From Taixu to Shengyan : legitimising modern Buddhism in China and Taiwan

Abstract

This thesis examines the thought of five Chinese and Taiwanese Buddhist monastics: Taixu (1890-1947), Yinshun (1906-2005), Xingyun (1927- ), Zhengyan (1937- ) and Shengyan (1930-2009). Taixu rose to prominence as the premier reformer of Chinese Buddhism during the first half of the twentieth century, advocating an interpretation of the Dharma he called "Buddhism for human life" (rensheng Fojiao) and later "Buddhism for the human world" (renjian Fojiao). His student Yinshun became the next major architect of this concept after his arrival in Taiwan in 1952. Taixu and Yinshun's views subsequently provided the basis for Xingyun, Zhengyan, and Shengyan to develop their own understandings of the Dharma in Taiwan. Although their interpretations were different, they each shared three important features. Each claimed to be presenting {u015A}{u0101}kyamuni's original teachings, but also that these were suited to the modern world, and that these teachings accorded with contemporary Chinese intellectual trends. This thesis examines their attempts to demonstrate these three points by aligning the Dharma with, and demonstrating its superiority over, important non-Buddhist ideas in the modern context. Four aspects of their approach will be considered. First, they defined Buddhism as more comprehensively anthropocentric than Confucianism, theistic religion, and science. They therefore claimed it conformed to the demands of modern Chinese thinkers who emphasised human agency and considered religion to be superstitious. Second, they claimed that Buddhism embodied Enlightenment ideals such as science and rationality, and that it would enable the goals of Western ideologies such as Marxism, anarchism, and democracy to be both achieved and surpassed. Third, they claimed that Buddhism had utopian aims. It was therefore unlike the decadent, otherworldly religion its critics claimed it to be, and instead could contribute to social progress. Their visions of a "Pure Land in the human world" (renjian jingtu) were also sites demonstrating the superiority of the Dharma over non-Buddhist ideas. Fourth, they provided new models for the ideal person that were based on the bodhisattva and embodied beliefs about the preeminence of the Dharma. By advocating social engagement based on the bodhisattva ideal, they countered the view that Buddhists neglected society. The thesis will conclude that this approach was a Buddhist response, built on concepts first articulated by Taixu, to the challenges Buddhism faced in the twentieth century. By showing how the Dharma conformed to the intellectual contours of republican-era China, and later of Taiwan, it was hoped that Buddhism would find intellectual acceptance in the twentieth century. This expedient approach, however, led to non-Buddhist ideas exerting a transformative influence over Buddhist ones. The Dharma therefore underwent fundamental changes as it traversed the different intellectual landscapes of the twentieth century, and was influenced by competing non Buddhist ideas and approaches.