Abstract

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Title:: Nation, masses and Buddhism: historical psychological construction of Buddha worship during Xixia dynasty

Keywords:: School of History and Culture; Shaanxi Normal University; Xi‘an 710119; Shaanxi; China

Abstract:: This paper analyzes different historical psychologies of Buddha worship between the ruling class and the masses in the respect of printed Buddhist scriptures, vow texts and Xixia Buddhism policy. According to the analysis, there are two main factors which promote the Buddha worship: political advocate from the upper ruling class and faith in life of the masses from the lower class. It also reveals that there are some similarities and differences between the above two classes in their subjective psychologies. Their common aspect lies in that as natural persons, they all have the religious wish to remove the suffering in their lives by paying respect to Buddha piously. Their difference lies in that there is strong political intention for the ruling class, with overall ruling scope as its focus; while there is a strong taste of life for the masses from the lower class, with getting rid of their existence dilemma as their focus. The analysis shows that the rise of Buddhism has been stimulated by the different psychological demands of two different classes in Xixia dynasty.