Buddhism In China Research Articles

Promoting Buddhism through Modern Sports: The Case Study of Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan

Promoting Buddhism through Modern Sports: The Case Study of Fo Guang Shan in TaiwanIn the past, traditional Buddhism in China focused on chanting and meditation that detached itself from the society. However, after generations of strenuous efforts to promote ‘Humanistic Buddhism’, several Masters have been encouraging religion to engage more in daily lives. One of the proponents was Master Hsin Yun, who was born and raised in mainland China and subsequently moved to Taiwan along with the ‘Monk Rescue Team’. It was in Taiwan that Master Hsin Yun founded Fo Guang Shan, one of the most sacred Buddhist sites on the island. At the beginning, he started the place from scratch, setting up basketball courts for the followers to take part in basketball games. Upholding the notion that Buddhism needs to engage the public, Master, therefore, has a unique way of combing religion with modern sports in an attempt to let more people get in touch with religion. Accordingly, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and other sports were promoted and sponsored under the auspices of Fo Guang Shan, which certainly topples public stereotypes around sedentary Buddhism. In the end, Master hopes that, in the future, sports can unite healthy Fo Guang followers worldwide and bring honor to Taiwan.

3D‐Sutra—Interactive Analysis Tool for a Web Atlas of Scanned Sutra Inscriptions in China

AbstractBuddhist stone inscriptions of the 8th to 12th centuries ad are important cultural assets of China that need to be documented, analysed and interpreted archaeologically, art‐historically and linguistically. On the one hand, such Buddhist stone inscriptions have to be conserved for future generations, but on the other hand, further possibilities for analysing the data could be achieved if the inscriptions were made accessible to a wider community, for instance, for understanding of the historical growth of Buddhism in China. In this paper, innovative techniques for the documentation of stone inscriptions located in the province of Sichuan, in the south‐west of China, are demonstrated. The tasks to be performed include capturing the stone inscriptions by using high precision measuring techniques to generate copies of the original inscriptions, together with processing of the data enabling improvement in the legibility of characters and thus aiding the interpretation of the inscriptions. The concept and features of image processing as applied to the captured inscriptions are outlined. In order to present the outcome to as many people as possible and to allow individual interpretations of the results of the stone inscription reconstruction, their current interpretation and additional 2D/3D maps are published within an interactive web platform.

Buddhist Revival under State Watch

The Chinese Communist Party has shown tolerance, if not direct support, for the growth of Buddhism over the last few decades. Three explanations for this lenient attitude are explored in this article. The flourishing of Buddhism is encouraged by the state less for its propaganda value in foreign affairs than for its potential to lure tourists who will, in turn, represent a source of revenue for local governments. Buddhist institutions are also establishing their track record in the management of philanthropic activities in impoverished area where local governments lack the resources to offer specific social services. Finally, the development of such activities has contributed to enhance cooperation between China and Taiwan, whose governments have a vested interest in the improvement of relations across the Strait. The article concludes that the growth of Buddhism in China results from the initiatives of Buddhists themselves, and the government supports this growth because it serves local politics well.

Chinese Buddhism and the Threat of Atheism in Seventeenth-Century Europe

Chinese Buddhism and the Threat of Atheism in Seventeenth-Century Europe Thierry Meynard When the Europeans first came to Asia, they met with the multiform presence of Buddhism. They gradually came to understand that a common religious tradition connected the different brands of Buddhism found in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan, and China. I propose here to examine a presentation of Buddhism written in Guangzhou by the Italian Jesuit Prospero Intorcetta (1626-1696) around the year 1668. This text was later edited by the Flemish Jesuit Philippe Couplet (1623-1693) and published in Paris in 1687, within an encyclopedia on Chinese thought titled Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (The Chinese Philosopher Confucius, hereafter called CSP). In the first part of this study, I shall introduce the background of the Jesuit encounter with Buddhism, first in Japan and then in China, as well as their literary production on the subject. Then, I shall examine Intorcetta's presentation of Chinese Buddhism, especially his understanding of the two faces of Buddhism: Pure Land Buddhism, which he categorized as superstition, and Chan Buddhism, categorized as atheism. These two notions of superstition and atheism seem contradictory, but in fact they are derived from Intorcetta's interpretation of the Buddhist theory of the "two truths." I shall conclude with an evaluation of Intorcetta's account. Because this early presentation of Buddhism exists only in Latin, I have inserted excerpts that I have translated. Historical Background of the Encounter with Buddhism Since the sixteenth century, missionaries have traveled to different regions of Asia and collected information about the religions they encountered, including Buddhism. They also exchanged information among themselves, asking questions of colleagues in order to confirm and complete information. The missionary reports were sent to Europe for their superiors and were sometimes published as such, but more often incorporated into larger works. [End Page 3] The First Encounter, from Japan to China Among the first reports reaching Europe about Buddhism were the letters of the Spanish Jesuit Francis-Xavier (1506-1552), who drew information from Yajiro, a Japa nese he met in Malacca in 1547. During his own stay of more than two years in Japan, in 1549-1551, Francis-Xavier had exchanges with monks and could progress in his understanding of Buddhism. His letters were very influential among the network of Jesuit schools in Europe, being copied and read at many venues.1 Other missionaries in Japan, like Cosme de Torres (1510-1570), Luís Fróis (1532-1597), and Baltasar Gago (1515-1583), went further in understanding Buddhism. Also, when, at the end of the sixteenth century, the Jesuit missionaries approached Buddhism in China, their understanding was already shaped by fifty years of knowledge gained in Japan. Just as in Japan, the China Jesuits were interested in Buddhism because it provided them with an indigenous vocabulary in which to express Christian ideas. Thus, the missionary was perceived as a kind of Buddhist monk. The symbolic identification with Buddhism went even further than in Japan, because for more than ten years in Guangdong, from 1579 to 1595, they adopted Buddhist dress and shaved their heads. However, as the missionaries deepened their understanding of the Buddhist doctrine, they realized that many tenets could not be reconciled with Christianity. Since they were greatly concerned about disseminating the orthodox faith and avoiding dubious theories, which they believed to be the tricks of the devil, they distanced themselves from Buddhism and became closer to Confucianism, whose discourse, which focused on moral life in the present world, did not directly conflict with the supernatural truths of Christianity. While Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607) and Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) had initially started interacting with Chinese culture by using Buddhism, later on Ricci abandoned this approach and started to use Confucianism as the main medium. In the Tianzhu shiyi (True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven), Ricci wrote for his Chinese readers a strong refutation of the Buddhist doctrine from the standpoint of Aristotelian philosophy.2 He criticized the concept of selflessness (wuwo) on metaphysical grounds, writing that everyone should draw their existence from an ultimate origin. In his Della entrata della Compagnia di Gesù e Christianità nella China (Entry of the Society of Jesus into...

Diputes Arising from the Activities of the Japanese Preachers of Buddhism in China

Diputes Arising from the Activities of the Japanese Preachers of Buddhism in China

In the Quiet of the Monastery

A contribution to the sixth installment of the Common Knowledge symposium “Apology for Quietism,” this article addresses a) the extent to which the familiar term “Buddhist quietism” is legitimate, b) the use of the term by Jesuit missionaries in Asia at the time that Catholic quietism was briefly flourishing in Europe, and c) the use of the term in the European philosophical controversy over Spinozism. Faure argues that, in most cases, the European critique of Buddhism was aimed at European enemies. Chan Buddhism in China and Zen in Japan came to be associated with nihilism as well as quietism, and the association proved resilient down into the twentieth century, but the Jesuit critique has a peculiar provenance. The Jesuits in China borrowed arguments against Buddhism from neo-Confucianist allies, yet the Confucian critique of Buddhism was itself indebted to arguments that had been directed by Buddhist schools against one another. Certain Chan schools had accused other Chan schools of quietism and nihilism, and Western scholars even in the later twentieth century have taken sides in these disputes as well. However, Faure argues, the “no-thought” of Chan is not the “blank slate” of Christian quietism, on which God engraves his will and blessings. Nor does Buddhist quietism lead to the extasis of mystical union. Moreover, Buddhism was perceived by East Asian rulers mainly as an ideological weapon and only secondarily as a soteriological doctrine. Indeed “warrior monks” in Japan formed bands that attacked all who threatened their interests, and the country could not be unified under Tokugawa rule until this activist Buddhism was quelled. The article concludes with an expression of admiration for quietism and a wish that there might be more of it in Buddhism now.

Chinese Buddhism and the Anti-Japan War

This article examines the attitudes and responses of Chinese Buddhists with regard to the Sino-Japanese war of the 1930s and 1940s by focusing on two figures, Taixu and Leguan. Both the Japanese and Chinese Buddhists were confronted with the same problems, such as the relation between the universalism of Buddhism and the question of nationalism, as well as the tension between the Buddhist prohibition against killing and the necessity of killing one's enemies during wartime. Taixu attempted to radically change Chinese Buddhism and establish a humanistic Buddhism. Leguan at first had a positive view of Japanese Buddhism and saw it as a possible model for modernizing Buddhism in China, but later became very critical of Japanese Buddhism and encouraged taking action against the Japanese invasion. Both struggled with the difficult problem of whether it was proper for a Buddhist to actively take up arms and fight in a war for their nation. Placing Japanese Buddhism in the wider perspective of East Asia, and such comparisons with Chinese (and Korean) Buddhists, should provide fruitful hints for rethinking modern Japanese Buddhism.

中国仏教における護国思想の受容過程について

中国仏教における護国思想の受容過程について

Nanzong ji Kong 南宗祭孔 by Wang Xiaobing 王霄冰 (review)

Book Notes 155 Zhongguo Fojiao shilun 中国佛教史论 WANG RONGGUO 王荣国. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe 宗教文化出版社, 2008. 343 pages. ISBN 978-7-80123-987-7. RMB 38.00 paper. Zhongguo Fojiao shilun is a collection of twenty-six previously published and new essays by historian Wang Rongguo of Xiamen University. The papers in the book cover a wide spectrum of issues in the history of Buddhism in China from the Wei, Jin, Nanbei Chao period (220-581) right up to the 1950s. They can be broadly divided into a few major themes: (1) the spread and development of Buddhism (Chapter 1), (2) life and times of eminent monks (Chapters 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25), (3) history of Buddhist monasteries (Chapters 4, 19), (4) Chan (Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9) and Tiantai traditions (Chapter 5), (5) history of Buddhism in Fujian (Chapters 16, 18). Chapter 26 provides a useful chronicle of events in Minnan Buddhist College (Minnan Foxue yuan 闽南佛学院) between 1925 and 1949. Because this book is a collection of mostly previously published papers, it suffers from two shortcomings. First, the quality and length of the essays vary greatly. For instance, while Wang discusses a broad topic—history of Fujian Buddhism and Tiantai tradition—in merely seven pages (Chapter 5), he devotes more than twenty pages to examine the life and times of Chan master Shao Qi 绍琦 (Chapter 17). Second, there is neither a linear development of an argument to follow throughout the book nor clear connections between the various chapters. Wang could have solved this problem if he had written an introductory chapter to better connect his chapters. Nevertheless, students and scholars of Chinese Buddhism are likely to benefit from this book. JACK MENG-TAT CHIA, Harvard University Nanzong ji Kong 南宗祭孔 Wang Xiaobing 王霄冰. Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin chubanshe 浙江人民出版社, 2008. 180 pages. ISBN 978-7-213-03857-0. RMB 36.00 paper. The subject of this work are the annual sacrificial rites performed at the Kong ancestral temple in Quzhou 衢州 (Zhejiang province) since 2004, supplemented by an investigation into the development of the Kong clan’s southern branch (nanzong) since the Southern Song dynasty. Based on archival and field research, the author presents a portrait of this kinship association and provides insights into the revival of the cult of Confucius within the political 156 Journal of Chinese Religions context of present-day China. This context as well as the ambitions of local elites (including the Southern Branch’s clan leadership) have shaped this ritual revival and led to numerous liturgical innovations whose effectiveness as socio-political strategies the author seeks to evaluate. She stresses the harmonizing function of such revived Confucian traditions in the rapidly changing Chinese society though without critically questioning the political instrumentalization of high-profile public ritual performances. However, this limitation is largely due to the fact that this work was commissioned by the local government and therefore left little room for critical scholarship. In spite of this, the book contains a wealth of empirical data for the study of Confucianism, Confucian ritual, and the revival of clan associations in the People’s Republic of China. PHILIP CLART, Universität Leipzig Zongjiao wenhua lüyou yu huanjing baohu: zongjiao wenhua lüyou yu minzu diqu shengtai huanjing baohu yanjiu 宗教文化旅游与环 境保护—宗教文化旅游与民族地区生态环境保护研究 WANG YAXIN 王亚欣. Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe 中央民族大学出版 社, 2008. ISBN 978-7-81108-489-4. RMB 22.00 paper. This book explores the intersection of tourism and religion in China’s minority areas. The author, an associate professor at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, sees religion as a way to promote ecology and tourism in order to “raise the quality” of minority people. Despite these unexplored assumptions, she provides a useful overview of the ecological viewpoint of Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, and Christianity and the rapid spread of tourism. Wang points out problems caused by tourism, such as increased water pollution, garbage and trampling of plant life, backing this up with interesting statistics (although not always citing her sources). Religion, because it is supposed to be environmentally friendly (the usual arguments are presented), is seen as a solution to the problem—promote more religious tourism and minority areas will benefit from the increased...

Zhongguo Fojiao shilun 中国佛教史论 by Wang Rongguo 王荣国 (review)

Book Notes 155 Zhongguo Fojiao shilun 中国佛教史论 WANG RONGGUO 王荣国. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe 宗教文化出版社, 2008. 343 pages. ISBN 978-7-80123-987-7. RMB 38.00 paper. Zhongguo Fojiao shilun is a collection of twenty-six previously published and new essays by historian Wang Rongguo of Xiamen University. The papers in the book cover a wide spectrum of issues in the history of Buddhism in China from the Wei, Jin, Nanbei Chao period (220-581) right up to the 1950s. They can be broadly divided into a few major themes: (1) the spread and development of Buddhism (Chapter 1), (2) life and times of eminent monks (Chapters 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25), (3) history of Buddhist monasteries (Chapters 4, 19), (4) Chan (Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9) and Tiantai traditions (Chapter 5), (5) history of Buddhism in Fujian (Chapters 16, 18). Chapter 26 provides a useful chronicle of events in Minnan Buddhist College (Minnan Foxue yuan 闽南佛学院) between 1925 and 1949. Because this book is a collection of mostly previously published papers, it suffers from two shortcomings. First, the quality and length of the essays vary greatly. For instance, while Wang discusses a broad topic—history of Fujian Buddhism and Tiantai tradition—in merely seven pages (Chapter 5), he devotes more than twenty pages to examine the life and times of Chan master Shao Qi 绍琦 (Chapter 17). Second, there is neither a linear development of an argument to follow throughout the book nor clear connections between the various chapters. Wang could have solved this problem if he had written an introductory chapter to better connect his chapters. Nevertheless, students and scholars of Chinese Buddhism are likely to benefit from this book. JACK MENG-TAT CHIA, Harvard University Nanzong ji Kong 南宗祭孔 Wang Xiaobing 王霄冰. Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin chubanshe 浙江人民出版社, 2008. 180 pages. ISBN 978-7-213-03857-0. RMB 36.00 paper. The subject of this work are the annual sacrificial rites performed at the Kong ancestral temple in Quzhou 衢州 (Zhejiang province) since 2004, supplemented by an investigation into the development of the Kong clan’s southern branch (nanzong) since the Southern Song dynasty. Based on archival and field research, the author presents a portrait of this kinship association and provides insights into the revival of the cult of Confucius within the political ...

Buddhist Contribution to the Socialist Transformation of Buddhism in China: Activities of Ven. Juzan during 1949–1953

This paper examines the role played by Chinese Buddhists, especially the so-called "progressive Buddhists," in the socialist transformation of the sangha at the early stage of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). I concentrate on the case of Ven. Juzan (1908–1984). While the focus on one individual does not reveal the whole story about Chinese Buddhists’ involvement in the Chinese Communist Party’s project of reshaping the sangha, the career of Juzan does provide a window on the issue. By exploring various sources, including Modern Buddhist Studies ( Xiandai foxue ) and government documents, I investigate how Juzan urged his fellow Buddhists to work with the Communist leadership, and how he justified government policies on Buddhism by reinterpreting Buddhist doctrines. In so doing, this study intends to show that Chinese Buddhists’ collaboration with the Communist regime was a significant dimension of the socialist transformation of the Chinese sangha, a process that laid the foundation for full-scale persecution of Buddhism during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976).

Zen Buddhism in China and the reviewing of Majo-Zen ideology

Zen Buddhism in China and the reviewing of Majo-Zen ideology

The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts by Meir Shahar (review)

Book Reviews 187 The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts MEIR SHAHAR. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008. xi, 281 pages. ISBN 978-0-8248-3110-3. US$54.00 hardcover. Meir Shahar’s study of the Shaolin Monastery (Shaolin si 少林寺) is one of the rare academic books on the history of Chinese martial arts and its philosophical and religious implications. It begins with an introduction that provides a catalogue of questions on the origins of the Shaolin martial arts, the reasons for the contradiction between the Buddhist rule of nonviolent behavior and the practice of martial arts in a Buddhist monastery, the role of Buddhist faith in military activities, and the time when the Shaolin martial arts emerged. The following three main sections divide the history of the Shaolin Monastery from its beginning in 495 until the end of the 19th century. Each section contains several chapters illustrating important aspects of the historical development and the practice of martial arts. Shahar begins with a survey of the political, cultural, and economic environment of the Shaolin Monastery. He argues that the strategic position of the monastery near the mountain pass to Luoyang 洛陽 and its control of the Baigu 柏谷 fortress led to the Shaolin monks becoming involved in military activities. Chinese emperors supported Shaolin from the beginning by granting gifts in the form of land, mills, etc. This is an important aspect that characterized Shaolin as a monastery under imperial patronage, and the main reason for the wealth of Shaolin’s Buddhist community. This solid economic basis probably enabled the growth of other activities such as martial arts practice. There is no doubt that Shaolin monks practiced it before they established connections to the Tang house, but to my knowledge there is no evidence for an active participation of Shaolin monks in warfare before the Tang, as Shahar claims. With respect to the military activities of the Shaolin monks a strict distinction should be made between the military sphere of martial arts (i.e. the participation in warfare as part of the imperial army) and the civil sphere of martial arts (for example, the defense of the monastery). A tricky issue is the question of meat consumption by Shaolin monks. This may demonstrate either the far-reaching tolerance of Mahayana Buddhism in China, or alternatively the weakening of the original vinaya rules in the Buddhist community. However, Shahar’s discussion of this topic is based on a shaky empirical foundation. With the exception of only one source from the 16th century there is no other evidence for meat consumption in Shaolin. I do not think that fiction and movies are reliable sources to supplement the insufficient historical data. Shahar’s second main section of Shaolin’s history includes the time from 900 to 1600, but the examination starts with the Ming 明 Dynasty (1368-1644). This causes one to wonder what was going on from 900 to 1300? Why there is no information on the abbot Fuyu 福裕, who founded new Shaolin Monasteries in Helin 和林, Yanji 燕薊, Chang’an 長安, Taiyuan 太 原, and Luoyang 洛陽 during the Yuan 元 period? The following Ming period is famous for 188 Journal of Chinese Religions the participation of Shaolin monks in warfare to defend the empire against raiders, bandits, and pirates. At the same time, Shaolin martial arts spread out and became famous. Shahar cites Cheng Zongyou 程宗猷, a famous martial artist during the Ming period, who explained that Shaolin monks used martial arts as a tool for religious self-cultivation. According to the Chan masters, enlightenment is possible in all situations of daily life. The practice of martial arts seemed to create a new opportunity to achieve the Buddhist goal. Another interesting aspect of this section deals with the origins and development of Shaolin staff fighting. The staff techniques established the good reputation of Shaolin’s martial arts. Shahar quotes Tang Hao 唐豪 who assumed that there were two traditions of Shaolin staff techniques. In his fine and detailed analysis of “staff legends,” the author demonstrates how Shaolin monks attributed their staff fighting to Vajrapani, a Buddhist guardian deity. On the one hand, as he argues, their attribution to the god enhanced the prestige of Shaolin martial arts...

Conversion to Chastity: A Buddhist Catalyst in Early Imperial China

AbstractThis paper traces the history of the notion of female chastity (zhen) in China from pre-Qin to the mid-imperial era and argues that, prior to the arrival of Buddhism in China, the idea of female “chastity” was concerned not so much with physical virginity as the dutiful fulfillment of wifely obligations as stipulated by the Confucian marriage rites. A woman's chastity was determined by her moral rectitude rather than by her biological condition. The understanding of the physical body as a sacrosanct entity that must be defended against defilement and violation emerged under the influence of Buddhist notions of the uncontaminated body, the pious observance of the Buddhist monastic code, and the performance of religious charity that became popular in early imperial China. Based on a critical analysis of a wide array of Confucian canonical texts, dynastic histories, Indian Buddhist scriptures, biographies of Chinese monks and nuns, the monastic code, and Chinese Buddhist encyclopedias, this paper delineates the gradual process by which the Buddhist concept of the “pure body” became fully assimilated into the indigenous Chinese notion of female “rectitude” and the notion of female chastity finally acquired an ontological identity around the end of the sixth century.

Ordinary mind as the way: the Hongzhou school and the growth of Chan Buddhism

Under the leadership of Mazu Daoyi (709-788) and his numerous disciples, the Hongzhou School emerged as the dominant tradition of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in China during the middle part of the Tang dynasty(618-907). Mario Poceski offers a systematic examination of the Hongzhou School's momentous growth and rise to preeminence as the bearer of Chan orthodoxy, and analyzes its doctrines against the backdrop of the intellectual and religious milieus of Tang China. Poceski demonstrates that the Hongzhou School represented the first emergence of an empire-wide Chan tradition that had strongholds throughout China and replaced the various fragmented Schools of early Chan with an inclusive orthodoxy. Poceski's study is based on the earliest strata of permanent sources, rather than on the later apocryphal encounter dialogue stories regularly used to construe widely-accepted but historically unwarranted interpretations about the nature of Chan in the Tang dynasty. He challenges the traditional and popularly-accepted view of the Hongzhou School as a revolutionary movement that rejected mainstream mores and teachings, charting a new path for Chan's independent growth as a unique Buddhist tradition. This view, he argues, rests on a misreading of key elements of the Hongzhou School's history. Rather than acting as an unorthodox movement, the Hongzhou School's success was actually based largely on its ability to mediate tensions between traditionalist and iconoclastic tendencies. Going beyond conventional romanticized interpretations that highlight the radical character of the Hongzhou School, Poceski shows that there was much greater continuity between early and classical Chan-and between the Hongzhou School and the rest of Tang Buddhism-than previously thought.

On the research method of Buddhism in China

Bai viết trước tien khai quat con đường chung của nghien cứu Phật giao ở Trung Quốc, sau đo chỉ ra vấn đề điểm va cac đề tai lien quan của nghien cứu Phật giao ở đất nước nay.

Jesus the World Protector: Eighteenth-Century Gelukpa Historians View "Christianity"

Jesus the World-Protector:Eighteenth-Century Gelukpa Historians View Christianity1 Michael J. Sweet The assumption that religion was so seamlessly woven into non-Western and preindustrial cultures that it was not even distinguished as a separate entity, let alone regarded as an object for study, has been a commonplace among Western scholars of religion for some decades.2 From this point of view, which can be broadly characterized as postmodernist and postcolonialist, the concept of religion "is not a native category . . . it is a category imposed from outside . . . it is the other . . . colonialists who are solely responsible for the content of the term."3 This is a somewhat reductionistic and Eurocentric perspective that ignores the universal human capacity to empathically understand other belief systems. One counterexample to this school of thought is found in the works of three eighteenth-century religious historians, all of whom were learned monks in the Gelukpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism: Gombojab (Mgon po Skyabs, late seventeenth century–after 1766),4 Sumba Khembo (Sum pa Mkhan po Yes shes dpal 'byor, 1704–1776), and Tuken (Thu'u Bkwan Blo bzang Chos kyi Nyi ma, 1737– 1802), authors of The History of Buddhism in China, The Auspicious Wish-Fulfilling Tree,5 and The Crystal Mirror,6 respectively. These scholars had clear conceptions of their own and other religious systems (Tib.: chos lugs), and compared to earlier Tibetan accounts they present relatively tolerant evaluations of other religious philosophies—for example, Chinese Buddhism, Daoism, and the Literati Tradition (Ru jiao, "Confucianism")—while asserting the superiority of the Gelukpa form of Tibetan Buddhism.7 As a case in point, we will see how they describe and evaluate Christianity, a religion that was quite foreign to them and that they appear to have understood only imperfectly. Earlier Tibetan Buddhist religious histories, of which the best-known are the Blue Annals of 'Gos Lotsawa and Bu ston's "History of the Dharma," are immensely valuable sources, but they are more parochial in their range of interest than those of the eighteenth-century Tibeto-Mongol scholars.8 For the earlier historians Indo-Tibetan Buddhism was the only religious system worth serious consideration, and Chinese Buddhism, Indian non-Buddhist religious philosophies, Bon, [End Page 173] and Islam were dealt with in a polemical or (especially in the case of Islam) a frankly hostile fashion. Something changed in the eighteenth century that produced works closer to modern comparative religion than to medieval heresiography. A major motive for this shift was surely the triumph of the Manchu Qing dynasty, which by the mid-eighteenth century had incorporated Tibet and Mongolia definitively into its sphere. Thus, the horizon of the Tibeto-Mongol intelligentsia widened to include the vast Manchu empire, whose leadership in its turn was becoming increasingly aware of other Asian societies and of the European colonial powers. I believe it is significant that Sumba Khembo, Tuken, and Gombojab were all of Mongol ethnicity, the first two from Amdo and the last from Mongolia; they were able to combine an encyclopedic mastery of Tibetan Buddhist texts and ritual with the greater objectivity available to people stemming from the geographical and cultural periphery of that tradition. All three of them were exposed to the cosmopolitan world of imperial Beijing, where they had ample opportunity to meet followers of non-Buddhist religions of a wide range of ethnicities.9 By the mid-eighteenth century there were four Catholic churches in Beijing, serving thousands of Chinese Christian converts. Dozens of European priests were employed by the imperial court as well.10 The prevailing syncretic view of the three major Chinese religious philosophies (sanjiao)—Buddhism, Daoism, and the Literati Tradition—as being mutually complementary,11 prevailed in the capital. This is the view that is approvingly cited by Tuken: "there are three great traditions (lugs srol) which clarify the ultimate nature of things, the Literati Tradition, Daoism, and Buddhism."12 In turning to these scholars' treatment of Christianity, we find the earliest notice of this religion in Gombojab's History of Buddhism in China,13 written around the mid-1730s.14 Gombojab renders the name of Jesus in its traditional Chinese form of Yesu; he is called the World...

Was there an imperial distribution of Buddha relics in ninth-century China?

To judge from one recorded case, the Huichang persecution of Buddhism in China of 840–44 could have brought a number of relics of the Buddha into the hands of the government, and this might further have allowed the succeeding, more pro-Buddhist, emperor to carry out a redistribution of these sacred objects to enhance his own prestige, as had already been done twice by earlier rulers. But while it is clear that he was prepared to send a relic to Korea as part of a diplomatic mission, there would appear to be no surviving records confirming that any systematic large-scale distribution was carried out at this time. We must provisionally conclude therefore that a later systematic distribution in the tenth century was influenced—perhaps indirectly—by the earlier examples, not by any event of the mid ninth century.

THE GLOBALIZATION OF CHINESE BUDDHISM: CLERGY AND DEVOTEE NETWORKS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The article examines the globalization of China's Buddhism. Such new modern values as science and progress, along with competition from Christianity stimulated a modern reform of Buddhism in China in the early twentieth century that was then carried abroad through emigration and other transnational movement. This paper examines the ongoing interactions among Buddhists across difference nation-state spaces that have constituted the spread of this Buddhism. We show how transnational networks of clergy and devotees are constituted through affiliations of kinship, loyalty and region. These, in turn, faciliate allocations of personnel, money, and legitimacy that have not only institutionalized Buddhism in Southeast Asian and North American overseas Chinese communities but also supported its revival in late twentieth century China.

Buddhism and the State: The New Relationship

In the early 1980s, Buddhism in China entered a period of revival and prosperity, yet it retained a sense of public disgrace inherited from nearly three decades of persecution. In order to survive and to conform to the ethical system imposed by the government, the monks were forced to engage in “productive labour”. However, Buddhism’s growing influence among lay people, and the increasing number of exchanges between monasteries and believers promoted a steady growth in the value of Buddhism’s cultural and religious capital. From the 1990s onwards, local authorities sought to co-operate with Buddhism, hoping to profit by its cultural capital through attracting investors and promoting tourism. The state did not cease to control and to oppress the Buddhists although, guided by economic interests, it contributed in some cases to promoting and reconstructing Buddhism: the monasteries thus found new legitimacy and new space for development.