The Administration of Buddhism in China: A Study and Translation ...

here refer to the alleged remains of the Buddha housed in the stupa reliquary at the King Aśoka monastery 阿育王寺 in Mingzhou 明州, which served as the center of the Aśoka cult regularly invoked by the rulers of Wuyue.⁴⁷ In the broader context of Chinese Buddhism, the Wuyue style of Aśoka emulation follows regional differences between the style of Buddhist monarchy emulated by Chinese rulers. Southern rulers tended to view themselves as great donors (danapati), after the example of Asoka, who showed their support for Buddhism through building projects. Authoritarian rulers in the north were more likely to succumb to the temptation of seeing themselves as incarnations of the Buddha himself, the future Buddha Maitreya come to establish the kingdom of Buddhist righteousness.⁴⁸ Both tendencies exhibited themselves in Prince Wusu, the warlord founder of the Wuyue state. His initial attraction was to the Maitreya model. Maitreya worship was common among Five Dynasties warlords and rebel leaders, and manifested itself in two ways: the ruler anticipating the arrival of Maitreya and sanctioning a government based on Buddhist virtue, or the ruler proclaiming himself to be the actual incarnation of Maitreya. After consolidating his authority over Wuyue, Prince Wusu switched his attention from Maitreya worship, anticipating the arrival of Maitreya, to the Aśokan model. The Aśokan model continued to inspire future Wuyue rulers. Prince Zhongyi (r. 948-978) was particularly enamored with the Aśokan ideal, and sought throughout his life to create a Buddhist kingdom by emulating it. The Śākyamuni stupa on Mt. Ayu wang (King Aśoka) was instrumental in Zhongyi’s view of himself as a Buddhist monarch and a symbol of how Buddhist-state relations were intertwined in a common goal framed by a Buddhist agenda. In this context, the relics offered by Zanning at the court of Emperor Taizong suggests the strength of Zanning’s identity as a Buddhist, and could be construed as proposing the Wuyue model of Buddhist-state relations for the Song ruler. Later Buddhist records attempt to validate this strategy by claiming the emperor specifically built an eleven-storied pagoda on the site of Kaibao Monastery 開寶寺, with a celestial palace (tiangong 天宮) at the base to house the relics.⁴⁹