Four Buddhist Persecutions in China

The Four Buddhist Persecutions in China was the wholesale suppression of Buddhism carried out on four occasions from the 5th through the 10th century by four Chinese emperors.

In 567, former Buddhist priest Wei Yuansong (衛元嵩) submitted a memorial to Emperor Wu Di (武帝) (r. 561-578) of the Northern Zhou Dynasty calling for the "abolishment of Buddhism". In 574 and again in 577, Emperor Wu had Buddhist and Taoist images destroyed and their clergy returned to lay life. He believed the temples had become too rich and powerful, so he confiscated their land and gave it to his own soldiers. During this time, the Shaolin Monastery was closed but later reopened after Northern Zhou Emperor Xuan Di (宣帝) had the monastery renovated.

In 845, Taoist Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty initiated the "Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution" in an effort to appropriate war funds by stripping Buddhism of its financial wealth and to drive "foreign" influences from China. Wuzong forced all Buddhist clergy into lay life or into hiding and confiscated their property. During this time, followers of Christianity, Judaism,Manichaeanism and Zoroastrianism were persecuted as well. The persecution lasted for twenty months before Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne and put forth a policy of tolerance in 846.

Several reasons led to the proscriptions, among them the accumulated wealth by the monasteries and the case that many people entered the Buddhist community to escape military service and tax duty, which lasted through the Song Dynasty. The increase in the number of temples and priests and nuns put financial pressure on the state, which prompted the successive dynasties to regulate Buddhism. A third reason was the rise of the Neo-Confucians who wrote manifests against the foreign religion, believing its monastic and egalitarian philosophies destroyed the social system of duty and rights of the upper and lower classes.

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