Merit and Virtue – Buddhist and Daoist Foundations in China (500–1500 CE)

Abstract

Religious foundations in China (500–1500 CE) were largely characterized by the interaction of Buddhist and Daoist institutions with the state (court) and the populace. The present contribution tries to offer some preliminary insights into the endowment culture of traditional China, which is still an understudied and not well-understood area of endowment studies. The peculiarities of Chinese culture and history require a special approach to the topic as well as a basic knowledge of the relevant Chinese terminology. The endowment culture of traditional China was fundamentally influenced and shaped by monasticism, its key impulses obviously coming from Buddhism. I thus propose that in principle all monasteries in traditional China, including Daoist institutions, were foundations. Furthermore, I will introduce basic terms of the Chinese endowment culture, with a special focus on the key notion of religious merit (gongde).