DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2019.10.31409

Abstract: This article examines the traditional values of Buddhism that are widely used in China’s modern political strategy. Emphasis is made on the tolerance underlying the content of Buddhist teaching, as well as its peace-loving nature that determines stance on other philosophical-soteriological views. Attention is also given to the significance of Buddhism, as a language of diplomacy, extensively used by Chinese rulers in relations with neighboring countries. This diplomacy leaned on such pillars of Buddhism as tolerance, pacifism and compassion. It is underlines that these principles are consonant with the political course of modern China aimed at building a harmonious world. The article demonstrates that Buddhism has become the foundation for expanding the cultural and political influence of China in the countries of Asia, Europe and America. Therefore, the authorities of modern China show great interest in development of Buddhism capacity as a factor of “soft power” with regards to political strategy.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2019.8.27768

Abstract: This article examines the problems of the transformation of Buddhism in China in the context of its proliferation across the country. The goal of this work lies in the analysis of interaction and mutual influence of two cultures – Indo-Buddhist and Chinese, resulting in Sinicization of Buddhism that defined a transformational stage of the development pf philosophy and soteriology of Buddhism in the Far East. The author analyzes the differences in the Chinese principles founded on Confucianism, religious and social orientations, as well as Indo-Buddhist suggesting the new to the Chinese mentality idea of salvation. There are also shared moments in the philosophical and worldview positions of the Chinese, namely Taoist, Indo-Buddhist philosophy, which consist not in the similarities of separate episodes of the two philosophies, but their ways of thinking that determine the worldview orientations. The article demonstrates that the similarity of Indo-Buddhist and Chinese mindsets allayed Buddhism integration into the Chinese sociocultural environment; and the new, brought by Buddhism to China, justified the need of its adjustment to the Chinese sociocultural and religious environment. This substantiated Sinicization of Buddhism, which became a logical outcome of interaction and mutual influence of the two richest civilizations.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2018.1.25120

Abstract:     This article examines the Buddhist text, which translation into Chinese language greatly affected the formation of social principles of Buddhism in China. The authors consider the impact of philosophical and soteriological contents, translated from Sanskrit into Chinese language texts of Vinaya, Abhidharma, and Prajnaparamita upon the establishment of monastic organization, as well as social adaptation of Buddhism in China. The article also demonstrated the controversy of soteriological concept of Hinayana to social values of the Chinese people based on the Confucian doctrine of filial piety. In the course of this research the following methods were used: structural-analytical, contextual, and hermeneutic. The author touch upon the questions of the impact of Prajnaparamita texts upon the emergence of popular religious doctrine that significantly expanded the social base of Buddhism in China. The article is first to explore the establishment of social principles of Buddhism in China in the context of the translations of its texts into the Chinese language.    

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2017.12.24805

Abstract:   This article analyzes the content of categories of the Chinese Buddhism, formed as a result of collision of the categorical apparatus of the Indian Buddhism with the categorical apparatus of the Ancient Chinese philosophy. The author examines the peculiarities of its establishment on Chinese cultural platform in the context of worldview orientations of the Buddhist philosophy and soteriology. The work considers the hermeneutics of Buddhist concepts revealing their semantics, which depends on the gnoseological, ontological, psychological, and soteriological context, as well as affiliation of text that contains these concepts to one or another direction or school. The article provides the analysis of content of the categories of Chinese Buddhism, which reflect the specificity of Buddhism perception of the world base on dialectics of conditional and absolute truth, as well as peculiarities of categorical apparatus of the Ancient Chinese philosophy. The author determines the specificities of these categories characterized by polysemy on one hand, and semantic identity on the other.