唐 武宗 廢佛의 원인과 영향에 관한 小考

Abstract

The persecution of Buddhism of Tang Dynasty occurred from the conflicts between ‘Eunuch Group’ who worshiped Buddha and ‘Bureaucrats’ including Emperor. Additionally, Buddhist monks who had privileges in tax and forced labor accumulated wealth and some of them abused the privileges to make problems. Because of those problems, politicians controlled and coerced Buddhism. In such times, the persecution of Buddhism was executed in the years of Huìchāng(會昌). During the persecution of Buddhism of Tang Dynasty, temples and statues of Buddha were destroyed, properties of temple were confiscated, monks were forced to return to secular life, and foreign monks were expelled. The persecution of Buddhism by Wu‐tsung weakened Buddhism furthermore which had been decayed at the end of Tang Dynasty, and Buddhism came to focus on Zen in the south of Yangtze River regardless of rise and fall of a nation. Considering that suppression on Buddhism became weakened after Emperor Wu‐tsung, the persecution of Buddhism can be interpreted as an incident out of combination of various factors such as politics, economy, social and cultural factors, religion and ideologies of the times.