Buddhist Monks in the Northern Song and the Development of Zijiang River Basin: A Historical Perspective

This paper explores the role of Buddhist monks in assisting the imperial government in opening up frontier regions in the northern Song dynasty, with special reference to the Zijiang river basin in central Hunan. There is documentary evidence of Buddhist monks and Meishan Man aboriginal groups active in the region from the Tang and Five Dynasties period. During the northern Song, when the region lay on the frontier of the empire, it was forcibly opened by the imperial government with the assistance of Buddhist monks. In this process, the imperial government made use of Buddhism to establish imperial authority and create a new social order.