Manichaeism: The Secret Religion of the East

The religion of the prophet Mani was one that was met with a lot of scrutiny throughout history. Nestorius himself even “vehemently denounced Manichaeism” (Lieu 1980, 73). It received lots of backlash from other religions who were already established such as the Zoroastrians, Christians, Muslims, Confucians, and Buddhists.  This was due in part with its elaborate cosmology, in which they were accused of being a cult and believing that Satan was coeternal with God. It was branded as “the most dangerous of all heresies in the Middle Ages (Lieu 1979, 2)”. This called for the extermination of the religion. This extermination was “so thorough, especially in the West that until the middle of the last century, Europe’s knowledge of the basic teachings of the Manichean sect was dependent on the writings of the fathers” (Lieu 1998, 1). They did this by trying to destroy its meaning, by destroying their meeting places and burning any literature on the religion. However, due to the trade between points on the Silk Road, the religion flowed eastward as far as Chang’an, and appeared in many different forms.  This paper will take into account the legacy that Manichaeism had in the East, albeit a short one.

To understand why this religion came under fire with other established religions, one must know what this religion was even about. The religion was based on the teachings of the Prophet Mani who was Persian by nationality. The religion itself was denoted as the Religion of Light, due to its elaborate cosmology. The religion is based off a creation myth which accounts for the origin of the world and the creation of matter. This account can be read in The Religion of Light, in essence in the beginning of time there was a battle between the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light. The father of light sent his son down with elements of light, wind, fire, water and air to battle against the prince of darkness. His son however, got caught and had to be rescued by the messenger the Living Spirit. This allowed for salvation for the son. However, the elements were left in the darkness, and in turn Heaven and Earth were created. It can be seen that

The next question is? How did Manichaeism reach all the way into the East? The answer is, the Silk Route. As Samuel Lieu put it, “Manichaeism was increasingly tied to the Silk Route for its dissemination and propagation and became a largely central religion” (Lieu 1979, 79). It was brought into China by Sodigan priests in the seventh century “disseminated it among the local population as well as ministering to the needs of the foreign merchants in China” (Lieu 1980,74).The first envoy of the faith, Mihr Ormuzad, reached that of Empress Wu. She was so impressed that him to all about this religion and asked him to expound his scriptures to her. However, Buddhist monks grew jealous and calumniated him. It was attacked as a foreign religion when it first began to attract local converts in the seventh and eighth centuries and the local Chinese were forbidden to practice the religion. It wasn’t until after the conversion of the Uyghur Turk leader Bugu Khan by the Sogdian Manicheans that Manichaeism took off. It was established in cities such as in Lo-yan and Ch’ang. However, the fall of the Uyghur rain came the fall of the religion once more. One priest in particular, Ho-lu-fa-shi, kept the religion alive by fleeing to Ch’uan where it later became a secret society. This cycle of coming to be and then being forced into hiding and destruction is similar to the religion of Judaism when juxtaposed together.

The above image shows how the Sogdian Manicheans entered the Silk Road and at which points.

The city of Chu’an allowed for Manichaeism to exist after the fall of the Uyghur, but how was this possible? This city was one of the “most important trading posts on the South China Coast” (Lieu 1980, 74). This allowed for foreign enclaves to form due to the commercial activity. In order for Manichaeism to exist, it had to undergo a process of syncretism and Sinicism. The former is to bring in together different aspects of different religions into one, and the latter is to make Chinese in nature. The Manicheans in South China had “endeavoured to make their religion blend into the cultural and religious life of China” (Lieu 1980, 75). This was only possible because of the fluidity of the religion of Mani itself. The fluidity comes from the notion that Mani desired that his religion should be known by all and not just the Persian Empire. Lieu noted that Mani declared that previous religious leaders like Zoroaster, the Buddha and Jesus had all imparted some aspects of the complete truth which he had received from his divine twin” (1992, 249). This in turn allowed for the syncretism and Sinicism to occur. Those who came after Mani so no problem in synchronizing the dominant religions, by giving some Manichean gods the name names of local deities that had similar functions. This syncretism was so thorough, that Marco Polo could not distinguish Manicheans from Orthodox Christians. Sean Lieu accounts for a shrine with a statute found at Ch’uan that was mistaken to be a Buddha, was in fact a Mani. Many had mistaken the inscription of Mani to be that of Muni, the name of Buddha, and many who prayed there thought that Manichaeism was just a variant of Buddhism. The synchronization that happened with Buddhism was that he was described as the last Maitreya, or Buddha to be. Mani, known as the Envoy of Light, was later ascribed as the Buddha of Light. It was only until the Mongol conquest of China in the thirteenth century that brought temporary halt to persecution of secret societies. Before that, Manichean temples had to register themselves as Buddhist of Taoist.

This image shows the prevalence of Manicheanism in China and from what time span.

Manichaeism was definitely a widely practiced religion in the East. This can be accounted for in the amount of scripture that was found in hidden recesses at the caves in Tun-Huang. There were also many found at Dun-Huang that was written in Uyghur. It can be seen that this religion had its ups and downs throughout history. Being driven into the underground, and having to hide its true identity. However, as Samuel Lieu put it “although Manichaeism flourished in China for almost a millennium, it made little impact on her literary and philosophical life, and left no lasting impression” (Lieu 1998, 127).

Bibliography

Lieu, Samuel N.C., Manichaeism in Central Asia and China. Netherlands: Library of Congress-in-Publishing Data, 1998. Print.

—, Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China. Germany: Manchester University Press, 1992. Print.

—, Nestorians and Manicheans on the South China Coast. Vigiliae Chistianae 3.4 (1980): 71-88

—, The Religion of Light. Center of Asian Studies Occasional Papers and Monographs, 1979. Print.

RLG BLOG ENTRY 10

It’s been a long journey, but all good things come to an end. The final blog entry for the year, and this weeks topic is an interesting one. This week we are looking at the organization UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) whose goal is to build peace and security. More specifically for this weeks topic the focus is on the protecting the already tarnished cultural heritage of the nation Afghanistan.

UNESCO was established November 16, 1945, and has many different interests. For instance, on the UNESCO website, http://portal.unesco.org/culture, their main issue at hand is to:

“The prevalent problem of illicit archeological excavations and the trafficking of religious objects, the expansion of the international art market, crimes connected with the illicit trade in cultural property and the financing of terrorist activities attract considerable media and political attention”.

UNESCO has stated that Afghanistan’s cultural heritage has suffered “irreversible damage and loss during the past two decades of war and civil unrest”. For instance, the Bamiyan cave site was subject to neglect and looting. UNESCO blames this destruction and neglect on Islamic iconoclasm perpetrated by the Taliban regime. They believe the site belongs to the pre-Islamic past of Afghanistan. The purpose of this action, in their view, was an act of defiance to the United Nations and of the international community. After the fall of the Taliban, UNESCO swooped in and started to salvage the remains of the cave site, as well as the Kabul Museum. To date, all the funds put into Afghanistan’s cultural heritage has exceeded 7 million dollars.

In response to this, I find the efforts of this group in this case to be highly pretentious. In wake of recent events, such as the earthquake that just hit Japan, 7 million dollars to restore some “art” in a war torn nation seems a bit ridiculous. Also, in the case of the Bamiyan Buddha statues, Afghanistan was just exerting it’s own agency.

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Islam,  a lot comes to mind when one hears about this religion. One could easily have a misconception of this faith due to the news media, word of mouth, or just plain ignorance of the culture. I for one had no idea what this religion was even about until taking courses on religion at our institution and I can say that I have much greater respect for this faith. One of the three Abrahamic religions, it follows the teachings of the prophet Muhammad, which are presented in the Quran, ancient scripture containing the word of God. This religion has a lot in common with the other Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity, for instance the word Moses appears in the Quran more than any other word. In the span of a few centuries, this religion has become a prominent religion across the world, composing of 21-23% of the worlds population. When coming into modernity there has been different views on this religions, the readings for this week reiterate this point Feminism, the Taliban, and Politics of Counter-Insurgency and The Clash of Ignorance. These readings show that people have different views on this religion and the issues that surround it such as the treatment of women in Islam. I recently watched a documentary called Faith Without Fear which focuses on writer Irshad Manji and her calling for debate on certain aspects of Islam, and calls for people to frown upon those who use Islam as an excuse for violence. With all these opinions out there, we should all take a step back and make our own judgments for ourselves, I personally believe that this is a very respectable religion and what it teaches its followers is to have faith.

Here are some clips from the documentary, which can be taken out at the Media Commons at Robarts if anyone is interested.

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Cancelled

On a different note, Natalie Portman was nominated for Best Actress by the Academy Awards for Black Swan. It’s an amazing movie, so go check it out!

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The Nestorian Church, also known as the Church of the East, was originally part of the church of the Persian Sassanid Empire. It quickly became widespread throughout Asia, and especially throughout the Tang dynasty during 7^th and 9^th Century. It was headed by the Patriarch of the East, can be dated as far back to the time of the apostles. The Peshitta was the doctrine that they followed, which emphasized mainly on the diving and human natures of Jesus. Christianity first reached Asia by 635 CE, first being seen in cities like Xi’an and Chang’an in missions by a Persian Cleric named Allopen. The religion was prominent for about 200 years until there was a banning of all religions during 840, due to the rule of Emperor Wuzong. The chuch completely disappeared, along with the Tang Dynasty in the early 10^th century. In Hansen’s (2000) Daily Life in the Capital, it showed how Christianity became an important part of the people’s lives. With many of these people adopting the practices of Christianity until it was abolished. It can be seen that many religions reached China due to the system of free trade in accordance to the Silk Road, and Christianity made a huge impact on the Tang Dynasty, in Bundy’s (1985) Missiological Reflections on Nestorian Christianity in China during the Tang Dynasty.

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The next stop on this journey is that of Dun Huang.

More specifically, this week we looked at the historical significance of the art that was found there at the cave/temple sites such as Mogao Ku. These temples house the earliest known examples of Buddhist art spanning over a thousand years, and were used as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. The type of art that were found at these places were in the forms of structures, wall paintings, and even unfinished sketches.  The paintings on the walls were used as aids of meditation, a representation of the path to enlightenment. The sketches that were found there were important because they allow us to see a  ”transitional period in Chinese culture when regional laypatronage of art for the first time outpaced imperial demand”, according to Ms. Fraser. It can be seen that by studying different forms of art, we can piece together what went on during the times of the silk road, and the impact that Buddhism had on ancient China.

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Q. Who were the Sogdians and what was their role on the Silk Road?

A. The Sodigans were an ancient civilization that were located in Sogdiana, a province of the Achaemind Persian Empire. The civilization was composed mainly of Iranians, where Sogdiana we created by Ahura Mazda. The role that the Sodigans had on the Silk Road was that of trade, mainly that of facilitating trade between Central Asia and China during 10^th centry AD. The Khotanese even referred to all merchants as suli, meaning Sogidan, due to the impact the Sodigans had. Contact between China and the Sodigans was first established when Chinese explorer Zhang Qian first made contact during the Han Dynasty in which he first explored a region of Sogdiana, which he named Kangju. After this initial contact, commercial relations between the two flourished. It can be seen that although they were two different cultures, trade unified them.