Wuyue and the road of the sutrasHow Buddhist texts travelled from India to a small coastal kingdom, and on to Korea and Japan, 907–978

The Buddhist canon reached China by desert caravan and by monsoon ship. After the Huichang persecution of 845 scattered its libraries, the kings of Wuyue at Hangzhou turned the flow around, sending ships from Mingzhou to recover lost scriptures from Goryeo and Japan and exporting printed sutras in miniature stupas.

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The kingdom吳越國

Founded by Qian Liu and ruled by his family for three generations, Wuyue held the lower Qiantang basin with Hangzhou as its capital and Mingzhou as its sea gate.

Core Wuyue prefectures Fuzhou, added in 947 Religious and legendary sites

The reversal教典復歸

For centuries texts flowed east into China. Under Wuyue, lost Chinese texts began flowing back in from the kingdoms China had taught.

  1. 845The Huichang persecution closes thousands of temples. Many Tiantai commentaries are lost in China.
  2. 907Qian Liu 錢鏐 becomes King of Wuyue as the Tang dynasty ends.
  3. 910The Qiantang seawall is built, the setting of the legend of King Qian shooting the tide.
  4. 948Qian Chu 錢俶, the last king and a devout Buddhist, takes the throne.
  5. 955Qian Chu orders 84,000 small metal stupas in imitation of Emperor Aśoka, each holding a printed dhāraṇī sutra. Some reach Japan.confidence ~75%
  6. c. 953–960Prompted by the Tiantai master Yiji 義寂, the court asks Japan and Goryeo for lost texts. Japanese monks carry letters and scriptures between the courts.~65%
  7. 961The Goryeo monk Chegwan 諦觀 arrives with Tiantai texts and writes the Tiantai sijiao yi, a primer still studied today.~85%
  8. 960sKing Gwangjong of Goryeo sends about 36 monks to study with Yongming Yanshou 永明延壽 in Hangzhou.~75%
  9. 975Leifeng Pagoda rises beside West Lake, its bricks packed with printed sutras.
  10. 978Qian Chu surrenders his kingdom peacefully to the Song, sparing Hangzhou from war.