later died out. Many of these schools and their beliefs were imported by Japan, so some survived in Japan (such as Shingon Buddhism) that didn’t in China itself.

In any case, since I like to make this blog a useful reference for others doing web-searches*, here’s a summarized list of the Buddhist schools in China (with Japanese equivalents in parantheses), based on the info listed above and in no particular order. I also translated the awkward Wade-Giles romanization with Pinyin and tone marks where possible. Thanks to high-school Chinese courses, I prefer Pinyin over Wade-Giles any day. ;)

  • Chán 禅 (Zen) - Meditation-oriented Buddhism.
  • Jìngtǔ 淨土 (Jōdo) - Pure Land Buddhism centered around Amida Buddha.
  • Tiantai 天台 (Tendai) - Lotus Sutra - based Buddhism.
  • Huáyán 華嚴 (Kegon) - Flower Garland - based Buddhism.
  • Sanlun 三論 (Sanron) - The “Three Schools” sect of Buddhism based on the Madhyamaka school of philosophy.
  • Kosa 倶舎 (Kusha) - Based on the writings of Indian philosopher, Vasubandhu and the ancient Sarvastivada sect in India.
  • Lu 律 (Ritsu) - Based on the classic Buddhist monastic community or the Vinaya, specifically the Dharmagupta version of the monastic code.
  • Zhenyan 真言 (Shingon) - Tantric Buddhism, though not closely related to Tibetan Buddhism, which came centuries later.
  • Faxiang 法相 (Hossō ) - The “Conscious Only” school based on the other, major philosophical school in Buddhism: Yogacara.

Also, here’s a nice little overview of Chinese Buddhist history, again with a summary of the different schools.

Enjoy!

Namuamidabu

* - And as a reference for myself 6 months down the road. I refer back to my HTML/diacritics page often. ;)

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