Abstract
Cakravartirājan is the title given to the ancient India’s legendary sage kings, a concept later adapted by Buddhists. After Buddhism’s successful conquest of China during the medieval period, Chinese rulers unhesitatedly utilized Buddhism as a resource for claiming legitimacy. The concept of Cakravartirājan was one of their major appeals to this end. By analyzing the transformation of the original Indian model of “one Budda-one Cakravartirājan” into the Chinese model of “Cakravartirājan is Budda himself”, this essay provides a case study for the understanding of the “sinicization” of Buddhism in medieval China.
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