Buddhism in the Sung

Buddhism in the Sung
Author: Daniel A. Getz
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 660
Release: 2002-10-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780824826819

New paperback edition The Sung Dynasty (960–1279) has long been recognized as a major watershed in Chinese history. Although there are recent major monographs on Sung society, government, literature, Confucian thought, and popular religion, the contribution of Buddhism to Sung social and cultural life has been all but ignored. Indeed, the study of Buddhism during the Sung has lagged behind that of other periods of Chinese history. One reason for the neglect of this important aspect of Sung society is undoubtedly the tenacity of the view that the Sung marked the beginning of an inexorable decline of Buddhism in China that extended down through the remainder of the imperial era. As this book attests, however, new research suggests that, far from signaling a decline, the Sung was a period of great efflorescence in Buddhism. This volume is the first extended scholarly treatment of Buddhism in the Sung to be published in a Western language. It focuses largely on elite figures, elite traditions, and interactions among Buddhists and literati, although some of the book’s essays touch on ways in which elite traditions both responded to and helped shape more popular forms of lay practice and piety. All of the chapters in one way or another deal with the two most important elite traditions within Sung Buddhism: Ch’an and T’ien-t’ai. Whereas most previous discussions of Buddhism in the Sung have tended to concentrate on Ch’an, the present volume is notable for giving T’ien-t’ai its due. By presenting a broader and more contextualized picture of these two traditions as they developed in the Sung, this work amply reveals the vitality of Buddhism in the Sung as well as its embeddedness in the social and intellectual life of the time.

Religion and Society in T'ang and Sung China

Religion and Society in T'ang and Sung China
Author: Patricia Buckley Ebrey
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 422
Release: 1993-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780824815127

The T'ang (618-907) and Sung (960-1279) dynasties were times of great change in China. The economy flourished, the population doubled, printing led to a great increase in the availability of books, Buddhism became a fully sinicized religion penetrating deeply into ordinary life. This volume represents a collaborative effort of nine scholars of Chinese religion, history, and thought to begin addressing the question of how changes in the religions of the Chinese people were implicated in the momentous social and cultural changes of this period.

A Buddhist Leader in Ming China

A Buddhist Leader in Ming China
Author: Sung-peng Hsu
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 1978
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Although Buddhism had declined during the Ming Dynasty, an age characterized by corruption, weakness, and oppression, new interest in the old religion arose as the dynasty came to an end. Han-shan Te-ch'ing--as well as two other reformers of his time, Yun-ch'i Chu-hung (1535-1615) and Tzu-po Chen-k'o (1543-1603) contributed to the revival of Buddhism. Even to the present day, the teachings of these masters have influenced many Chinese Buddhists. Han-shan wrote extensively on Buddhism and other subjects, but his most interesting work is his autobiography, describing his spiritual development together with significant events of his life. Han-shan was a Ch'an master who also practiced the Pure Land faith. The philosophy of Mind, a synthesis of the Hua-yen, T'ien-t'ai, and Wei-shih teachings, is his system of thought. Han-shan argued that all philosophical teachings are ultimately the same because they lead to the truth of Mind. Dr. Hsu's book is the first detailed study of Han-shan Te-ch'ing's life to appear in any language. As Derk Bodde writes in his foreword, "A good deal of excellent modern scholarship has been devoted to the ascending centuries of Chinese Buddhism, extending from the religion's entry into China (first century AD) through its age of greatest glory (seventh, eighth, and early ninth centuries). Much less, yet nevertheless significant, scholarship has been devoted to the surviving elements of Chinese Buddhism that are still observable in the present century. Almost nonexistent--at least in Western languages has been serious scholarship devoted to the long centuries of intervening decline. The present book, which is the only one known to me in a Western language to devote itself wholly to a single personality from this intervening age, is a notable exception. A Buddhist Leader in Ming China consists of four chapters. In Chapter 1 the sources and methodology are discussed. Chapter 2 concerns the background of Han-shan Te-ch'ing's life and thought. Chapter 3 presents a detailed account of Han-shan's life, based almost entirely on his autobiography. The last chapter discusses his teachings and his views about the Mind, the Universe, Man, Evil, and the Path to Salvation.

Out of the Cloister

Out of the Cloister
Author: Mark Halperin
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2020-03-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1684174406

ung devotional texts shows, however, that many literati participated in intra-Buddhist debates. Others were drawn to Buddhism because of its power, which found expression and reinforcement in its ties with the state. For some, monasteries were extravagant houses of worship that reflected the corruption of the age; for others, the sacrifice and industry demanded by such projects were exemplars worthy of emulation. Finally, Buddhist temples could evoke highly personal feelings of filial piety and nostalgia.This book demonstrates that representations of Buddhism by lay people underwent a major change during the T’ang–Sung transition. These changes built on basic transformations within the Buddhist and classicist traditions and sometimes resulted in the use of Buddhism and Buddhist temples as frames of reference to evaluate aspects of lay society. Buddhism, far from being pushed to the margins of Chinese culture, became even more a part of everyday elite Chinese life.

Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment

Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment
Author: Sung Bae Park
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 1983-06-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438415516

Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment explains how sudden enlightenment occurs through the awakening of patriarchal faith. This is the non-dual affirmation that one is already Buddha as opposed to the doctrinal, dualistic faith that one can become Buddha. The essence of the presentation is that patriarchal faith forms the basis for sudden enlightenment in Zen meditation. For the practitioner, this book establishes the Zen method of mind-cultivation on a higher level by introducing a new understanding of awakening right faith. Included is extensive material on the history of faith in Buddhism with the main attention devoted to Ch'an (Zen) and Hua-yen. There are also substantial discussions of Buddhist antecedents to these schools and of the Pure Land School. This is the first book in English to examine the central role of faith in Mahayana Buddhism. The author's approach develops from his personal experiences as a son (Zen) monk of the Chogye order, which was heavily influenced by the integration of meditation and scriptural study established by Chinul.

Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism

Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism
Author: Robert H. Sharf
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2005-11-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780824830281

The issue of sinification—the manner and extent to which Buddhism and Chinese culture were transformed through their mutual encounter and dialogue—has dominated the study of Chinese Buddhism for much of the past century. Robert Sharf opens this important and far-reaching book by raising a host of historical and hermeneutical problems with the encounter paradigm and the master narrative on which it is based. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism is, among other things, an extended reflection on the theoretical foundations and conceptual categories that undergird the study of medieval Chinese Buddhism. Sharf draws his argument in part from a meticulous historical, philological, and philosophical analysis of the Treasure Store Treatise (Pao-tsang lun), an eighth-century Buddho-Taoist work apocryphally attributed to the fifth-century master Seng-chao (374–414). In the process of coming to terms with this recondite text, Sharf ventures into all manner of subjects bearing on our understanding of medieval Chinese Buddhism, from the evolution of T’ang "gentry Taoism" to the pivotal role of image veneration and the problematic status of Chinese Tantra. The volume includes a complete annotated translation of the Treasure Store Treatise, accompanied by the detailed exegesis of dozens of key terms and concepts.

Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism

Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism
Author: Peter N. Gregory
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2002-04-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780824826239

This study of Tsung-mi is part of the Studies in East Asian Buddhism series. Author Peter Gregory makes extensive use of Japanese secondary sources, which complements his work on the complex Chinese materials that form the basis of the study.