![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
After the establishment of the Chinese Communist regime, the income which the monasteries and temples in the various localities had derived from the donations of worshipers was naturally cut off; moreover, the monastery lands were confiscated during the "land reform"; consequently, most of the clergy, having lost their source of livelihood, were forced to return to the laity or "change their occupations," and their numbers were greatly reduced. As for the remaining few monks and nuns who could not or did not wish to return to the laity, and grimly held out at the monasteries and temples, the Communists for the most part did not directly outlaw them, but merely organized them, "reformed" them, and induced them to "participate in production," thereby, in effect, gradually transforming the clerical character associated with their "renunciation of worldly ties." After the establishment of the CBF, however, the situation began to change, and not only did they apply political and economic pressure to gradually force the clerics back to the laity, but they also acted through the ecclesiastical organization itself by "rigorously restricting the qualifications of the clergy."