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Charles WILLEMEN*The Terms Culture and Civilization

The English terms culture and civilization go via French back to Latin
terms. Just as the great Chinese philosophers (Kongzi 孔子, Zhuangzi 庄子)
are the beginning of Chinese thought and civilization today, so Greek and
Latin thought and civilization are at the beginning of European civilization
today. The word culture comes from cultura, and from the verb colere,meaning “to cultivate”(e. g. agriculture), “to foster.” Many people now limit
the meaning to material culture. Civilization comes from civilitas “courteousness, civility, restraint.” It is the nature of a citizen. The two mentioned terms
are quite different from the Chinese wenhua 文化, bunka, culture, and fromwenming 文明, bunmei, civilization. The term wenming already occurs in the
Yijing 易经, Book of Changes. There we read: “jian long zai tian, tianxia wen
ming 见龙在天, 天下文明 Seeing a dragon in the field, the land under heaven
has literacy and brightness.” The famous Sui-Tang 隋唐 Confucianist Kong
Yingda 孔颖达 (574–648) explains tianxia wen ming: “Yangqi zai tian, shi
sheng wanwu, gu tianxia you wenzhang er guangming ye 阳气在田, 始生万物,
故天下有文章而光明也 Because when the force of yang is in the fields, beginning to make all things grow, in the land under heaven there is literature andbrightness.” Kong Yingda is the author of the authoritative commentary on
the five classics: Wu jing zheng yi 五经正义 Correct Meaning of the FiveClassics. This work has been the basis for so many later commentaries. It
offered the basis for the curriculum for imperial examinations. The text at
once explains the term wenhua, namely the becoming literate. Literacy is thebasis for Chinese culture.
Chinese thought traditionally has Confucianism, Rujiao 儒教, and Daoism,
Daojiao 道教. They express the two traditional aspects of Chinese culture.
Confucianism shows the yang 阳 aspect, the active aspect, and Daoism shows	  * Charles WILLEMEN is rector and teaching professor at the International Buddhist
College.

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 9 2018the yin 阴 aspect, the passive aspect. Having these two, there is dao 道, thepath, principle, the complementary relation of yin and yang. Nothing else isneeded. Chinese traditional thought is complete with yin and yang. Of course,
these aspects can be found in Korea and in Japan too. But there is an international dimension to Chinese thought missing. That is Buddhism. I can
immediately say that Buddhism did not begin as a religion. I am convincedthat Gautama Siddhārtha did not know that he was starting a religion. He justdiagnosed his world and showed an ethical path to perfect rest, ending
intentional action, karma, in this life. He explained the buddhadharma,
dharma meaning law, doctrine. The word religion is said to come from Latin
religare, “to bind.” Religion is a bond between humans and gods. It relates
humanity to the supernatural. Based on this insight, Buddhism becomes a
religion when the belief in celestial bodhisattvas begins. The Chinese zong 宗in zongjiao, shūkyō 宗教 originally was an ancestral temple (roof plus omen).
Then come the meanings “ancestor, clan, cult, to homour or worship.” The
Chinese term for religion links humans with their ancestors. This is quite
different from philosophy, which basically means being a friend, φιλος, ofwisdom, σοφια. Philosophy is rendered in India as darśana, view, quite
different from dharma, which renders “religion” in Hindi today. Buddhism isseen as an important world religion, linking more than East Asia. Chinese
Buddhism is the Chinese adaptation of Indian Buddhism to the Chinese
cultural environment. It went East to Japan, where, again, it adapted to theJapanese cultural environment. More recently, Buddhism has taken root in theEuropean cultural area, no doubt adapting to its new cultural environment.

The International Dimension of East Asian Culture

There is no doubt that Buddhism went from China to Korea, and on to
Japan, via Korea or directly to Japan. It also links East Asia to South-east
Asia. and to South Asia. I was very much aware of that when I was in
Canada in 2004 as the Numata Chairholder in Calgary. I wrote a brochurecalled The Sūtra ‘School’ in Nara Japan. In Nara 奈良 Japan there was a
Buddhist school which we would now call Sautrāntika, i. e. non-Vaibhāṣika
Sarvāstivāda. In China Sarvāstivāda doctrine, shuoyiqieyou bu 说一切有部, wasalmost exclusively Sautrāntika, Jingliang bu 经量部. During the Tang 唐(618–907) China was never closer to Japan. One may study the period ofNara Japan, ca. 710, as a source for Chinese culture.
Indian Buddhist literature reached China, Luoyang 洛阳, Chang’an 长安,
Jiankang 建康, and many more places. Together with the philosophical andreligious texts and culture also came such sciences as medical science,architecture, etc. . The Indian contribution to Chinese culture is more important than just Buddhism. Buddhism became thoroughly Chinese. We have

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Chinese Buddhist texts which were written or composed in China, notbrought from India. Sometimes an Indian brahmin composed a Sanskrit text
in China. Guṇabhadra’s Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra, Lengqie jing, Ryōga-kyō 楞伽经,is a good example. Chinese catalogues of the Tripiṭaka say that the brahminGuṇabhadra is the translator, but he actually composed a Sanskrit text for
Baoyun 宝云 to translate. Guṇabhadra did not know Chinese. So, he proposeda method of teaching without words. This text was given by Bodhidharma (inChina ca. 479-died ca. 534) to Huike, Eka 慧可 (487–593). Chan 禅 or Zen
began this way. Chan just is a phonetic rendering of the Gāndhārī word jhānaor jhāṇa, often translated as “meditation.” This kind of meditation becamevery popular in China, especially during the difficult times of the Southern
Song 南宋 (1127–1279) and the Yuan 元 (1279–1368). I do not have to explain
the importance of Zen in Japan. Let me just add that in India a Buddhist
school, nikāya, bu 部, is defined by its Vinaya, by the rules for monks andnuns. Nikāya means a separate (ni°) body (kāya). The Chinese bu means adivision, i. c. of the saṅgha, of the monastic order. In one school different
doctrinal opinions were quite common. In China and in Japan a school is a
doctrinal school, zong 宗. The rules for monks and nuns were the Si fen lü 四分律, the rules in four parts, the original Dharmaguptaka Vinaya. Different
doctrinal schools could add some specific rules. Chan, Tiantai 天台, etc. could
add some specific rules.
Another famous Indian who is known to have offered original compositions in China is the brahmin Paramārtha (499–569), Zhendi, Shintai 真谛. He
is responsible for the Qixin lun, Kishin ron 起信论, sometimes given the
Sanskrit title (Mahāyāna) śraddhotpāda-śāstra. If Xuanzang 玄奘 or any otherlater translator did not offer a new version, the Chinese text may well bebased on an oral instruction. The master gave oral instruction and Chinesemonks, who constantly accompanied him, translated under his guidance.
Paramārtha also brought an overview of Buddhist schools, known as Bu zhi
yi lun 部执异论, Treatise about the Differences held by the Schools. Because
we have a new version by Xuanzang, Paramārtha must have written a text, or
he may have brought an Indian text from Funan 扶南 (mainly Cambodia) to
China. The Chinese catalogues of the Tripiṭaka, beginning with Sengyou’s 僧
祐 catalogue of 518, the most reliable of them all, always mention the Indian
who is responsible for the Chinese text, but the actual translating was mostly
done by Chinese. It is quite understandable that the Indians upon their arrival
in China did not know Chinese. Bilingual monks were the exception. I
mention Zhu Fonian, Jiku Butsunen 竺佛念 (fourth century), and Kumārajīva,
Jiumo (surname) Luoshi (given name) 鸠摩罗什, Rajū 罗什 (344–413?), andalso Xuanzang, Genjō (602–664). Usually the Chinese monks were the realtranslators, attributing the text to the Indian master. These last few years I

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interpret the Chinese phonetic rendering of a name as offering a surname anda given name.
The texts which were most popular in China were those which were best
adapted to Chinese culture. The Chinese were not waiting to be civilized, but,just as any civilized people, they were open to and not afraid of any contribution from abroad. The most successful texts were the Lotus Sūtra,Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra, Miaofa lianhua jing, Myōhō renge-kyō 妙法莲花经, and also the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa, Wei Mojie jing, Yuima-kyō 维摩诘经.
Kumārajīva was seen as the most popular translator. Also the Heart Sūtra, Xinjing, Hannya shin-gyō 般若心经, must be mentioned. We now know that thisbrief text most likely was a Chinese composition, given by a sick person in
Sichuan to Xuanzang before his departure for India. I always offer both the
Chinese and the Japanese to show the common culture. Sometimes thetransmission went from Japan to China. I especially think of the re-introduction of esoteric Buddhism, Mizong 密宗, to China. Japanese Shingon 真言,
meaning mantra, “true words”, was re-introduced to China. That is why evenin China one speaks about Zhenyan 真言 today.

The case of Pure Land Buddhism

The most popular form of Buddhism in East Asia today is so-called Pure
Land Buddhism, the cult of Amitābha. In China the Pure Land is known as
Jingtu 净土, and in Japan as Jōdo. In India a Buddhist paradise is known,called Sukhāvatī, Happy Land. A Chinese rendering of this Indian term couldbe Jile, Gokuraku 极乐, Extremely Happy. Jile actually means Abhi (or ati°)
rati, Akṣobhya’s Mahāsāṅghika paradise, which, already before Christ, wasassociated with Amitābha’s Western Paradise, Jingtu. But there is no Indian
school with the name Jingtu. It is immediately clear for any scholar thatsukha, happy, does not mean jing, pure. The Chinese jing is an ancienttranslation for Sanskrit śubha, pleasant. Chinese knows three periods oftranslations from Indian literature:1. Ancient translations, gu yi 古译, based on
Prakrit, Middle Indian languages, mainly Gāndhārī, the language of theGandhāran cultural area, known in China as Jibin 罽宾. Jibin, by the way, is
not just Kaśmīra, but mainly Gandhāra (Pakistan) and Bactria (northern
Afghanistan). Kaśmīra is part of Jibin from the time of king Kaniṣka (155–179) on. This first period has translators such as the Parthian An Shigao 安世
高 (Ashkani), active in Luoyang ca. 148–170. At the end of this period one
notices such famous Indians as Saṅghadeva, Sengqie Tipo 僧伽提婆. He
arrived in Chang’an ca. 383, was with Huiyuan 慧远 on Mount Lu 庐山 in391, and died in Jiankang (Nanjing) ca. 400. 2. Old translations, jiu yi 旧译,
based on Sanskrit. This period begins with Kumārajīva, who arrived in
Chang’an on the eighth of February, 402. At the end of this period one

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notices Paramārtha, Zhendi, Shintai 真谛 (499–569). 3. New translations, xin
yi 新译, based on Sanskrit. This is the time when Xuanzang (602–664) was
active in Chang’an, after his return from India in 645. It must be mentionedthat the terminology of Kumārajīva remained more popular. E. g.
Avalokiteśvara is better known as Guanshi Yin 观世音, or as Guanyin 观音(Zhu Daosheng’s, 355–434, 竺道生, term, a disciple of Kumārajīva), than as
Guan Zizai 观自在, Xuanzang’s term. Guanyin looks very much like amonastic name. At the end of the third period we see the translations of theTranslation Bureau, Yijing Yuan 译经院, of the Song 宋 in Bianliang 卞梁(Kaifeng 开封), ca. 1000.
The term jing actually translates śubha in ancient translations. Alreadyduring that first period some texts of this kind of Buddhism were brought out.
Jingtu, known in Sanskrit as Sukhāvatī, actually means Śubhāvatī. At the time
this term was pronounced in Gāndhārī, and written in Kharoṣṭhī script.
Kumārajīva, translator of the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha, Amituo (A-Mituo?) jing,
did not change the Chinese terms. Ever since, we have been using Jingtu, of
which Pure Land is a fine English translation. The name of Amitābha offers afine example of acculturation in China. Amituo, or A-Mituo, is just aphonetic rendering of the Sanskrit name. We see this term in northern China,
in Chang’an. In the south the influence of Daoism was quite strong during theperiod of division (420–589), known as Nan-Bei Chao 南北朝. The Daoist
paradise of immortals was seen as a prototype of the Buddhist paradise,
Jingtu. As long life, immortality, was a prominent goal of Daoists, the nameof Amitābha, Immeasurable Light, developed to Immeasurable Life,
Wuliangshou (or Wuliang Shou?). The Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha, as translatedby Baoyun in the south in 421, has the Chinese title Wuliangshou (Wuliang
Shou?) jing. By the way, Daoism and the prominence of the female may also
explain why Avalokiteśvara became female from the fifth century on insouthern China. In the seventh century he is completely female. Images of
Avalokiteśvara show his evolution to a fully female bodhisattva. It must also
be pointed out that the name Guanyin did not leave out the shi 世 because ofa taboo, shi being in the name of the Tang emperor Li Shimin 李世民,
Taizong 太宗 (599–649). The term Guanyin precedes the Tang emperor byquite a long time. When Kumārajīva changed the Chinese terminology,
because the Indian original language had changed to Sanskrit, he could notafford to change too much. He kept some previous “mistakes” in order not toalienate Buddhist believers at the time.

Some Final Remarks

Buddhism, as a world religion today, links East Asia close together. I canclearly remember my first visit to China in 1980, when I visited the Chinese

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Buddhist Association, Zhongguo Fojiao Xiehui 中国佛教协会, in the Fayuan Si
法原寺 in Beijing. The much regretted Li Rongxi 李荣熙 was a vice-president
at the time. When I visited the library, I could see that about half of theamount of literature had to do with Japanese Buddhism. I had just spent timein Tōkyō under the guidance of Nakamura Hajime 中村元. I was fortunate
enough to have him as my guide during his final year in the University ofTōkyō, Tōkyō Daigaku 东京大学. He was preparing his dictionary Bukkyōgo
Daijiten 佛教语大辞典 and establishing his Eastern Institute, Tōhō Gakuen 东
方学院. I really wanted to see if Nakamura’s work was in the library inBeijing. Yes, it was. I was very aware of the importance of language knowledge. The main Buddhist language ever since 400 is Sanskrit. These days,
however, Pali, the language of the new Vibhajyavāda “orthodoxy” in ŚrīLaṅkā and in Southeast Asia, is very influential, also in India. The languageof most believers in the world today is Chinese. For scientific purposes
Japanese and English are the leading languages.
As a world religion Buddhism links more than East Asia. It is well studiedin Europe and in the USA, the so-called West. I hesitate to use this term.
Going west from California one arrives in Japan. India historically is the west
for Chinese. Central Asia is known as the Western Regions, Xiyu 西域.
Bactria, the westernmost part of the Indian cultural area, is a part of Xiyu. It
is safer to define East and West as cultural areas. One could define West as
the European cultural area. New Zealand is a part of that cultural area. In
Asia-another term of Greek origin-there is a Chinese cultural area. There is afine Confucianist habit to correctly define terms, zheng ming 正名, before
actually beginning a discussion. It is actually just common sense to do that.
Emotions are not a solid foundation for a harmonious discussion. Seeing how
the terminology of Indian Buddhism was explained and interpreted in China
teaches us a great deal about Buddhism. Let us try to correctly understandterminology, not only Buddhist terminology.
As a conclusion I can safely say that Buddhism and its culture are a verystrong link in East Asia, not only among the different areas in East Asia, butalso between East Asia and the rest of the world. Today we are in a time ofglobalization. We study global history and developments. In order to do that
one may focus on common cultural phenomena. I am convinced that peacefuldevelopment is possible. Nirvāṇa, niepan 涅槃, was meaningfully interpreted
as perfect rest, yuanji 圆寂 in China. This goal is not limited to any culture in
the world.