ABSTRACT This article examines a case of Christianized pre-modern Chinese nationalism. Among the studies of historical Chinese identity, a concept exists: culturalism. It refers to the notion that the identity of being Chinese was based on the cultivation of Chinese cultural norms. The author explores how culturalist rationale and Sino-centric perspectives are articulated in a language influenced by Christianity via the lens of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864). While Westerners were commonly depicted as inferior ‘barbarians’ or ‘foreign demons’ in late imperial China, the Protestant-influenced Taiping ideology reconfigured this image. On one hand, the Taiping embraced a universal family under God, regarding Westerners, their Christian counterparts, as foreign brothers. On the other hand, they simultaneously retained a Sino-centric narrative that portrayed these foreign brothers as inferior and in need of education. For the Taipings, Chinese superiority was expressed through Christian-influenced language. This inherent tension underscores the complexities of the Taiping Rebellion, which was simultaneously driven by radical innovations inspired by Protestantism and entrenched traditional Chinese cultural values.

ABSTRACT Manichaeism was a world religion and the Manichaean community preached in multiple languages. In Middle Persian and Parthian (two dialects of Middle Iranian) texts from Central Asia, we see the proper name ‘Buddha’ attested a few times. In Chinese texts, however, especially in the Hymnscroll, which preserves a large number of Chinese translations of the Middle Iranian hymns, ‘Buddha’ has become the most frequently used term to address various gods. In the medieval period, how did Iranian-speaking people and the Chinese differ in their understanding of ‘Buddha’? Based on Middle Iranian texts of various genres from different time periods and Chinese texts in prose and verse, this paper attempts to reveal the semantic development of the term ‘Buddha.’

ABSTRACT This article explores the alchemical teaching of Xu Haiyin 徐海印, a leading master of the Western School of Daoist internal alchemy who characterizes cultivation as the ‘bird’s path,’ a traceless glide through the void. It argues that Xu recasts internal alchemy as a relocation of selfhood and a reconfiguration of embodiment. Practitioners exteriorize breath and awareness, identify with a generative emptiness and discard the ordinary body-image through breaking bodily borders and forgetfulness (an infant-like poise). From this basis an intention-generated body (yisheng shen 意生身) – ‘with image but without substance,’ composed of Former-Heaven qi – arises, apprehensible to meditative vision. Immortality, therefore, is not preservation of flesh but the emergence of a luminous imaginal body from emptiness. Methodologically, Xu privileges spontaneous unification with the Dao over procedural regimens popular among some contemporaries. The study highlights the centrality of body-image and imaginal body (over the physiological body) and advances a metaphysical claim: selfhood holds ontological priority – more fundamental than consciousness or material form – as the axis where human and cosmos converge.

ABSTRACT This article examines the meanings of daoti 道體 (Dao as reality), shenti 身體 (body), xinti 心體 (heart-mind) and gongtongti 共同體 (community) in Confucianism and Daoism, interpreting them as ‘religions of awakening’ while reflecting on the dominance of Western religious discourse through ‘reverse analogical interpretation.’ Whereas modern Religious Studies scholarship largely follows the paradigm of ‘faith-based religions,’ this article argues that Confucianism and Daoism center on awakening, aiming to realize the unity of Heaven and humanity (天人合一) through inner awakening (覺醒) and practice (實踐). Daoism expresses this through a cosmology in which ‘humans model themselves on Earth, Earth on Heaven, Heaven on the Dao and the Dao on spontaneity’ and practices such as ‘reaching utmost emptiness’ (致虛極) and ‘maintaining tranquility’ (守靜篤). Confucianism articulates a path from ‘investigating things and extending knowledge’ (格物致知) to ‘cultivating the self and bringing peace to the world’ (修齊治平). Together, these traditions present an integrated vision in which Body, Heart-Mind, Community and Dao as Reality are fundamentally unified.

ABSTRACT This article examines a late-Ming turning point in the history of Chinese controversies concerning belief in Amitābha’s Pure Land. Buddhist scholiasts of this period engaged in traditional Pure Land apologetics, which responded mostly to doubts concerning the proper interpretation of Buddhist scriptures, philosophy and practice. They sought to resolve such doubts by aligning belief in the Western Pure Land with the doctrine of universal, inherent Buddhahood and by situating it within the doctrinal framework of ‘principle’ and ‘phenomena.’ The article examines how this established pattern of Pure Land apologetics was confronted with new forms of doubt that problematized Pure Land belief from broader perspectives. It discusses Yunqi Zhuhong’s apologetic strategies, who addressed an educated audience inclined to question literal belief in the Pure Land while remaining sympathetic to Chan and Neo-Confucian views. It also considers criticisms of Pure Land faith from Jesuit missionaries and Chinese Catholic converts, who employed empirical observation and logical reasoning to refute both literal belief in the Pure Land and its doctrinal reinterpretations. Although these new debates did not result in a fundamental transformation of Chinese Pure Land apologetics, they deserve more attention – especially in light of subsequent Buddhist responses to modernist critiques of religion.

ABSTRACT The creation of commentarial literature serves not only as a means for the transmission of knowledge but also involves a complex relationship with the establishment of textual authority. This article examines Zhanran’s Zhiguan fuxing chuanhong jue 止觀輔行傳弘決 (Fuxing) to explore its connection to the development of the Tiantai tradition from a hermeneutic perspective. The Fuxing’s commentarial form exemplifies the shift from commenting on Indian Buddhist texts to interpreting Chinese Buddhist works in the Tang dynasty. However, the word jue 決 (to determine) at the end of the text’s title suggests that its nature goes beyond a typical commentary. It seeks not only to interpret the Mohe zhiguan, but to establish an authoritative interpretation that sets the standard for understanding it. Zhanran’s emphasis on the Mohe zhiguan and his attempt to present the Fuxing as an authoritative text reflect the role of commentaries in shaping textual authority. This raises questions about the openness of the concepts of ‘canon’ and ‘commentary’ in Buddhism, urging a reconsideration of their fluidity.

ABSTRACT The Lingbao scriptures emerged slightly later than other dominant Daoist schools in the Six Dynasties. In their effort to supersede earlier spiritual teachings with higher and more enduring truths, and to respond to scrutiny from other schools, the author(s)/editor(s) adapted numerous preexisting scriptural texts in response to new questions and challenges arising from diverse social contexts. A Qiuzeng’s tale, adapted from a Buddhist text and integrated into the transmission narratives of Lingbao scriptures, exemplifies how such revisions of the transmission narratives sought to address the practical challenges encountered by Daoist practitioners and to overcome obstacles impeding the transmission of these scriptures. The portrayal of women in this transmission tale serves not only as an idealized model of Daoist femininity but also as a negotiated solution crafted by the author(s) to reconcile the tensions between religious aspirations and prevailing social values.

ABSTRACT The artistic relationship between the ancient oases of Khotan and Kucha, situated respectively on the southern and northern edges of the Taklamakan Desert (Tarim Basin, Xinjiang), has thus far received only limited scholarly attention. Divergent doctrinal orientations and the distinctive archaeological features of their Buddhist sites may have discouraged closer comparative analysis. Nevertheless, recent research has begun to yield promising insights into their artistic and cultural interconnections. This article seeks to contribute to this discussion through the examination of a relatively understudied object: a painted wooden panel from Kizil (Kucha), most likely dating to the latest phase of the site’s activity (mid-seventh century CE or slightly later). Following a detailed description of the composition represented on the panel, the discussion will address the complex issue of its possible subject matter and intended meaning. It will then consider a number of iconographic and stylistic features that reveal evidence of interaction between different artistic traditions, most notably those of Kucha and Khotan. These observations, taken together, aim to shed further light on the dynamics of cross-cultural exchange in the Tarim Basin and to suggest new directions for future research.

ABSTRACT This article aims to explore the transmission of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (Ch. Da banniepan jing 大般涅槃經), translated by the Northern Liang 北涼 monk Dharmakṣema (Ch. Tanwuchen 曇無讖; 385?–433) and its associated doctrine of buddha-nature during the Pingcheng 平城 period of the Northern Wei 北魏 dynasty. Traditional scholarship on Chinese Buddhist history has tended to emphasize the development of the studies of the Da banniepan jing in the Southern Dynasties, often asserting that the anti-Buddhist persecutions in the Northern Wei forced Nirvāṇa scholars to flee southward. However, through an examination of the Buddhist policies of Northern Wei rulers, this article argues that Buddhism in the Northern Wei witnessed a rapid revival following a brief period of suppression, and that state support for the study and propagation of the Da banniepan jing continued unabated. The findings suggest that the doctrinal transmission of the Da banniepan jing at the Northern court was not entirely disrupted. In fact, it continued in ways that were notably different from the more abstract and metaphysical interpretations that developed in the Southern Dynasties.

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to explain the transition of Daoism from outer alchemy to inner alchemy by employing Thomas Kuhn’s renowned work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Historically, scholars have often relied on the ‘poisoning theory’ – the idea that Daoist practitioners abandoned external alchemy because many Daoists died from ingesting golden elixirs – to explain the rise of internal alchemy. However, I argue that the ‘poisoning theory’ is a simplistic, linear single-cause explanation and fails to capture the full historical picture. I interpret this transition as a scientific revolution within Daoism: from the pre-paradigm period before the emergence of external alchemy, to the old paradigm period of external alchemy and then to the stage where internal alchemy emerged and competed with external alchemy, ultimately leading to the prominence of internal alchemy. This article asserts that Daoism’s religious pursuit of longevity and immortality may be said to have a certain degree of connection and similarity with science.