after killing a hundred thousand people
he chose the Buddha
at the end of the last episode
I mentioned an emperor
one who killed a hundred thousand people
an emperor kneeling and weeping in a sea of blood and corpses
today
we finally step into his story
his name is Ashoka
the third ruler of the Maurya dynasty
he did one thing
that completely changed the fate of Buddhism
hello
everyone
I'm Leo Wang
let me first lay out a timeline for you
the Buddha passed away around the fifth century BC
in the centuries after his passing
we've walked through it across the last dozen or so episodes
the disciples compiled the scriptures
the schools began to split
the Sarvastivada built an intricate philosophical edifice
and the Sautrantika blew a hole in its foundation from within
but all of this happened at the level of ideas
the sangha was debating
the masters were writing treatises
the practitioners were meditating
Buddhism stayed within a relatively small circle
around the Ganges valley
it never went beyond
sometimes
what changes everything is not a new theory
but a man holding a sword who lays it down
and this time
it wasn't an ordinary sword
it was the sword of an empire
Ashoka's grandfather was Chandragupta
also called the Moon-Protected King
this man is a legend in Indian history
after Alexander the Great's eastern campaign
seizing the power vacuum
he overthrew the Nanda dynasty that ruled the Ganges valley
and founded the Maurya dynasty
this was the first truly unified empire in Indian history
its territory stretched from the Afghan border all the way to the southern tip of India
Chandragupta's son Bindusara inherited the empire
Ashoka
was Bindusara's son
but he didn't come to the throne smoothly
according to Buddhist texts
Bindusara had many sons
and Ashoka was not his favorite
some accounts even say Ashoka was coarse in appearance
and not favored by his father
but Ashoka had one thing
that the other princes didn't
and that was his ruthlessness
after Bindusara died
a brutal struggle for the throne broke out
Ashoka came out on top in this bloody fight
as for how he won
different texts tell it differently
Theravada accounts say he killed ninety-nine of his brothers
sparing only one younger brother from the same mother
this number is very likely exaggerated
but the message it conveys is clear
Ashoka
came to power over a trail of blood
after taking the throne
Ashoka kept expanding
the Maurya empire already covered most of the Indian subcontinent
but one region on the east coast had never been taken
it was called Kalinga
around 261 BC
he launched the war against Kalinga
this war
was among the most brutal of the ancient world
and we know just how brutal it was
not because later generations recorded it
but because Ashoka himself carved it into stone
in his later Thirteenth Rock Edict
he wrote in the first person
the Beloved of the Gods conquered Kalinga
there
a hundred thousand were killed
a hundred and fifty thousand were carried away
and the civilians who died from the famine and plague the war caused were beyond counting
pay attention to this detail
an emperor who had just won the most important battle in his empire's expansion
carved the death toll into an official proclamation
and then
the story takes a turn
a turn extremely rare in all of human history
Ashoka had won
Kalinga was conquered
but standing on the battlefield
looking at the corpses everywhere
he did something conquerors never do
he felt remorse
not the light kind of regret that says if only I'd known
but the kind of remorse that hollows out your whole body
on that stone
he went on to write
the Beloved of the Gods feels deep sorrow and remorse over this
he said
in the conquered land
the Brahmins and ascetics who followed the Dharma
and the ordinary householders
the slaughter death and forced displacement they suffered
caused him great anguish
try to put yourself in that scene
you are the ruler of the most powerful empire in the ancient world
your army has just won you the last piece of the puzzle
by the script of every ancient emperor
you should now hold celebrations
reward your troops
then head back to the capital to receive the homage of your people
but you don't
you stand there
looking at the blood at your feet
and your chest feels like something is choking it
in that moment
it's not Ashoka making the decision
it's those hundred thousand lives making it for him
Alexander wouldn't have done this
Qin Shi Huang wouldn't
Genghis Khan wouldn't
only Ashoka
carved his own remorse into stone
what exactly was the catalyst
different texts tell it differently
some say he saw a monk on the battlefield
walking quietly through the piles of corpses
his face showing neither grief nor joy
that calm struck him with tremendous force
some say he had encountered Buddhism in his early years
he just never took it seriously
but whatever exactly triggered him
the result was the same
after the war of Kalinga
Ashoka converted to Buddhism
and he wasn't the kind of believer who burns a stick of incense and leaves
he truly changed
he declared in his edicts
from now on
he would no longer take pride in conquest by force
but in the conquest by Dharma
the Dharma he spoke of
in Sanskrit is called dharma
isn't exactly the same as Buddhist doctrine
it's more like a moral order
but the core spirit of Buddhism
non-killing compassion right view
is the foundation of his whole Dharma policy
then he did a series of things remarkably ahead of their time for the ancient world
he built hospitals
not just to treat people
but to treat animals too
he planted trees along the roads built rest houses and dug wells
for travelers to rest
he restricted the slaughter of animals
and sharply cut the extravagance of the court
he sent out special officials
called Dharma ministers
to tour the whole country
promoting moral education
and more importantly
he did something that fundamentally changed the course of Buddhist history
he convened the Third Council
we've talked about the first two councils before
the first was led by Mahakasyapa after the Buddha's death
the second was the one a century later sparked by the ten points
and from then on the Sthavira and the Mahasanghika parted ways
the Third Council
took place around 250 BC
in Pataliputra the capital of the Maurya dynasty
which is today's Patna in India
it was presided over by an elder named Moggaliputta Tissa
this council had a very particular background
Ashoka strongly supported Buddhism
and gave the sangha abundant material support
but this had a side effect no one expected
many people became monks not out of faith
but to fill their stomachs
many heretics and opportunists slipped into the sangha
bringing their own old teachings with them
and passing them off as the Buddha's teaching
the sangha fell into disorder
orthodox monks even refused to hold the uposatha with these people
that is the regular ceremony of confession and reciting the precepts
seeing this situation Ashoka
decided to step in
he asked Moggaliputta Tissa to lead a large-scale screening
to purge the unqualified monks
according to Theravada texts
sixty thousand were expelled from the order
at this council Moggaliputta Tissa compiled an important treatise
called the Kathavatthu
this work refuted one by one more than two hundred dissenting views of the schools of the time
its core stance was the orthodox view of the Theravada Vibhajyavada
there's a detail here
worth stopping to think about
the Third Council
was initiated and backed by an emperor
this was completely different from the first two
the first two were organized by the sangha itself
the third
imperial power intervened
what does this mean
it means that from this moment on
the direction of Buddhism no longer depended only on the consensus within the sangha
but also on the preferences of political power
Ashoka chose to back the Theravada position
and the Theravada voice was amplified
he chose to purge the heretics
and who counted as a heretic was defined by him and the elders he trusted
this isn't to say Ashoka did wrong
a sangha in such a mixed and murky state
would rot if it weren't cleaned up
but you can't ignore this structural change
when the Buddha was alive
he never relied on any king to solve the sangha's problems
the rule he left was that the sangha governs itself
rely on the Dharma not on persons
now
what handles the problems is no longer just the Vinaya
but also the will of the emperor
what's this like
you start a company
and run into an internal management problem
normally you could solve it through the bylaws and the board
but then a major shareholder walks over and says
let me handle it for you
and he really does handle it well
but from then on
the company's rules are no longer decided by the bylaws alone
but by what the major shareholder thinks
Buddhism's era of the major shareholder
began with Ashoka
and this pattern
would profoundly shape the next two thousand years of Buddhist history
we mentioned in episode eight
the Buddha had close interactions with King Bimbisara and King Ajatashatru
he accepted the kings' offerings
and built monasteries on the kings' land
but he never let any king take charge of the sangha's affairs
Ashoka
broke this boundary
his intention was good
the effect was remarkable
but once a boundary is broken
it's very hard to draw it back
this is the central tension in Ashoka's story
he is the greatest protector of the Dharma in Buddhist history
without exception
but it was also he
who opened a pattern of Buddhism deeply bound to political power
after him
almost every era in which Buddhism flourished
had a powerful monarch standing behind it
and every time a monarch withdrew his support
Buddhism faced a crisis of life and death
this pattern
would play out in the cruelest way more than a thousand years later
but let's not look that far ahead yet
let's first see what Ashoka gave to Buddhism
after the Third Council
he did something whose impact is beyond measure
he sent out a great many missionary delegations
carrying the Dharma beyond the Indian subcontinent
the most crucial of them
was led by his son Mahinda
and went to Sri Lanka
note this
it was his own son
an emperor sending his own son out to spread the Dharma
you can weigh what that means
after Mahinda arrived in Sri Lanka
he was received by King Devanampiya Tissa
and established a sangha there
spreading Theravada Buddhism
later
Ashoka's daughter Sanghamitta also came there
bringing a branch of the Bodhi tree
not just any tree
but cut from the very Bodhi tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment
this tree was planted in Anuradhapura
and it's still alive today
more than two thousand three hundred years old
it's the oldest human-planted tree in the world
with a confirmed planting date on record
besides Sri Lanka
missionary delegations were also sent to Suvarnabhumi toward Burma and Thailand
to Gandhara toward Afghanistan and Central Asia
and even toward the Mediterranean world
in his edicts Ashoka named five kings of the Hellenistic kingdoms
Antiochus Ptolemy Antigonus Magas and Alexander
he said he had sent Dharma envoys to these kings' realms as well
from a local practice community in the Ganges valley
driven by one emperor
Buddhism became a faith spanning continents
this is a fact
without Ashoka
there would be no map of the Buddhist world as we see it today
but you also have to ask another question
in this story
what did Buddhism lose
it lost a certain independence
when the spread of the Dharma relies on state power
when the purity of the sangha needs an emperor to maintain it
when who is orthodox and who is heretic must be decided by political power
Buddhism is no longer just a teaching about awakening
it also becomes a political resource
so the question we keep asking throughout this series
this development
from what the Buddha saw under the Bodhi tree
is it closer or farther
the answer is perhaps
closer
and farther at the same time
closer how
Ashoka turned compassion and non-killing into state policy
pushing the Buddha's teaching from personal practice into social practice
the Buddha said do not kill
that was said to the individual
Ashoka turned it into the policy of an empire
this was the first time the Dharma was practiced at the level of a state
farther how
he got Buddhism used to relying on outside forces to survive
once you get used to someone holding an umbrella for you
you forget how to walk in the rain
the price of this habit
wouldn't show itself for more than a thousand years
but history never runs in only one direction
the seeds Ashoka sent out
in places he never imagined
took root
the Theravada Buddhism his son Mahinda brought to Sri Lanka
did not keep relying on monarchs
but on the strength of the sangha itself
passed down generation after generation
the Pali Canon was preserved intact on that island
becoming the text closest to the Buddha's original teaching that we can reach today
the seed a monarch planted
in the end survived longest where there were no monarchs
wouldn't you call that a kind of irony
next time
we'll step into the world of Theravada Buddhism
to see the Buddha's factory settings
over more than two thousand years of transmission
how much of it has actually been kept
have you ever thought about this question
when a good thing can only move forward with the help of power
does it grow stronger
or does it grow more fragile
tell me in the comments
I'm Leo Wang
see you next time