I'm looking for primary sources from China that deal with Buddhism from the end of the Han dynasty through the Tang dynasty. I'm a teacher looking to add to a DBQ asking students to analyze responses to the spread of Buddhism in China. Can anyone help me locate some such resources?
Primary sources on the early history of Buddhism in China are fragmentary, many of them coming from inscriptions, steles, tomb art, off-hand references in official chronicles, and the occasional bit of folk writing. More writings on Buddhism come into the picture in the Northern Dynasties, Sui, and Tang, after the religion had already become more-or-less mainstream and started receiving royal patronage. In these times we also have records from the monks Faxian (circa 400AD) and Xuanzang (circa 600AD), who traveled extensively in Central Asia and India in search of Buddhist scriptures, and we have philosophical discourses of Chinese monks recorded in the Gaoseng Zhuan, but sources that give something like a Chinese non-Buddhist response to the spread of Buddhism in China are difficult to come by.
Emperor Wu of Liang was a major patron of Buddhism during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, so the Liang official history may be a good source for official views on Emperor Wu's religious activities. Yang Xuanzhi's Record of the Buddhist Temples of Luoyang is a good primary resource for Buddhist life in the Eastern Wei capital. Other than that, I'm afraid I don't have many recommendations.
I'm just going through some of my Academia.edu bookmarks...
Here is an interesting paper that goes over some evidence for how the Chinese dealt with ambiguities in their transmission of the Dharmaguptaka vinaya early on.
Another interesting paper on Chinese meditation practices during the Eastern Han and the reception of Buddhist meditation texts during that period. This paper argues against the long-standing prevailing theory that Buddhist meditation texts were seen as similar to native Chinese meditation practices of the time, and that meditation practices like contemplation of the death and the body were highly valued to the Chinese early on.
This paper analyzes Lushan Huiyuan's letters with Kumarajiva and discusses the transmission of Pure Land teachings from the West to China.
A paper from a JIAB 2017 issue that provides a translation and analysis for an early Chinese Buddhist scripture, specifically unique in its anti-Mahayana polemics, which offers some insight into how Buddhism and Mahayana were being transmitted into China.