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ABSTRACT
This paper compares Chinese Buddhist monastic education in two periods, namely the late Ming period (mid-sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries) and the modern period (1890s–1930s). Comparison between these periods can shed valuable light on Buddhism’s enduring power of renewal and transformation in response to evolving social and political contexts. In studying monastic education during these two periods, we also notice some important continuities between the late Ming and modern times. Monastic education reforms in both periods emphasized the alignment of monks’ educational degrees with their monastic responsibilities. The two periods also possessed the same openness of spirit in response to the need for reform. We also notice that, as compared with previous educational systems, modern monastic educational institutions were far less attached to other monasteries. In contrast to Ming monastic education, in which monastic schools were established for their own students, modern monastic educational institutes recruited students from across the nation and provided a wider range of subjects to compete with secular education.
Notes
1. This paper is developed from the chapter 4 of my PhD thesis “Wutai Shan During the Ming Dynasty.”
2. For a survey of Buddhism in late Ming China, see Yü, “Ming Buddhism,” 927–52. In the past 30 years, the late Ming Buddhist revival has attracted much scholarly attention. For most important studies in the field, see Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism in China; Brook, Praying for Power; and Jiang, Wan Ming fojiao gaige shi. Also see Chen, Mingdai de fojiao yu shehui; Chen, ‘Mindai bukkyō shakai no chiiki teki kenkyū’; Zhang, ‘A Fragile Revival’; Shengyan, Mingmo fojiao yanjiu; Hasebe, Min Shin Bukkyō kyōdanshi kenkyū; and Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute.
3. Yuancheng, Kaigu lu, 730.
4. Yuancheng was extremely concerned about the degeneration of Buddhism during his time, particularly concerning loosened monastic disciplines. In the Kaigu lu, Yuancheng warned his contemporaries that if monks did not follow the monastic disciplines, Buddhism would face another severe persecution. The loosened monastic disciplines reflected by hereditary monasteries outnumbering public monasteries by one to 100, according to Yuancheng. This book has given a good description of the worsened state of late Ming Chan monasteries.
5. The three Wu emperors referred to here are Emperor Taiwu 拓跋焘 (424–451) of the Northern Wei, Emperor Wu 宇文邕 (561–578) of the Northern Zhou, and Emperor Wuzong 李炎 (841–846) of the Tang.
6. Yuancheng, Kaigu lu, 726: 去古日远，从林之规扫地尽矣！佛日将沉，僧宝殆灭，吾惧三武之祸，且起于今日也，能不叹乎?
7. Kuan, “Sahajaśrī,” 203–15.
8. For the Bureau of Buddhist Patriarch, see Chen, “Mindai bukkyō shakai no chiiki teki kenkyū,” 21–27; and He, “Ming chu shanshi yuan kao,” 46–50.
9. For changes in the management bureau of Buddhism in the early Ming, see Nogami, “Minsho no sōdō gamon”; Ryūchi, “Mindai no sōkan.”
10. Maddison, The World Economy, 236, 251.
11. The White Lotus appeared in the thirteenth century. It was banned by the Mongols before the Ming was established, hence this is a secret society. During the Ming dynasty, this religious sect was suppressed further because it was considered a threat to the Ming government. For further information on the White Lotus, see ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings, and Noguchi, Mindai Byakurenkyō shi.
12. Yuancheng, Kaigu lu, 731.
13. Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism in China, 171; He, “Lun mingdai de duseng”; He, “Lun Mingdai zhonghou qi de yudie duseng.” It seems that the earliest practice of selling ordination certificates took place in the mid-Tang dynasty (618–907). In Tianbao 14 (755), the An-Shi rebellion broke out. In order to defray military expenditures, the central government sold ordination certificates. Under the charge of Shenghui 神會 (684–758), one of the most famous Chan masters of the time, the affair was very successful. After that, this practice was conducted in other dynasties, especially the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). For the Southern Song and Jin dynasties, see Wang, Nansong fojiao zhidu, 108–32.
14. Kuan, “Wutai Shan,” 113–21.
15. Zhencheng, Qingliang shanzhi, 182. This might be a magnified figure, but to a certain extent it reflects the reality of the lack of public monasteries.
16. For instance, later generations generalised Hanshan’s reform (see below) in Caoxi into ten categories. Among them, categories three, six, and ten emphasized monastic education and the observance of monastic discipline. See Feng, “Caoxi zhongxing lu” in Fu and Tong, eds., Hanshan laoren mengyou ji, 2705–870.
17. Zhencheng, Qingliang Shanzhi, 289.
18. Zhencheng, “Shizi Wo shifang jingtu yuan guiyue xu” in Qingliang Shanzhi, 292–93.
19. Zhencheng, Qingliang shanzhi, 289.
20. Regarding Huiyuan and his practice, see Mochizuki, Pure Land Buddhism in China, chs. 2, 3, and 4.
21. Zhencheng, Qingliang shanzhi, 289.
22. Deqing’s biography can be found in Goodrich and Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1272–75. For important studies on Deqing, see Jiang, Wan Ming fojiao gaige shi, 69–190; Struve, “Deqing’s Dreams,” 1–44; Hsu, A Buddhist Leader in Ming China.
23. Cheung, trans., The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Hanshan, 20.
24. This document is kept in the Caoxi zhongxing lu in 卍 X no. 2718, 73.
25. Ibid., X no. 2820–822, 73.
26. These are a group of works written by Luo Qing 羅清 (1442–1527) in the fourth year of Zhengde (1509). His teachings were regarded as a heretical sect, and it was suppressed by the Ming government. Luo Qing’s books were burned in the forty-sixth year of the Wanli era (1618).
27. Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism in China, 203.
28. Zhuhong, Yunqi fahui, vol. 32, 27–29.
29. Ibid.
30. Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism in China, 220–221.
31. For further information on foot binding, see Wang, Aching for Beauty.
32. Nüjie 女戒 (Admonitions to my Daughters), Lienü zhuan 列女傳 (The Biographies of Exemplary Women), Xiaojing 孝經 (Classic of Filial Piety), and Lunyü 論語 (The Analects).
33. Cao, Zhongguo gudai nüzi jiaoyu, 244.
34. Jian, Mingdai funü Fojiao xinyang yu shehui guifan, 22–27.
35. Jian, Mingdai funü Fojiao xinyang yu shehui guifan, 130.
36. Cisheng was a devout Buddhist believer, who was very likely the most generous and influential patron of Buddhism in the entire Ming dynasty. For her biography, see Zhang, Mingshi, 114.3534–536; and Goodrich and Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography, 856–59. For current studies on her, see Naquin, Peking, 156–61; Chen, Mingdai de fojiao yu shehui, 96–146; and Zhang, “A Fragile Revival,” ch. 3.
37. Zhuhong, “Funü wangsheng lie,” Wangsheng ji, in Da Zangjing bubian, 146. Hanshan wrote many letters replying to women who sought for religious insight from him; many of these letters survived and are kept in Hanshan dashi Mengyou ji 憨山大师梦游集.
38. Zhuhong, “Xiaoyi An Gongye,” in Lianchi Dashi Quanji, vol. 4, 5025.
39. Zhuhong, “Shamini Biqiuni jie Lu Yao,” in Lianchi Dashi Quanji, vol. 1.
40. The fact that monastic education became ‘qualification’ orientated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is not a unique phenomenon in China alone; a similar reform appeared in Burmese monastic education, too. However, such a study of comparison would be beyond the scope of this paper. See Dhammasāmi’s Between Idealism and Pragmatism, 22–98.
41. Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, 85.
42. Mingcong, “Mingmo Qingchu jielü de fuxing,” 124.
43. Shengyan, trans., Zhongguo fojiaoshi gaishuo, 66.
44. Peyrefitte, The Immobile Empire, 520.
45. The shengyuan 生員 examinations are part of the imperial examination system. The imperial examination system was regularised and developed into a roughly three-tiered ladder from local to provincial to court exams. The content was narrowed and fixed on texts of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy. By the Qing dynasty, the highest degree, the jinshi, which was the title for the national degree holder, became an essential qualification for highest official post. The provincial degree holder was called juren 舉人. Shengyuan examination was held at the county level.
46. Cao, Zhongguo renkou shi, 455 and 509; Shengyan, trans., Zhongguo fojiaoshi gaishuo, 196.
47. This failed reform in Chinese history is called ‘Wuxü bianfa’. See Karl and Zarrow, eds., Rethinking the 1898 Reform Period.
48. Ho, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China.
49. As for changes in the status of the Dasheng qixing lun, see Lai, The Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna, ch. 4.
50. Richard, Forty-five Years in China, 123.
51. Richard, ‘Guanxu’, 21.
52. Welch, The Buddhist Revival in China, 5.
53. For example, Yin-shun, ed., Taixu dashi nianpu, 37; Chan, Religious Trends in Modern China, 59–60; Karl, The Transformed Abbot, 1512; and Ch’en, Buddhism in China, 448–9, 454.
54. As for the hidden agenda behind Timothy Richard’s translation of the Dasheng qixin lun, see Gong, “Yijing zhong de zhengzhi,” in Xin shixue, vol. 2.
55. For example, when the Eiffel Tower was completed, Yang represented China in attending the World Expo in Paris. This information is from Yang’s granddaughter Yang Buwei’s memoir “Xianzu Renshan gong zhi shengping.”
56. Soothill, Timothy Richard of China, 146–47.
57. Yin-shun, ed. Taixu dashi nianpu, 52.
58. In order to provide premises for modern schools, the imperial government issued a general order to confiscate temple property in support of establishing new schools. See Yang, Religion in Chinese Society, 325–26.
59. Taixu, Taixu dashi zizhuan, 53. This paragraph was translated by Guang Kuan
60. Welch, The Buddhist Revival in China, 10.
61. Turner, Cox, and Bocking, “A Buddhist Crossroads,” 1–16.
62. Welch, The Buddhist Revival in China, 8.
63. For instance, in 1662 Huang Zongxi 黃宗羲 (1610–1695), one of the most renowned Qing intellectuals, suggested that the largest Buddhist and Daoist monasteries, nunneries, and temples should be changed into academies to be directed by teachers of the classics, whilst the smaller ones should become elementary schools to be directed by primary teachers. Incomes from temple estates, he said, should be used for school upkeep. Ming-i tai-fang lu, quoted by Franke in Reform and Abolition, 22, 78. In 1898, Zhang Zhidong 張之洞, in his Quanxue pian 勸學篇, again advocated for the confiscation of monastic properties to promote modern schools.
64. This work was written in 1908. For more information, see Liu, ed., “Yang Wenhui, Ouyang Jian and Lü Cheng,” in Zhongguo xiandai xueshi jingdian, 20–21.
65. For more information on this subject, see Ayers, Chang Chih-tung and Educational Reform in China.
66. See Choompolpaisal’s article in this volume on parallel development in educational reforms in Thailand in the late nineteenth century.
67. Liu, ed., “Preliminary draft,” in Zhongguo xiandai xueshi jingdian, 23.
68. Ibid.
69. Welch, The Buddhist Revival in China, 18–19.
70. Lan, ed., Da Zangjing bubian, vol. 28, 606–608.
71. Yin-shun, Taixu dashi nianpu, 37.
72. As part of Wuchang Foxue Yuan, Taixu formed the Wuchang Buddhist Institute for Female Buddhists (Wuchang Foxue Yuan Nüzhong Yuan 武昌佛學院女衆院). This was the first modern educational institute for female Buddhists in Chinese history. For a detailed discussion, see Yuan, “Chinese Buddhist Nuns in the Twentieth Century,” 375–412.