BUDDHIST-INSPIRED OPTIONS: ASPECTS OF LAY RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE LOWER YANGZI FROM 1100 UNTIL 1340

Abstract

When people in the Lower Yangzi region during the period from A.D. 1100 until 1340 (roughly corresponding to the southern Song and Yuan dynasties) faced some kind of existential problem in their lives, a wide range of religious and other options existed to define the problem and then solve it. In the following investigation I look specifically at which Buddhist-inspired options were on offer to lay people and at people's motivations for making speciElc religious decisions.2 A religious option can be defined as according to different criteria, but here I define it rather loosely as all of those elements in lay religious life that are somehow linked to a Buddhist background. These elements could be divine figures from Buddhist texts or institutions, such as the Bodhisattva Guanyin or monks worshipped posthumously as a source of benefit; or texts and rituals with a Buddhist doctrinal background; or else practices that are often seen as Buddhist, such as the avoidance of meat and liquor, donations to Buddhist institutions, and acts of charity to accumulate karmic merit. Once we have deElned the option in the above broad way, the investigation de-