Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China

Book excerpt: In contrast to previous studies of Asvaghos&dotbelow;a, Nagarjuna and Aryadeva, which focus on their philosophy and historicity in ancient India, this dissertation examines the Chinese hagiographic imagery of these figures in the context of Chinese religion and culture. I show how medieval Chinese Buddhists conceived their greatest Indian forebears as valuable resources for addressing contemporary Chinese concerns about how to be Buddhist in a world without a Buddha. As such, this study attempts to recover the voices of those who produced and disseminated the Chinese hagiographies of Asvaghos&dotbelow;a, Nagarjuna and Aryadeva, which are by far the earliest and most abundant in any body of Buddhist literature. This approach also differs from the standard "Sinification" model of Chinese Buddhist acculturation, which valorizes imagined Indian origins and the god's-eye perspective of the distant observer---gazing at once across continents and millennia to apprehend broad trends imperceptible to local agents. Instead, this study prioritizes the viewpoints of medieval Chinese Buddhists in understanding how the Chinese hagiographies of Asvaghos&dotbelow;a, Nagarjuna and Aryadeva were composed, and in turn how ancient Indian Buddhism has been conceived through the lens of medieval Chinese sources.