ENGLISH RECORD 25
Maitreya and the Age of Declining Dharma
Canonical and commentarial sources exist, but the timescales and social applications differ across schools.Ancient Buddhist texts and later East Asian traditionsSouth and East AsiaFuture Buddha · religious decline
01 · WHAT IT IS
Overview
Buddhist traditions expect Maitreya as a future Buddha and developed varied ideas of declining Dharma or mappō.
02 · ORIGINAL TEXT AND EARLIEST SOURCE
What can be traced?
03 · HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The world behind the text
An original editorial reconstruction created specifically for this archive record. It visualizes the subject and is not documentary evidence or an authenticated historical image.
SALGIL original illustration · record sources below ↗05 · DOCUMENT TIMELINE
When the record changed
- Earliest reviewable baselineEncyclopaedia Britannica · Maitreya anchors the first layer used on this page.
- Interpretation expandsIndian texts · Chinese millenarianism · Japanese mappō thought
- Claim meets outcomePolitical movements repeatedly compressed distant religious time into an immediate promise of regime change.
- SALGIL editorial reviewOriginal, interpretation and outcome are retained as separate records.
06 · EDITION AND WITNESS COMPARISON
How the evidence for Maitreya and the Age of Declining Dharma changes
The date of a document and the date of an interpretation are recorded separately.| Witness or edition | Date | Editorial status | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Encyclopaedia Britannica · Maitreya | Ancient–medieval traditions | Baseline source | Canonical and commentarial sources exist, but the timescales and social applications differ across schools. |
| Scholarly or institutional interpretation | Later review | Context layer | Explains language, history and uncertainty without becoming the original text. |
| Viral quotation or modern event match | Recent circulation | Derivative layer | Most vulnerable to translation drift, omitted failures and hindsight; compare with Encyclopaedia Britannica · Maitreya. |
07 · MAJOR CLAIMS
Representative claims and their limits
Central claim
Maitreya appears in a future age to renew teaching and guide beings.
Original-first test
The claim is checked against Encyclopaedia Britannica · Maitreya, not against a later summary.
Outcome test
Political movements repeatedly compressed distant religious time into an immediate promise of regime change.
08 · WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
Comparison with events
Political movements repeatedly compressed distant religious time into an immediate promise of regime change.09 · DISPUTES AND COUNTERARGUMENTS
Where interpretation changes
The main dispute concerns the distance between Ancient–medieval traditions and Indian texts · Chinese millenarianism · Japanese mappō thought. Translation, selective quotation, changed definitions and hindsight can make a broad record appear more exact than it was. Competing readings are therefore preserved rather than silently merged.10 · EVIDENCE SCORE & PROVISIONAL CONCLUSION
Source strong · dating symbolic
Buddhist traditions expect Maitreya as a future Buddha and developed varied ideas of declining Dharma or mappō. SALGIL's provisional score reflects source traceability and testability, not religious worth or cultural importance.11 · SOURCES AND REVIEW