THE REVIVAL AND FAILURE OF BUDDHIST TRANSLATIONS DURING THE SONG DYNASTY

Some scholars have argued that Song Buddhism, faced with internal corruption and doctrinal stagnation, failed to inspire the religious, social, or intellectual life of the Chinese.l Indeed, the term has commonly been used to describe Chinese Buddhism after the ninth century.2 Nonetheless, much evidence challenges the received wisdom of Buddhism's decline in the Song W period (9601279). During the tenth and eleventh centuries, about eighty Indian monks arrived in China, one hundred thirty-eight Chinese monks returned after visiting the Indian subcontinent, a total of one thousand twenty-eight Indian texts were procured, and five hundred sixtyfour scrolls of Buddhist sutras were translated into Chinese.3 By 1021, there were 397,615 monks and 61,240 nuns, more than at any time in Chinese history.4 Such accomplishments put Song Buddhism close to, if not on a par with, the glory days of the doctrine during the Northern and Southern Dynasties M1:g)g (420-589) and the Tang : period (618-907).