The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950

The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950 PDF Author: Holmes Welch
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674697003
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
Based partly on unpublished documents and oral information obtained from monks who headed major monasteries on mainland China, Holmes Welch presents a detailed description of the modern practice of Chinese Buddhism. Focusing on the actual rather than the theoretical observances of the religion, he gives an exhaustive account of the monastic system and the style of life of both monk and layman. His study makes new information available for the Western reader and calls into question the whole concept of the moribund state of Chinese Buddhism.

The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950

The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950 PDF Author: Holmes Welch
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674697003
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 600

Get Book

Book Description
Based partly on unpublished documents and oral information obtained from monks who headed major monasteries on mainland China, Holmes Welch presents a detailed description of the modern practice of Chinese Buddhism. Focusing on the actual rather than the theoretical observances of the religion, he gives an exhaustive account of the monastic system and the style of life of both monk and layman. His study makes new information available for the Western reader and calls into question the whole concept of the moribund state of Chinese Buddhism.

The Practice of Chinese Buddhism

The Practice of Chinese Buddhism PDF Author: Holmes Welch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


The Buddhist Revival in China

The Buddhist Revival in China PDF Author: Holmes Welch
Publisher: Cambridge : Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674085701
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
Of all the world's major religions, Chinese Buddhism has probably experienced the most traumatic modernization. Less than forty years have separated the self-contained Manchu Empire from the establishment of a Communist state. The consequences are described in this book. Holmes Welch offers the first detailed account of the careers of recent Buddhist leaders and of the diverse organization they started. Eighteen Chinese Buddhist associations are identified as the author traces the struggle for national leadership. The role of T'ai-hsii, the leader best known to Western readers but not, it is shown, among Buddhists, is given a controversial reassessment. After examining the main features of the revival, Welch puts them into a larger political framework. In the process, he offers copious evidence that our picture of Chinese Buddhism has been distorted. What has been termed a "revival" was actually a secular reorientation. The author's conclusion is that this secularization, vigorous as it was, in reality foreshadowed the decline of Chinese Buddhism as a living religion.

Buddhism Under Mao

Buddhism Under Mao PDF Author: Holmes Welch
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 704

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Book Description
Buddhism under Mao shows what kind of a problem Buddhism presented to the Chinese Communists and how they solved it. Relying largely on materials from the Mainland press, Holmes Welch has made what is probably the most detailed study so far available of the fate of a world religion in a Communist country. He describes how Buddhist institutions were controlled, protected, utilized, and suppressed; and explains why the larger needs of foreign and domestic policy dictated the Communists' approach to the institutions. Over eighty photographs illustrate the activities of monks, laymen, and foreign visitors. Welch worked for over a decade on the trilogy here completed. The preceding volumes, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950 and The Buddhist Revival in China, dealt with Buddhism in the years before the Communist victory. Buddhism under Mao ends with a discussion of the possibility of the survival of certain elements of Buddhism in new forms.

In Search of the Dharma

In Search of the Dharma PDF Author: Chen-hua
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791498905
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
This is the first and only book in English on modern Chinese Buddhism written by a practicing Chinese monk. Chen-hua provides a rare eyewitness account of Chinese monastic life and Buddhist practices before they were changed forever by the Communist revolution. It begins with his departure from home in northern China to study Buddhism in Kiansu and Chekiang in the south and ends with his rejoining the monastic order in Taiwan after spending several years as a draftee in the Nationalist army. Following century-old traditions of Ch'an monks, Chen-hua made prilgrimages to all the major monasteries and holy sites, and sought instruction from many famous masters. His ordination at Pao-hua; "Buddha recitation weeks" at Ling-yen; scriptural studies at T'ien-ning; and a pilgrimage to P'u-t'o, the sacred island of Kuan-yin, are some of the highlights of this candid and perceptive book. The Introduction by Chun-fang Yu places the work in a historical perspective. Notes, a glossary of Chinese terms, maps, and photos help readers who are new to the field.

Burning for the Buddha

Burning for the Buddha PDF Author: James A. Benn
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824861736
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
Burning for the Buddha is the first book-length study of the theory and practice of "abandoning the body"(self-immolation) in Chinese Buddhism. It examines the hagiographical accounts of all those who made offerings of their own bodies and places them in historical, social, cultural, and doctrinal context. Rather than privilege the doctrinal and exegetical interpretations of the tradition, which assume the central importance of the mind and its cultivation, James Benn focuses on the ways in which the heroic ideals of the bodhisattva present in scriptural materials such as the Lotus Sutra played out in the realm of religious practice on the ground.

Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism

Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism PDF Author: Peter N. Gregory
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824842936
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
No detailed description available for "Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism".

Chinese Pure Land Buddhism

Chinese Pure Land Buddhism PDF Author: Charles B. Jones
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824879716
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Chinese Pure Land Buddhism: Understanding a Tradition of Practice is the first book in any western language to provide a comprehensive overview of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism. Even though Pure Land Buddhism was born in China and currently constitutes the dominant form of Buddhist practice there, it has previously received very little attention from western scholars. In this book, Charles B. Jones examines the reasons for the lack of scholarly attention and why the few past treatments of the topic missed many of its distinctive features. He argues that the Chinese Pure Land tradition, with its characteristic promise of rebirth in the Pure Land to even non-elite or undeserving practitioners, should not be viewed from the perspective of the Japanese Pure Land tradition, which differs greatly. More accurately contextualizing Chinese Pure Land Buddhism within the landscape of Chinese Buddhism and the broader global Buddhist tradition, this work celebrates Chinese Pure Land, not as a school or sect, but as a unique and inherently valuable “tradition of practice.” This volume is organized thematically, clearly presenting topics such as the nature of the Pure Land, the relationship between “self-power” and “other-power,” the practice of nianfo (buddha-recollection), and the formation of the line of “patriarchs” that keep the tradition grounded. It guides us in understanding the vigorous debates that Chinese Pure Land Buddhism evoked and delves into the rich apologetic literature that it produced in its own defense. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unexamined primary source materials, as well as modern texts by contemporary Chinese Pure Land masters, the author provides lucid translations of resources previously unavailable in English. He also shares his lifetime of experience in this field, enlivening the narrative with personal anecdotes of his visits to sites of Pure Land practice in China and Taiwan. The straightforward and nontechnical prose makes this book a standby resource for anyone interested in pursuing research in this lively, sophisticated, and still-evolving religious tradition. Scholars—including undergraduates—specializing in East Asian Buddhism, as well as those interested in Buddhism or Chinese religion and history in general, will find this book invaluable.

Chinese Transformation of Buddhism

Chinese Transformation of Buddhism PDF Author: Kenneth Kuan Sheng Ch'en
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691646155
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
When Buddhism was introduced into China at about the beginning of the Christian era, the Chinese were captivated at first by its overpowering world view. Consequently, Buddhism in China has usually been discussed in terms of the Indianization of Chinese life and thought, but Kenneth Ch'en shows that as Indian ideas were gaining ground the Chinese were choosing among them and modifying them to fit their situation. To demonstrate how the Chinese transformed Buddhism the author investigates its role in the ethical, political, literary, educational, and social life of the Chinese. Buddhism was able to gain a wide following by accommodating itself to Chinese ethical practices. The Buddhist monastic community submitted to the jurisdiction of the state and the monasteries also became integrated into the economic life of the empire through their ownership of land and their operation of industrial and commercial enterprises. Through an analysis of the work of a representative Chinese poet the author reveals the ways in which Buddhism came to be reflected in the literary life of China. Finally, he explores the methods used by the Buddhists to popularize their religion. Originally published in 1973. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Chan Before Chan

Chan Before Chan PDF Author: Eric M. Greene
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824886879
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
What is Buddhist meditation? What is going on—and what should be going on—behind the closed or lowered eyelids of the Buddha or Buddhist adept seated in meditation? And in what ways and to what ends have the answers to these questions mattered for Buddhists themselves? Focusing on early medieval China, this book takes up these questions through a cultural history of the earliest traditions of Buddhist meditation (chan), before the rise of the Chan (Zen) School in the eighth century. In sharp contrast to what would become typical in the later Chan School, early Chinese Buddhists approached the ancient Buddhist practice of meditation primarily as a way of gaining access to a world of enigmatic but potentially meaningful visionary experiences. In Chan Before Chan, Eric Greene brings this approach to meditation to life with a focus on how medieval Chinese Buddhists interpreted their own and others’ visionary experiences and the nature of the authority they ascribed to them. Drawing from hagiography, ritual manuals, material culture, and the many hitherto rarely studied meditation manuals translated from Indic sources into Chinese or composed in China in the 400s, Greene argues that during this era meditation and the mastery of meditation came for the first time to occupy a real place in the Chinese Buddhist social world. Heirs to wider traditions that had been shared across India and Central Asia, early medieval Chinese Buddhists conceived of “chan” as something that would produce a special state of visionary sensitivity. The concrete visionary experiences that resulted from meditation were understood as things that could then be interpreted, by a qualified master, as indicative of the mediator’s purity or impurity. Buddhist meditation, though an elite discipline that only a small number of Chinese Buddhists themselves undertook, was thus in practice and in theory constitutively integrated into the cultic worlds of divination and “repentance” (chanhui) that were so important within the medieval Chinese religious world as a whole.