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During his reign as emperor of China, Emperor Wu of Liang (r. 502–549) embraced and promoted Buddhism. Several times he became a Buddhist monk and forced his court to purchase him back with substantial offerings to the sangha.〔Arthur F. Wright, ''Buddhism in Chinese History'' (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1959), p. 51.〕 In 517 he ordered the destruction of Taoist temples and forced daoshi to return to lay life.〔 Some of his other reforms, such as the disallowing of capital punishment and of the animal sacrifices during ancestral ceremonies, conformed with his Buddhist convictions. Because of his constant support for Buddhism, Emperor Wu came to be seen as the Chinese counterpart of Ashoka, the great Indian chakravartin and patron of the religion.〔Michel Strickmann, ''Mantras et mandarins'' (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), p. 380.〕 Later writers who saw Emperor Wu's reign as a golden age of Chinese Buddhism compiled stories on the emperor's role in creating or sponsoring important Buddhist institutions or rituals. A cycle of stories developed around Bao Zhi, the emperor's favorite monk, and around Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen, who was alleged to have met the emperor in the 520s.〔 ==The emperor's encounter with Bodhidharma== According to tradition, Bodhidharma, the first Zen patriarch of China, came to visit Emperor Wu around 520. The emperor told Bodhidharma that he had built temples and given financial support to the monastic community, and asked the patriarch how much merit he had gained for these actions. Bodhidharma replied, "None whatsoever." Perplexed, the emperor then asked the eminent monk who he was to tell him such things, to which he answered, "I don't know."〔John R. McRae, ''Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), p. 22.〕 Bodhidharma then left the imperial court to continue his travels throughout China.〔 This account of their legendary encounter typifies Zen's uncompromising teaching methods.〔Andrew E. Ferguson, ''Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and their Teachings'' (Boston: Wisdom Publication, 2000), (p. 16 ).〕 According to legends, Emperor Wu's past life was as a monk in the Buddha's time. While he cultivated in the mountains, a monkey would always steal and eat the things he planted for food, as well as the fruit in the trees. One day, he was able to trap the monkey in a cave and blocked the entrance of the cave with rocks, hoping to teach the monkey a lesson. However, after two days, the monk found that the monkey had died of starvation. It is said that this monkey was reborn into Hou Jing of the Northern Wei Dynasty, who led his soldiers to attack Nanjing, captured the emperor, and left him to starve to death. It is said that Bodhidharma had wanted to save him, but the emperor failed to recognize him, so Bodhidharma could not help him. The encounter between Emperor Wu and Bodhidharma was first recorded around 758 in the appendix to a text by Shen-hui (神會), a disciple of Huineng.〔John R. McRae, "(Introduction The Antecedents of Encounter Dialogue in Chinese Ch'an Buddhism )," in ''The Kōan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism'', edited by Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000); same author, ''Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), p. 108.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Buddhist legends about Emperor Wu of Liang」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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