Chinese Buddhism under the first emperors of the Northern Sung dynasty

The article contains brief historical and biographical information about the first four emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty (Tai-tzu, Tai-zong, Zhen-zong and Ren-zong), as well as the peculiarities of their religious policy towards the Chinese Buddhist sangha. The author concluded that the first Sung emperors, as a rule, supported the Chinese Buddhist clergy and its creed to solve practical questions of the state's domestic (praying for rain during drought and solar eclipses, as well as political investigation) and foreign (maintaining political stability, maintaining friendly relations with neighboring states of the Buddhist area) policy. Sung emperors used Buddhist teaching as soft power for population management and as an effective regulator of relationships in the Chinese medieval society.