Increased production and education – the new modern Buddhist thought and practice of monk Juzan

ABSTRACT

The monk Juzan 巨贊 (1908–1984) as a Chinese Buddhist reformist of the twentieth century emphasized that Buddhist faith should be in accordance with the times while engaged in humanitarian efforts within the contexts of reform and wartime aid, in the hopes that through bodhisattva practices one could be of benefit to others. He clearly proposed two positions of increased production and education for Buddhism, focusing his efforts on the social implementation of Buddhist reform philosophy, which was directly drawing from the reform philosophy initiated by the monk Taixu. It can be said that Juzan was the representative of Chinese Buddhist reform after Taixu in the twentieth century. This article argues that the entire transformation of twentieth century Chinese Buddhism came down through Taixu’s three great revolutions, Juzan’s two proposed concepts and the three traditions of Zhao Puchu (equal emphasis on farming and Chan, academic research and international exchange), allowing for the full development of the basic logic of Humanistic Buddhism in the twentieth century, which was essentially the transformation route from ‘humanization’ towards ‘socialization.’

KEYWORDS:

• Buddhist reform
• monk Juzan
• increased production
• increased education
• socialization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Juzan, Xin Fojiao yundong de huigu yu qianzhan, 517, 521.

2. Ibid., 521.

3. Juzan, Guiping de Xishan.

4. Juzan, Xin Fojiao yundong, 522.

5. Huang Xianian, ed., Juzan ji, 468.

6. Juzan, Renmin zhengxie dui Fojiaojie jinxing gexin ge qidao zuoyong, 545.

7. Juzan, Lüetan Fojiao de qiantu, 604.

8. Juzan, Juzan ji, 467.

9. Ibid., 471, 475.

10. Juzan, Xianli hu qi da zhe – Fojiao de renshengguan zhi er zhang, 33, 34.

11. Zhou Shujia, ‘Xiang Shijiamouni xuexi.’

12. Zhou Shujia, Lun Fojiaotu de xiuyang, 48.

13. Zhou Shujia, ‘Fojiaotu weishenme yao jinxing sixiang gaizao.’

14. Juzan, Yinian lai gongzuo de zibai, 565.

15. Juzan, Wenti shangtao, 628.

16. Juzan, Muqian Fojiao gongzuo de sige buzhou, 614.

17. Juzan, Lüetan Fojiao de qiantu, 608.

18. Juzan, Renmin zhengxie dui Fojiaojie jinxing gexin ge qidao zuoyong, 545.

19. For discussion of the socialization of religion see Li Xiangping, Zhongguo dangdai zongjiao de shehuixue quanshu, and Fojiao Xinyang yu shehui bianqian.