In the Han Dynasty, the rulers governed China by upholding the value of filial piety. With the exceptions of Emperor Gao of Western Han and Emperor Guangwu of Eastern Han, the posthumous names given to Han emperors all start with the character “Xiao” (filial piety). In politics, filial piety and integrity served as the standards for selecting local government officials. In the academia, the Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing) was strongly endorsed. Socially, the ethnics of observing mourning rituals, mourning for the dead, and repaying parents’ care and kindness were greatly emphasized. As a result of the Han focus on filial piety, such values become deeply embedded in the Chinese culture. In the early introduction of Buddhism to China, religious activities such as scripture translation and religious teachings took place, but Chinese were forbidden to renounce the world by becoming monks and nuns. Therefore, at this time Buddhism did not visibly conflict with the traditional filial values. However, as more and more individuals became monks and nuns, such religious practices clashed with the filial beliefs that had been established since the Han Dynasty. As monks and nuns had shaved heads and burn marks on their scalp, their actions directly contradicted with the fundamental filial duty of “protecting one’s hair and skin from being damaged because they have been endowed by one’s parents”. These religious practictioners also chose to retire from the world instead of caring for their parents, getting married and having children. Yet having no posterity was considered “the gravest offence among all unfilial acts”. Furthermore, they did not follow the convention of submitting to the emperor’s authority, which challenged the “mandate of heaven” concept of honoring the sociopolitical order. As a result, their religious practices were contradictory to Chinese social values. These disagreements on filial piety between Buddhism and the Confucian tradition resulted in confrontations and conflicts, and even the actual rejections, criticisms and eliminations of Buddhism. To mitigate the conflicts between Buddhist and Confucian values on filial piety, monks and scholars translated Buddhist scriptures on filial piety, such as The Scripture on Filial Sons (Foshuoxiaozijing) and The Scripture on Repaying Kindness (Dafangbianfobaoenjing). These scholars maintained that Buddhism upholds filial piety and values parents’ kindness. Some of them defended or annotated Buddhist scriptures to explain the importance Buddhism attaches to filial piety. In particular, The Scripture on Parents’ Deep Kindness (Fumuenzhongjing) was introduced in various versions in China over time. This scripture was even transformed into songs and other popular art forms to promote filial values. As these acts of repaying kindness evolved over time, they were gradually integrated into the filial beliefs in China. This essay examines different versions of The Scripture on Parents’ Deep Kindness, and takes into consideration the different approaches on scripture translation and annotation in the respective periods. Such analyses show how Buddhism was influenced and transformed by the traditional filial beliefs in China, and identify the process and phenomenon of the “Sinicization of Buddhism”.
