Four Buddhist Persecutions in China (original) (raw)

The Four Buddhist Persecutions in China were the wholesale suppression of Buddhism carried out on four occasions from the 5th through the 10th century by four Chinese emperors, during the Northern Wei, Northern Zhou, Tang and Later Zhou dynasties. The first three events are collectively known as the Three Disasters of Wu (Chinese: 三武之禍; pinyin: sān wǔ zhī huò); they were named as such because the posthumous names or temple names of all three emperors who carried out the persecutions included the character "Wu" (武).