人間淨土的教化：聖嚴法師的淨土觀與法鼓山的念佛實踐 - 政大學術集成

全文

(1)國立政治大學宗教研究所. 碩士論文. 人間淨土的教化：人間淨土的教化：聖嚴法師的淨土觀與法鼓山的念佛實踐 Constructing a Modern Pure Land: Pure Land practice at Dharma Drum Mountain. 指導老師：指導老師：李玉珍教授. 碩二黃穎思 Jens Reinke. 日期 : 中華民國 103 年 6 月 28 日.

(2) 碩士論文. 人間淨土的教化：聖嚴法師的淨土觀與法鼓山的念佛實踐 Constructing a Modern Pure Land: Pure Land practice at Dharma Drum Mountain. 政治大學宗教研究所指導老師：李玉珍教授. 碩二黃穎思 Jens Reinke. 1.

(3) Acknowledgements. Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Sheng Yen Education Foundation for its generous funding. Without the Foundation’s kind support, this master’s thesis could not have been completed.. My sincere thanks also goes to my advisor Prof. Li Yu-Chen (李玉珍) for her continuous support of my master’s study and research, and for her patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me throughout each phase of the research and writing of this thesis. I cannot imagine having a better advisor and mentor.. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the other members of my thesis committee, Prof. Chen Chien-Huang (陳劍鍠) and Prof. Hsieh Shu-Wei (謝世維), for their encouragement, critical questions and insightful comments.. I am especially grateful to Dharma Drum Mountain; all its monastics and lay supporters who were so generous to offer their valuable insights about Pure Land thought and practice at DDM. I must give special thanks to Ven. Guojing (果鏡法師) for her time and all of the insightful and enlightening responses gleaned from our interview.. I thank my good friends Darren Davies and Helen Jackson for helping me with the editing of my thesis and for many stimulating discussions. I also want to thank Yeh Fei-. 2.

(4) Shen (葉翡紳) for his help with the transcription of the interviews. I am grateful to Jakub Zamorski for his contribution to my understanding of Chinese Pure Land.. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents for all of their love and support in this effort, even though it required me living on the other side of the world.. 3.

(5) Contents 1. Introduction 1.1. Topic 1.2. Sheng Yen and Dharma Drum Mountain 1.3. Research questions and methods 1.4. Scholarship about modern Chinese Buddhism 1.5. Buddhism, Asia and modernity 1.6. Pure Land in Chinese Buddhism 1.7. Chapter outlook 2. Sheng Yen: A Chinese Monk Navigating Through Modernity 2.1. Chinese Buddhism in the nineteenth and twentieth century 2.2. Sheng Yen’s biography 2.2.1. Early years 2.2.2. Second ordination, reclusion and Japan 2.2.3. United States and Taiwan 2.2.4. Dharma Drum Mountain 3. Pure Land in Chinese Buddhism: Introduction into a General Concept in Chinese Buddhism 3.1. Understanding of Pure Land in western scholarship 3.2. Issues regarding a Pure Land school and lineage 3.3. Pure Land practice and lay Buddhism 3.4. Practice 3.4.1. Yü Chün-fang’s twofold model of nianfo 3.4.2. Charles B. Jones fivefold model of nianfo 3.5. Yongming Yanshou (永明延壽) 3.6. Mind-Only Pure Land (唯心淨土) 3.7. Syncretic forms of Pure Land at the late Ming 3.7.1.Lianchi Zhuhong (蓮池祩宏) 3.7.2. Ouyi Zhixu (蕅益智旭) 3.8. Conclusion. 6 6 8 10 14 17 24 26 28 28 33 34 35 40 41 46 47 48 52 55 55 57 60 61 62 64 66 68. 4. Constructing a Buddhist Utopia: Pure Land Practice at Dharma Drum Mountain. 70. 4.1. Building a Pure Land on Earth 4.1.1. Threefold Education program 4.1.2. Spiritual Environmentalism campaign 4.2. Traditional Pure Land practice at DDM 4.2.1. Nianfo at DDM 4.2.2. End-of-Life Chanting group. 70 72 73 79 79 81 4.

(6) 4.2.3. Ethnographic description of a nianfo group practice 4.3. Conclusion 5. Sheng Yen’s Pure Land Thought: Pure Land from a Contemporary Chan Perspective 5.1. Sheng Yen’s perspective on nianfo and the Pure Land 5.1.2. Two ways of nianfo 5.1.3. The four states of mind of nianfo 5.1.4. Sheng Yen’s perspective on the three Pure Land sutras 5.1.5. Four Pure Lands 5.2. Sheng Yen and the Establishment of a Pure Land on Earth 5.3. Conclusion. 83 86. 88 91 92 95 96 97 100 103. 6. Conclusion. 107. 7. Appendix. 119. 8. Bibliography. 131. 5.

(7) 1. Introduction 1.1. Topic. The present study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the modernization process of Chinese Buddhism by examining the issue in relation to different understandings and practices of Pure Land (淨土), as exemplified by Pure Land as it is practiced at the Taiwanese/Chinese Buddhist organization Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM 法鼓山) and the thought of DDM’s founder Ven. Sheng Yen (聖嚴, 1930-2009 CE). The Pure Land is a characteristic concept of East Asian Buddhism. It is closely linked with the practice of recollecting the Buddha’s name (念佛, hereafter referred to as nianfo) in order to ensure rebirth in Sukhavati, the Western Pure Land of Amitabha (極樂淨土). The concepts and practices of Pure Land Buddhism date back to the beginnings of Chinese Buddhism1 and its precursors lie in Indian Buddhism.2 Over time it became part and parcel of general Chinese Buddhist practice, and is particularly popular with the laity. It is also linked to Chinese notions of an afterlife and Chinese deathbed culture. Reciting Amitabha’s name ensures that the faithful escape from rebirth in one of the six realms of our world and are instead reborn in the Western Pure Land of Amitabha, said to be a place where conditions for Buddhist practice are ideal. It is also in the context of Pure. 1. Robert Sharf, “On Pure Land Buddhism and Ch'an/Pure Land Syncretism in Medieval China,” T'oung Pao 88, no. 4-5 (2003): 220, 321. 2 Jan Nattier, “The Indian Roots of Pure Land Buddhism: Insights from the Oldest Chinese Versions of the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha,” Pacific World, 3rd series, no. 5 (Fall 2003): 179-201.. 6.

(8) Land Buddhism that the practice of End-of-Life Chanting Groups (助念團) developed, a practice that came to be widely popular in China. Clerics or relatives of the deceased themselves chant beside the deathbed on behalf of the dead. This will only be discussed very briefly in order to limit the scope of this study. In conclusion, the conception of the Pure Land as a place in which to achieve rebirth and the practice of nianfo as a way of attaining this goal have a long history in Chinese Buddhism, thus it is here understood as a traditional Pure Land practice.. Yet Pure Land concepts have also been utilized in attempts by elite monastics like Taixu (太虛, 1890-1947 CE) to modernize Chinese Buddhism—most explicitly in creating the idea of a Pure Land on Earth (人間淨土). Here the Pure Land is not understood as a place far away in which to be reborn, but as a kind of Buddhist utopia to be realized in our world. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Taixu, other monastics, and a number of lay people perceived Buddhism to be in crisis and so attempted to save the religion by modernizing it. Thus I will understand the new approach they developed to Pure Land as modern or modernist.. In other words, Pure Land’s concepts and practices and different interpretations thereof are where demarcations between elite and popular, modern and traditional, lie. Clarifying the relationship between these differing approaches to Pure Land will help us to understand the modernization of Chinese Buddhism. To do so, I aim to examine Pure Land as it is understood and practiced at a contemporary Buddhist group, Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM), and as embodied by the life and thought of its founder Sheng Yen.. 7.

(9) 1.2. Sheng Yen and Dharma Drum Mountain. Dharma Drum Mountain is one of the four largest Chinese Buddhist organizations in Taiwan, the others being Tzu Chi (慈濟), Foguangshan (佛光山), and Chung Tai Shan (中台山). Of the four, Chung Tai Shan is the only order that does not identify with Humanistic Buddhism (hereafter referred to as Renjian Buddhism 人間佛教). Renjian Buddhism is a modernist form of Buddhism developed by Buddhist reformers such as Taixu and Yinshun (印順, 1906-2005 CE) that aims to correct Chinese Buddhism’s perceived overemphasis on death and the dead by presenting a version of the tradition that focuses more on the living. One of its key concepts is the Establishment of a Pure Land on Earth (建設人間淨土).3 While Tzu Chi and Foguangshan both surpass DDM in size and membership, it is DDM’s special emphasis on Buddhist orthodoxy that makes it of interest for the present study. DDM stresses the importance of a sound understanding of Buddhist doctrine, while aiming to make Buddhism applicable to modern times. Richard Madsen recognizes a strong Confucian orientation at Renjian Buddhist groups like Tzu Chi and Foguangshan, but perceives DDM as “much more Buddhist than Confucian” compared to the latter two organizations.4 Tzu Chi and Foguangshan’s sociopolitical vision is based on Confucian values, while DDM, although containing Confucian elements, puts its prime focus on Chan (禪) practice.. There is no coherent translation for 建設 at DDM. To create, to establish, and to build are all used as translations in DDM publications. 4 Richard Madsen, Democracy's Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007), p. 89. 3. 8.

(10) DDM and its founder Sheng Yen are commonly associated with Renjian Buddhism and Chan; however, one must be careful not to categorize Sheng Yen and his organization as either one or the other. Although he was a lineage holder in the Linji (臨濟) and Caodong (曹洞) traditions and is best known as a Chan teacher, especially in the United States of America, Sheng Yen’s career as a Chan master in fact started relatively late in life. In Taiwan, Sheng Yen is probably best known for establishing Dharma Drum Mountain and for its maxim, “Uplifting the Character of Humanity and Building a Pure Land on Earth (提升人的品質，建設人間淨土).” However, such a reputation does not give a complete picture of Sheng Yen’s life and work, since it fails to include his many other interests, such as his study of the Vinaya and the Agamas, his urge to reform (lay and cleric) Buddhist education, and his interest in Ming dynasty Buddhism, to name but a few. Sheng Yen’s field of interest encompasses the full breadth of Chinese Buddhism. He aims to ground Buddhism in solid Buddhist doctrine, while at the same time making it applicable to our times. It is this bidirectional movement—back to the tradition and forward towards modernity—that makes him such an interesting subject for the present study. Nianfo, the practice of reciting the Buddha’s name, is often perceived as a more “traditional” form of practice in East Asian Buddhism today, in the sense that it requires faith in higher beings and stresses the importance of ritual. Yet the notion of Building a Pure Land on Earth is a core concept of Renjian Buddhism, which is a distinctly modernist project emphasizing rationality and this-worldly benefit. Sheng Yen’s bidirectional vision incorporates both elements in his “ecumenical” version of Chinese Buddhism. Thus, the intention of the present study is to examine and compare just these. 9.

(11) two elements of Sheng Yen’s take on Pure Land, “traditional” and “modernist,” how they are implemented in the practices taught at DDM, and how they relate to each other in Sheng Yen’s thought.. 1.3. Research Questions and Methods. The present study aims to examine different Pure Land practices at Dharma Drum Mountain and to assess how they are linked to Sheng Yen’s thought. In addition they are to be examined in the context of the modernization of Chinese Buddhism. Therefore I aim to answer the following questions: What Pure Land concepts and practices exist in Chinese Buddhism in general and at DDM in particular? What is the difference between the Western Pure Land and the Pure Land on Earth? How do they relate to each other at DDM in terms of doctrine and practice? How are tensions between different understandings of Pure Land negotiated? How should different Pure Land practices at DDM be evaluated from the perspective of modernization theory? Are literal understandings of Pure Land merely remnants of “traditional” Buddhism that will eventually disappear with ongoing modernization? Or can they be understood differently without applying a linear model of modernization?. 10.

(12) To answer these questions I have chosen to adopt a case study approach, taking as my subject one particular Taiwanese Chinese Buddhist organization, DDM. Nevertheless, I still want to situate these questions in the broader context of Chinese Buddhism. Traditional Western Pure Land and the modernist concept of Pure Land on Earth both function on the levels of practice and doctrine. Hence, I will look at each respectively with regard to both levels. I will examine DDM’s Building the Pure Land on Earth campaign and their nianfo practices, comparing them and assessing both their relationship with each other and to other contemporary discourses outside of Buddhist discourse, and to the way they are linked to doctrinal concepts within Chinese Buddhism. Furthermore I aim to contextualize them within the broader history of Pure Land in Chinese Buddhism.. Sheng Yen published two books explicitly dealing with Pure Land and nianfo practices: Nianfo in order to be born in/ to create a Pure Land (念佛生淨土) 5 and Master Sheng Yen Teaches the Pure Land Approach to the Dharma (聖嚴法師教淨土法門).6 Thus I will focus mainly on these two books out of his oeuvre for my thesis. In addition I have critically reviewed studies on Chinese Buddhism in general and Pure Land in particular in Chinese, English and German. To attain data “on the ground” I have conducted fieldwork at several branches of DDM in Taiwan and the US. The first time I encountered DDM was not when I actually began this research project in summer 2012, but four years earlier when I moved to Taiwan for. 5 6. Shengyan, Nianfo sheng jingtu. Shengyan, Shengyan fashi jiao jingtu famen. 11.

(13) Chinese language training. Motivated by a general interest in modern Chinese Buddhism I had developed while studying in the China Studies Department at the Free University of Berlin, over the years I had visited several Buddhist activities organized by DDM and other Taiwanese groups. Beginning with my master’s at NCCU Taiwan in 2012, I intensified my fieldwork and focused my observations on DDM. To get a broader picture of the organization I participated in a wide range of activities: I visited the organization’s temples, centers and monasteries all over the country, participated in Chan meditation classes for foreigners as well as for Taiwanese, attended several one-day, one three-day and one six-day Chan retreat and Outdoor Chan classes. I attended nianfo group practices, Dharma assemblies, repentence ceremonies, as well as conferences and a camp that introduced monastic life to college students. In addition I continued to visit other Buddhist groups in Taiwan to have a frame of reference with which to compare DDM.. On March 17, 2012 I attended my first nianfo group practice (念佛共修) at the main DDM monastery at Jinshan (金山). Since then I have attended nianfo practice at other DDM branches, including DDM Anhe branch (安和分院) in Taipei on a weekly basis during the fall semester 2013/2014. During the spring semester 2013, I volunteered at the International Meditation Group (IMG) at DDM Degui academy (法鼓德貴學苑). Attending these activities has given me countless opportunities to participate in informal conversations with participants, volunteers and monastics at DDM. I have also conducted semi-structured interviews with the leading volunteer in charge of the End-of-Life Chanting Group, the volunteer responsible for the International Mediation Group IMG,. 12.

(14) and Guojing (釋果鏡), director of the Center for Research and Practice (研修中心主任) at Dharma Drum Buddhist College (DDBC 法鼓佛學院) and an expert on Sheng Yen’s Pure Land thought. A transcript of the latter interview is included as an appendix to this thesis.. One of the concerns of this study is to link Chinese language and English language perspectives on the topic. In spite of today’s increasingly globalized world, academia in any given country tends to stay within in its particular linguistic frame, with scholarly debates often held in one particular language. Chinese language scholarship of Chinese Buddhism often treats the subject from a philosophical and doctrinal perspective. Trying to understand concepts and related practices as they are established within their own linguistic system may help us to avoid making culturally shaped assumptions in our approach to research. Conversely, by drawing upon Western scholarship we can broaden our perspective. Chinese Buddhism is a particularly thriving area of scholarly research in North America, contributing many new methodologies and terms and setting research trends. The Social Sciences play a special role there, and are being applied to the field of Buddhist studies. By bringing together these different scholarly traditions that use different approaches and ask different questions, research on Chinese Buddhism can only benefit.. I have used hanyu pinyin (漢語拼音) to romanize Chinese characters throughout, except where another romanization is more widely accepted, as is the case for example with some personal and place names, e.g., Taipei, Sheng Yen.. 13.

(15) I have added the Chinese characters following the pinyin after the first occurrence only. Chinese sources cited in the footnotes are given in hanyu pinyin, and Western sources in their respective languages. In the bibliography, Chinese sources are given in hanyu pinyin and Chinese characters, and Western sources in their respective languages. Dates are given for deceased historical figures only.. 1.4. Scholarship on modern Chinese Buddhism. Holmes H. Welch (1924-1981 CE) published a trilogy of books on modern Chinese Buddhism based on fieldwork and historical research he conducted in China, namely: The Practice of Chinese Buddhism: 1900–1950,7 The Buddhist Revival in China,8 and Buddhism under Mao.9 Despite this promising start to Western scholarship on the topic, the field subsequently went dormant again for another two or three decades. However, in recent decades the situation has improved greatly with the appearance of several works that examine the changes in the Chinese Buddhist tradition that have occurred since the late nineteenth century. In addition to several other books, articles and dissertations, Charles Brewer Jones’ work on Buddhism in Taiwan10 and Don A. Pittman’s study of. 7. Holmes H. Welch, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism: 1900-1950 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967). 8 Holmes H. Welch, The Buddhist Revival in China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968). 9 Holmes H. Welch, Buddhism under Mao (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972). 10 Charles B. Jones, Buddhism in Taiwan (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999). 14.

(16) Taixu11 provide invaluable broad overviews and deserve to be mentioned here. Pittman’s study portrays the life, historical background and thought of the monastic who has come to be recognized as a key figure in the modernization of Chinese Buddhism, while Jones’ book offers an outline of the historical development of Buddhism in Taiwan. As a result of the Communist Party of China’s anti-religious policies on the mainland, since 1949, this small island in the Pacific Ocean has come to be regarded as the center of contemporary Chinese Buddhism. In recent years other studies have focused on Chinese Buddhist organizations in Taiwan. Important examples include Stuart Chandler’s analysis of Foguangshan (佛光山) in relation to globalization and modernization12 and Julia Huang’s study of the Buddhist Charity organization Tzu Chi (Ciji 慈濟).13 Only a handful of English language studies exist that focus exclusively on DDM and Sheng Yen; most notable are several articles by Jimmy Yu.14 Additionally, there is a dissertation by Seth Clippard analyzing the rhetoric of Chinese Buddhist environmentalism,15 and Daniel R. Tuzzeo, a student of Jimmy Yu, has completed a master’s thesis exploring education at DDM.16. 11. Don A. Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism: Taixu’s Reforms (Honolulu: Hawai’i University Press, 2001). 12 Stuart Chandler, Establishing a Pure Land on Earth: The Foguang Buddhist Perspective on Modernization and Globalization (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004). 13 C. Julia Huang, Charisma and Compassion: Cheng Yen and the Buddhist Tzu Chi Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009). 14 E.g., Jimmy Yu, “A Tentative Exploration into the Development of Master Sheng Yen’s Teachings,” Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal 23 (2010): 3-38. For a comprehensive list of Jimmy Yu’s publications, see bibliography. 15 Seth Clippard, “Protecting the Spiritual Environment: Rhetoric and Chinese Buddhist Environmentalism” (Ph.D. diss., Arizona State University, 2012). 16 Daniel R. Tuzzeo, “Education, Invention of Orthodoxy, and the Construction of Modern Buddhism on Dharma Drum Mountain” (Master’s thesis, Florida State University, 2012). 15.

(17) Naturally, the situation is very different in Chinese language scholarship. There are numerous publications and dissertations about Sheng Yen and DDM, so many that it would be difficult to list them all here. However, some scholars and works at least deserve brief mention. One series of books serves as a particularly indispensable resource: Studies of Master Sheng Yen 1-4 contains articles by leading scholars dealing with different aspects of Sheng Yen’s oeuvre.17 Li Yu-Chen (李玉珍) has published here on Sheng Yen and Chan meditation in a global context.18 In addition to many publications on the topic in the above-mentioned edition and elsewhere, Lin Chihsien (林其賢) has compiled a detailed two-volume biography of Sheng Yen.19 Chen ChienHuang (陳劍鍠), Taiwan’s leading researcher on Pure Land Buddhism, has published articles on the doctrinal aspect of Sheng Yen’s Pure Land thought.20 Guojing has also published articles about Sheng Yen’s Pure Land thought,21 and historian Chiang Tsanteng (江燦騰) has written several books on the history of modern Chinese Buddhism, including DDM and contemporary Pure Land thought.22. 17. Shengyan yanjiu diyi dao disi ji (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2010/2011/2012/2013). Li Yuzhen, “Chanxiu chuantong de fuxing yu dongxi jiaoliu-yi Shengyan fashi weili,” in Shengyan sixiang yanjiu disi ji, (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2013), 7-34. 19 E.g. Lin Qixian, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2000). 20 E.g. Chen Jianhuang, “Shengyan fashi「jianshi renjian jingtu」yu「yixin buluan」zhi yaoyi”, in Shengyan yanjiu di’er ji (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2011), 201-240. Chen Jianhuang, “Shengyan fashi dui「jingnian xiangji」yu「ruliu mangsuo」de quanyi jiqi tizheng,” in Shengyan yanjiu disi ji (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2013), 75-130. 21 Shi Guojing, ”Shengyan fashi jingtu sixiang zhi yanjiu-yi renjian jingtu wei zhongxin,” in Shengyan yanjiu diyi ji (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2010), pp. 69-112, and Shi Guojing, “Zai tan Shengyan fashi de jingtu sixiang,” in Shengyan yanjiu disi ji (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2013), 305-352. 22 E.g. Jiang Canteng, Taiwan dangdai jingtu sixiang de xin dongxiang (Taibei: Xinwenfeng, 2001). 18. 16.

(18) 1.5. Buddhism, Asia and discourses of modernity. It seems necessary to clarify what is meant by terms such as modern or modernization, especially with regard to Buddhism, before we continue with this study. In the literature on Buddhism and modernization we find two main approaches to the topic. One is to perceive modernization as a universal process that unfolds on an international stage. Other scholars, while understanding modernization itself as universal phenomenon, find that it manifests differently in different regions. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. and David L. McMahan represent the former approach. Modern Buddhism, according to Lopez, “rejects many of the ritual and magical elements of previous forms of Buddhism, it stresses quality over hierarchy, the universal over the local, and often exalts the individual above the community.”23 Adherents of modern Buddhism often perceive their endeavor not as a contemporary advancement of Buddhism, but as a return to the tradition of the time of the historical Buddha. Often called early Buddhism, this is frequently believed to be “most compatible with the ideals of the European Enlightenment that occurred so many centuries later, ideals embodied in such concepts as reason, empiricism, science, universalism, individualism, tolerance, freedom and the rejection of religious orthodoxy.”24 While some of Lopez’s criteria may apply to contemporary Chinese Buddhism in Taiwan, e.g., the fact that many of the reforms Chinese Buddhism underwent were legitimized by appealing to early Buddhism (原始佛教),25 there are many others that are. 23. Donald S. Lopez, Jr., A Modern Buddhist Bible (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), p. ix. Lopez, Jr., A Modern Buddhist Bible, ix-x. 25 Especially true of Yinshun and his renjian fojiao. 24. 17.

(19) less applicable. The notion of orthodoxy (正信) most definitely plays an important role in the modernization of Chinese Buddhism,26 and during the fieldwork I have carried out in Taiwanese Buddhist circles, I have observed that hierarchy, ritual, and community do indeed play an important and vital role even in Chinese Buddhist groups who identify with the modernist project of Renjian Buddhism. McMahan uses the term Buddhist modernism instead of modern Buddhism to describe “forms of Buddhism that have emerged out of an engagement with the dominant cultural and intellectual forces of modernity.”27 He draws on Charles Taylor to identify three main broad discourses in Modernist Buddhism: Western monotheism, rationalism and scientific naturalism, and Romantic expressionism.28 Furthermore, McMahan attributes the emphasis on meditation to modernist Buddhism.29 McMahan’s criteria, similar to those of Lopez, are still closely linked to a one-sided Western experience of modernity and thereby seem to take a Western form of modern Buddhism as the ideal type of modern Buddhism to contrast with non-Western forms. In chapter two of his book, McMahan provides a selection of six ideal types of contemporary Buddhists; all “traditional” Buddhists are represented by Asians while all “modernist” types are represented by Westerners, with the exception of one, a Western educated Asian who teaches Buddhism to Westerners.30. 26. One of Sheng Yen’s most famous books is Orthodox Buddhism. Shengyan fashi, Zhengxin fojiao (Taibei: fagu wenhua, 1996). 27 David L. McMahan, The Making of Modernist Buddhism (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008), 6. 28 McMahan, The Making of, 10. 29 McMahan, The Making of, 184. 30 McMahan, The Making of, 27-60. 18.

(20) Nevertheless both authors clearly contribute immensely to the understanding of an important and growing phenomenon in contemporary Buddhism, a modernist Buddhism that mainly develops in Western countries, but which may involve non-Western actors— many of the Buddhist teachers in the West are of Asian descent. The Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, for example, enjoy great popularity, but mainly cater to a Western audience.31 However, it is important to emphasize that the Buddhisms of the different countries and regions of Asia have also undergone rapid changes, changes that might be related, yet not identical, to developments in the West. Are we then to deny these groups their self-acclaimed modernist identity, because they do not fit certain criteria? Or are the criteria themselves in need of re-evaluation?. Joseph B. Tamney, among other scholars, has developed a set of criteria for a modernist Buddhism, which does take East Asian Forms of Buddhism into account: (1) A stronger role for the laity, including women; (2) Buddhism as a voluntary, chosen religion; (3) engagement in social welfare and environmental protection; (4) loosening ties to a single culture; and (5) emphasis on personal spiritual development.32 Tamney’s criteria are explicitly linked to the situation in East Asia, while he understands modernity as a universal experience, which he defines as follows: “Technological development, social expansion and increasing population density, structural differentiation (i.e. the appearance of new, independent institutions such as an independent “church” or a capitalist economy), the. 31. By using the term “Western audience,” I do not refer to a particular ethnicity but to persons that are mainly socialized in Europe, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. 32 Joseph B. Tamney, “Afterword: Modernization, Globalization, and Buddhism,” in Paul David Numrich, ed., North American Buddhists in Social Context (Leiden: Brill, 2008), p. 232. 19.

(21) fragmentation of societal culture (pluralism), and the growing importance of the individual at the expense of groups.”33 This universal understanding of modernization and general criteria based on it may help to identify commonalities in the changes the different Asian Buddhisms undergo, but it also has its weaknesses. Modernization theory in general, and the theories above in particular, presuppose modernization as a temporal linear process. Here, a binary of not yet modernized countries, traditions and groups, and already modernized countries, traditions and groups is created. Unfortunately, these criteria impose a specific historical experience, and establish the modernization process experienced by Europe as a universal standard against which Chinese Buddhism is to be compared. This introduces a temporal hierarchy of advanced and backward, and does not adequately explain those traditional elements that persist even in a modernized tradition. But this is precisely the topic of this study: The coexistence of traditional and modernist notions of Pure Land in Chinese Buddhism. Thus, instead of understanding the remnants of traditional Pure Land practice at DDM as artifacts of an incomplete process of modernization, this study aims to approach them with an open mind. Wang Hui (汪晖) examines the assumed universality of the concept of modernity and points out several problematic aspects if one is to apply the concept to non-Western regions in general and China in particular. He claims that a study on Chinese modernity must be situated in the perspective of the study of China’s history and culture.34. 33. Tamney, “Afterword: Modernization,” 225. Wang Hui, The Politics of Imagining Asia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), p. 265. 34. 20.

(22) However, the discourse of modernity was created in the era of European enlightenment. It reconstructed the relationship Europeans had with the past, the present, and the future. Key features of this discourse are the concepts of rationality and subjective freedom. Wang Hui writes: “Modernity (xiandai xing) is an internally complicated, much contested Western concept. It contains only one unambiguously clear feature, which is that modernity is principally a conception of time, or, perhaps better to say, a conception of historical time that moves linearly forward and cannot be repeated …The notion of modernity … while it is intertwined with the process of European secularization, its roots reveal its origins in medieval Christianity, because implicit in both Jewish and Christian eschatological conceptions of time is the peculiar feature that time cannot be repeated.”35 Wang Hui goes on to sketch the development of the understanding of modernity. The conception that modern contrasts with ancient was formed during the renaissance.36 Yet at that time modern was meant in a pejorative sense while ancient had positive connotations. It was only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that the term modern gained its positive connotations, coming to mean improved, satisfactory and efficient.37 Subsequently, the binary of tradition/modernity was constructed. This binary is based upon a linear conception of time, containing a teleology of progress, where everything inevitably strive towards the same final end.38 Wang Hui draws heavily on Weber, Habermas and Calinescu to demonstrate how the discourse on modernity is produced from a perspective within Christian Europe.. 35. Wang, The Politics of, 266. Wang, The Politics of, 266. 37 Wang, The Politics of, 267. 38 Wang, The Politics of, 270. 36. 21.

(23) In the 1950s the term modernization appeared. It dissociated modernity from its European traditions and was modeled “into a spatio-temporally neutral model for processes of social development in general.”39 Different countries and regions were on different levels of development; nevertheless all were on the same route. From now on it could be expanded to non-Western societies. The binary of modern/traditional came to be situated in this context of modernization theory.40 Wang Hui asks: “The key concepts of modernity were produced from within Christian civilization, so why use them to describe non-Western societies and cultures?”41 Instead, he suggests that we “establish a new perspective for the study of cultures, the first obligation is to seek out a basic language and framework with which to describe Chinese society and culture, both of which are rooted in a particular linguistic community and social interactions.”42 He advocates studying key concepts of the formulation of the modern Chinese world view, like public (共), community (群), society (社會), country (國家), nation (民族), progress (進步), etc.43 In this way, he seeks to determine a range of analysis from within Chinese society and culture.44 As seen above, the Pure Land is a key term with regard to the modernization of Chinese Buddhism. Different understandings, practices and believe systems are merged into a single concept.. 39. Habermas after Wang. Wang, The Politics of, 295. Wang, The Politics of, 299. 41 Wang, The Politics of, 277. 42 Wang, The Politics of, 303. 43 Wang, The Politics of, 303. 44 Wang, The Politics of, 304. 40. 22.

(24) Wang Hui’s approach also reminds us to take care not to misunderstand modernization as a linear universal process, where every culture walks the same route towards the same goal, but to stay open to differing developments. It is not that terms like traditional and modern should be completely avoided, but that they should be used in a purely descriptive rather than in a normative sense. Something modern is then to be understood as just something new, which has developed in the context of the changes of modern society beginning with the nineteenth century, while traditional describes a phenomena that existed long before his period. For example, in the present study, the notion of a Pure Land on Earth describes a new concept that emerged in the course of Buddhism’s encounter with a new era, thus I call it modern. On the other hand, literal understandings of the Pure Land as a place existing somewhere in the west have a long history in China, and I therefore call them traditional.. Examining changes within specific concepts and practices within Chinese Buddhism thus allows us to understand current developments within their own cultural and linguistic setting. However, that does not mean that Chinese Buddhism is to be understood as an independent entity, developing completely without any interaction with an Other, like, for example, the West. In fact Li Yu-Chen has shown how the current trend of meditational Buddhism in Taiwan indeed owes something to the popularity of meditation in the West.45 Combining perspectives, the developments within Chinese Buddhism and. 45. Li, “Chanxiu,“ 29. A study on the influence of Western Buddhism on Korean Buddhism: Ryan Bongseok Joo, “Countercurrents from the West: “Blue-Eyed” Zen Masters, Vipassanna Meditation, 23.

(25) the tradition’s interactions and contacts with the West, will aid our understanding of modern Chinese Buddhism in its complexity.. 1.6. Pure Land in Chinese Buddhism. In the context of Buddhist studies, I aim to broaden the perspective on Pure Land Buddhism in Western language scholarship. Most studies examine Pure Land Buddhism in its Japanese form, but in recent decades some important studies on Pure Land in Chinese Buddhism have appeared. First to deserve mention here is the work of Charles B. Jones.46 In addition to Jones’ work, there are a series of articles that challenge the previously commonly held assumption that Chinese Pure Land should be regarded as an independent school. Of these, Robert Sharf’s article on the issue might be considered the most often cited;47 however, Yü Chün-fang might have been the first to raise an objection to the habit of equating of Japanese and Chinese Pure Land in her study of Zhuhong (祩宏, 1535-1615 CE).48 Nevertheless, Japanese Pure Land still continues to dominate Western perceptions of East Asian Pure Land in general.49 Here, Pure Land is portrayed. and Buddhist Psychotherapy in Contemporary Korea,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion vol. 79, no. 3 (2011): 614-638. 46 A comprehensive list of Jones’ publications about Chinese Pure Land is included in the bibliography below. 47 Sharf, "On Pure Land Buddhism," 282-331. 48 Yü Chün-fang, The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). 49 Charles B. Jones, “Toward a Typology of Nien-fo: a Study in Methods of BuddhaInvocation in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism,” Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, 3rd series, no. 3 (2001): 219. 24.

(26) as the antithesis of Chan/Zen. Chan/Zen and Pure Land are discussed as two completely distinct schools with different soteriologies and sets of religious practices. Chan/Zen is presented as a religious system, in which the practitioner relies strictly on his or her own effort (自力) to achieve salvation (awakening or Buddhahood). In contrast, in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, practitioners seek salvation through their faith in Amitabha’s vows (他力), aiming to gain rebirth in the western Pure Land.. Recent research on Buddhism in the West, apart from studies on Western Japanese Pure Land groups, while seldom taking Pure Land Buddhism and practices as a main focus, does touch on the issue when examining religious practice and its relation to the modernization of Buddhism. Studies aiming to describe the process of the development of Buddhism in the West pay special attention to the practice of meditation. Meditation is often perceived as a modernist religious practice per se,50 which stresses individual religious experience and is favored by Western Buddhist practitioners. Since the 1990s, many US scholars have based their analysis of American Buddhism on a two-fold notion, based on ethnicity. A modern meditation Buddhism practiced by Westerners of European descent is contrasted with a supposedly traditional Buddhism practiced by Americans of Asian descendent, which stresses aspects like community and devotional chanting.51. 50. McMahan, The Making of, 181. For a comprehensive discussion of the perceived bifurcation of Buddhism in the U.S., see Paul David Numrich, “Two Buddhisms Further Considered,” Contemporary Buddhism 4.1 (2003): 55-78. David McMahan also juxtaposes a “modern Western” with a “traditional Asian” Buddhism. See McMahan, The Making of, chapter 2. 51. 25.

(27) However, neither model is applicable to Chinese Buddhism in contemporary Taiwan. Instead of viewing Chan/meditation and Pure Land/devotional chanting as polar opposites, I aim to demonstrate that Pure Land at DDM is a key concept, where different practices, and believe systems, elite and popular, modern and traditional, are negotiated.. 1.7. Chapter outline. The structure of this study is as follows: Chapter 2 offers some background by briefly sketching the developments that have taken place in Chinese Buddhism since the nineteenth century, and also provides a short biography of Sheng Yen. This biography does not claim to be comprehensive, but rather an examination of his life with regard to Pure Land. Questions which are of main interest here are: the role of traditional Pure Land practices like nianfo retreats, etc., Sheng Yen’s intellectual formation, and the importance of the modernist notion of a Pure Land on Earth in this biographical context. Chapter 3 offers some historical background on Pure Land in Chinese Buddhism. It aims to provide a bigger historical framework for understanding Pure Land in order to demonstrate how a variety of understandings of Pure Land have always coexisted throughout Chinese history. It also examines the relationship between Pure Land and lay Buddhism, and between Pure Land and Chan. Chapter 4 examines different approaches to Pure Land at DDM as an institution and on the level of practice. It discusses the establishment of DDM as a modernist attempt to. 26.

(28) build a Pure Land on Earth within contemporary society. The second half of the chapter introduces the sub-groups of DDM that are principally involved with Pure Land practice, including the Merit and Wisdom Chanting Society (福慧念佛會), and the End-of-Life Chanting Group. Furthermore it contains a “thick description”52 of DDM’s nianfo group practice to illustrate how nianfo is practiced at DDM. In Chapter 5, I turn to Sheng Yen’s writings on the Pure Land, the practice of nianfo and concept of a Pure Land on Earth, hoping to shed light on his understanding of modernist and traditional Pure Land concepts, and to show how these two approaches relate to each other in his thinking. It will also show the importance of Mind-Only conceptions in Sheng Yen’s understanding of Pure Land. Finally, in chapter 6, I draw some conclusions, especially with regard to conceptions of the modernization of Chinese Buddhism. Instead of understanding modernization as a linear process I will suggest a hybrid model, as developed by Mikhail Bakhtin, to describe the phenomenon. The appendix contains a transcription of an interview I conducted with Guojing, Director of the Center for Research and Practice at Dharma Drum Buddhist College, and an expert on Sheng Yen’s Pure Land thought.53. Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973). 53 http://www.ddbc.edu.tw/zh/buddhist_studies/faculty.html accessed June 14, 2014. 52. 27.

(29) 2. Sheng Yen: A Chinese Monk Navigating Through Modernity. 2.1. Chinese Buddhism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century. The Nineteenth Century saw a series of tumultuous events in Chinese history. Two events stand out: The Taiping rebellion and the First Opium War. The Taiping rebellion was led by Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全, 1814-1864 CE), a militant evangelist, who established his Great Peaceful Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國, 1851-1864 CE) in large parts of southern China. The Qing government with the help of French and British armed forces finally crushed the rebellion.54 The second event is the First Opium War, when the British forced China to open its markets to the opium trade, is usually considered in Chinese literature as the start of the early modern era (近代).55 The forces of Western imperialism in conjunction with the Taiping rebellion greatly weakened the Manchu government. The aftermath of these events eventually resulted in the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911. These events and the subsequent infusion of Western ideas and personnel into China challenged the self-perception of the Chinese.56 In their search for the causes of the unequal relationship with the West they began to turn to their own culture. The assumptions and conjectures which resulted from this introspection resulted in philosophies numerous and varied which ranged from a radical iconoclasm to a. 54. John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China a New History second enlarged edition (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2006), 206-216. 55 Fairbank and Goldman, China a New History, 198-205. 56 Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism, 14. 28.

(30) conservative petrification.57 Many reform-minded literati looked to Western culture as a model to find ways to re-strengthen China. Western culture, religion and especially education were perceived as the key to the renewal of China’s culture. This tempestuous era was especially devastating for Chinese Buddhism. The followers of the Taiping rebellion had destroyed Buddhist monasteries in the south. Many Buddhist libraries and scriptures were burned.58 Consequently some lay Buddhists, such as Yang Wenhui (楊文會, 1837-1911 CE) were concerned about the destiny of Buddhism and engaged in the publishing of Buddhist sutras.59 Many other Chinese intellectuals on the other hand blamed Buddhism for being responsible for China’s backwardness. The monastic sangha was perceived by many as “to be primarily engaged in performing rites for the dead for personal financial gain and were judged largely incapable of contributing much of significance toward national goals.”60 Protestant missionaries, supported by Western forces, proselytized aggressively during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They too criticized Buddhism as superstitious and escapist.61 With the end of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic, a secularization model was introduced which required legitimate religions to conform to church-like institutional models in order to distinguish them from popular religious worship places.62 Mimicking protestant conceptions of religion, Buddhism was to retreat to the realm of. 57. Joseph R. Levenson, Confucian China and Its Modern Fate: A Trilogy, combined edition, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968). 58 Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism, 35. 59 Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism, 40-45. 60 Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism, 28. 61 Gareth Fisher, “Buddhism in China and Taiwan,” in David L. McMahan, ed., Buddhism in the Modern World (New York: Routledge, 2012), p. 70. 62 Fisher, “Buddhism in China and Taiwan,” 70. 29.

(31) private belief. Several formerly accepted religious practices came to be labeled superstitions (迷信). The KMT (國民黨) launched campaigns against superstitious practices; this was followed by attacks against an even wider range of religious practices by the subsequent communist government. If Buddhism wanted to survive the new era, it had to respond to these challenges.63 Buddhists responded in two ways to the new situation: (1) they established national associations to which local temples became affiliated and (2) a group of reform-minded Buddhists aimed to transform Buddhism from within.64 Lin Chi-Hsien identifies four generations of Buddhist modernizers in China: (1) Yang Wenhui, (2) Taixu and Ouyang Jian (歐陽漸, 1871-1943 CE), (3) Yinshun, Cihang (慈航, 1893-1954 CE), Dongchu (東初, 1907–1977 CE), (4) Hsing Yun (星雲), Cheng Yen (證嚴), and Sheng Yen.65 Yang Wenhui felt that in order to reform Buddhism, one must first achieve a thorough understanding of the Buddhist scriptures.66 He had many famous students, one of whom came to be perceived as the embodiment of a Chinese Buddhist modernizer, Taixu. Taixu criticized the Buddhism of his time for being detrimentally preoccupied with funeral services and deathbed chanting. Pittman writes: “As an ethical pietist, Taixu called for an engagement with, rather than a withdrawal from, the issues of the socio-political. 63. Fisher, “Buddhism in China and Taiwan,” 71. Fisher, “Buddhism in China and Taiwan,” 71. 65 Lin Qixian, “Shengyan fashi renjian jingtu sixiang de shijian yu hongyang,” in Shengyan yanjiu diyi ji (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2010), 156. 66 Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism, 41. 64. 30.

(32) world.”67 Therefore, he developed concepts to promote reform of the monastic sangha.68 In order to enhance monastic education, he established Buddhist studies academies (佛學院). Although most of Taixu’s ideas were never actualized, he nevertheless developed the very influential concept of Buddhism for the human realm/life, or Rensheng/ Renjian (人生/人間) Buddhism.69 Instead of being solely concerned with the dead, he wanted Buddhism to benefit the living. Therefore he aimed to establish a Pure Land on Earth. Pittman writes:. “[H]is views on the realization of that ideal were far from those of the mainstream of the contemporary Sangha. Rather than focusing on the glories of distant pure lands, which were accessible through reliance on the spiritual merit and power of other great bodhisattvas and Buddhas, Taixu visualized this earthly world transformed into a pure land by the dedication and sacrificial hard work of thousands of average bodhisattvas who were mindful of what their concerted witness could mean. Most Chinese Buddhists were content to prayerfully await their rebirth in a celestial pure land; Taixu was impatient about establishing a pure land on earth.”70 With the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, and due to the anti-religious stance of the Communist Party, the prospects for Buddhism in China seemed to be anything but rosy. Many Buddhist monastics therefore left China and fled with the KMT government to Taiwan. Amongst these monks from the mainland was another famous. 67. Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism, 60. Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism, 232-236. 69 Although nowadays it is common to subscribe the term renjian fojiao to Taixu and the term rensheng fojiao to Yinshun, Bingenheimer has shown that Taixu in fact used both terms equally. However in the later part of his life he came to prefer rensheng fojiao over renjian fojiao. Marcus Bingenheimer, “Some Remarks on the Usage of Renjian Fojiao,” in Development and Practice of Humanitarian Buddhism (Hualian: Tzu Chi University Press, 2007), 145-151. 70 Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism, 222. 68. 31.

(33) reformer, Yinshun.71 Yinshun was a student of Taixu who eventually became very influential in the Buddhist world of Taiwan. Unlike Taixu, Yinshun was not an activist but chose the life of a scholar as a platform from which to reform Chinese Buddhism. Yinshun introduced an historical research perspective to the Chinese Buddhist world.72 He held the view that Buddhism over the centuries came to be defiled with Chinese folk religious elements and therefore advocated a Renjian Buddhism that he understood as a return to early Buddhism and Madhyamika.73 However, despite their immense importance within Buddhism, when the reformers came to Taiwan from the mainland, they were perceived as foreigners, outsiders. This and the political circumstances in Taiwan under martial law limited their influence towards the Taiwanese population outside of Buddhist circles. This changed with the next generation of Buddhist modernists: Hsing Yun, Cheng Yen, and Sheng Yen, all three of whom identify with the project of Renjian Buddhism and the concept of Establishing a Pure Land on Earth, and established multinational organizations to realize these concepts. Cheng Yen, a disciple of Yinshun, and the only female as well as the only Taiwanese born of the three, established Tzu Chi (慈濟), an international active disaster relief organization; Hsing Yun founded the biggest of the Renjian Buddhist groups, Foguangshan (佛光山); and Sheng Yen, whose teachings and whose organization Dharma Drum Mountain (法鼓山) are the topic of this thesis.. 71. For a study about Yinshun in German, see: Marcus Bingenheimer, “Der Mönchsgelehrte Yinshun (1906*) und seine Bedeutung für den Chinesisch-Taiwanischen Buddhismus des 20. Jahrhunderts” (Ph.D. diss. Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg 2004). 72 Bingenheimer, “Der Mönchsgelehrte Yinshun,” 13. 73 Bingenheimer, “Some Remarks on the Usage of Renjian Fojiao,” 153. 32.

(34) 2.2. Sheng Yen’s biography. This section provides a short sketch of Sheng Yen’s life. It does not aim to be a comprehensive description, but merely to give a brief overview about his life and work, emphasizing his connections to Pure Land. Several biographies of Sheng Yen exist. The most comprehensive is probably Lin ChiHsien’s biography in two volumes Seventy Years Chronicle of Master Sheng Yen (聖嚴法師七十年譜). Running to 1185 pages, it provides a detailed description of Sheng Yen’s life, plus a chronology and list of publications including translations of Sheng Yen’s writings into foreign languages until the year 2000.74 Two other biographies in Chinese are Chen Qigan’s (陳啟淦) The Story of Master Sheng Yen: Teacher of the Human Realm (聖嚴法師的故事:人間導師),75 and an anthology by Lin Huangzhou (林煌洲) and others, Master Sheng Yen’s Thought, Conduct, and Virtues (聖嚴法師思想行誼).76 There are two autobiographies in English: Footprints in the Snow77 and A Journey of Learning and Insight.78 The latter was first published in Chinese under the title 聖嚴法師學思歷. 74. Lin, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu. Unless otherwise stated, data used for this section originates from the chronology at the end of the book, pp. 1057-1070. Data regarding Sheng Yen’s years after 1999 are based on: Master Sheng Yen, A Journey of Learning and Insight (Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation, 2012). 75 Chen Qiga, Shengyan fashi de gushi: Renjiandaoshi (Taibei: Wenjing she, 2009). 76 Lin Huangzhou, Shengyan fashi sixiang xingyi (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2004). 77 Sheng Yen, Footprints in the Snow (New York: Doubleday, 2008). 78 Sheng Yen, A Journey of Learning and Insight. 33.

(35) 程. Including this work, there are sixteen autobiographical works and travel reports written by Sheng Yen in Chinese.79. 2.2.1. Early years. Sheng Yen was born in Xiaoniang Harbor, Jiangsu province in December 1930. His lay name was Zhang Baokang (張保康). Like most of his contemporaries in China, he experienced the turmoil of the first half of the 20th century. He grew up poor, but still had the good fortune to receive four years of elementary school education. At the age of 14 he was ordained as a novice at Lang Mountain Guangjiao Temple (廣教寺) at Nantong. In 1947, Sheng Yen enrolled at Jing’an monastery’s Buddhist Academy (静安寺佛學院). His teachers at the Jing’an Buddhist Academy were second-generation disciples of Taixu, whose goal was to reform and reorganize monastic education.80 However, in 1949, only two years later, Sheng Yen disrobed and joined the communication corps of the KMT forces, with whom he relocated to Taiwan. Although he spent a further 10 years in the army in Taiwan, Sheng Yen still regarded himself as a monk and continued to read and write about Buddhism. He even went to. 79. Shengyan fashi, fagu quanji, (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2005): liuri jianwen 留日見聞, xuesi licheng 學思歷程, guicheng 歸程 , fayuan xieyuan 法源血源, foguo zhi lu 佛國之旅, jinshan you li 金山有鑛, huozhai qingliang 火宅清涼, dongxinanbei 東西南北, chunxiaqiudong 春夏秋冬, xingyun liushui 行雲流水, bubu lianlian 步步蓮華, konghua shuiyue 空花水月, liangqian nian xingjiao 兩千年行腳, bao jiyou gaofeng 抱疾遊高峰, zhengzheng da haonian 真正大好年, wubai puda zou jianghu 五百菩薩走江湖. 80 Lin, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu, 63. 34.

(36) Shandao temple (善導寺) to meet with Yinshun, who was the abbot there at the time.81 His writings, especially from 1957 to 1960, accordingly focus on the thinking of Taixu, Yang Wenhui and Yinshun and their ideas about modernizing Buddhism.82 Like them, Sheng Yen perceived Chinese Buddhism at the time as being in a state of decline,83 with Buddhists lacking a basic understanding of Buddhist concepts and Buddhist monastics focusing mainly on conducting rituals for money; but, at the same time, he was also convinced that Buddhist rituals, like reciting sutras and repentance ceremonies, constituted a vital part of the tradition. Sheng Yen proposed a Buddhism that aimed to benefit society, was based on sound Buddhist doctrine and at the same time provided rituals as a method of practice and guidance.84. 2.2.2. Second ordination, reclusion and Japan. Sheng Yen left the army in January 1960 and took the monastic vows for the second time; this time under Dongchu, the 50th generation Dharma heir to the Caodong school of Dongshan Liangjie (洞山良价). He gave Sheng Yen the Dharma name Huikong Sheng Yen (慧空聖嚴),85 Dongchu was also a student of Taixu who had published the periodical Humanity (人生), whose title was an allusion to Taixu’s concept of Rensheng. 81. Sheng Yen, A Journey of Learning and Insight, 39. Sheng Yen, A Journey of Learning and Insight, 43. 83 Lin, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu, 128. 84 Sheng Yen, A Journey of Learning and Insight, 43-46. 85 Sheng Yen, A Journey of Learning and Insight, 48. 82. 35.

(37) Buddhism (人生佛教). Though discontinued in 1961, the periodical was later revived by Sheng Yen in 1982, and continues to be published to this day.86 As far as the present study is concerned, what is of interest is that, though having a strong inclination towards modernist interpretations of Chinese Buddhism,87 as early as 1960, Sheng Yen had led a seven-day nianfo retreat (佛七).88 Nianfo is commonly regarded as a more traditional Buddhist practice in the sense that it requires faith in supernatural beings and is especially associated with Pure Land monks like Yinguang (印光, 1862-1940 CE)89 and his famous lay disciple in Taiwan Li Bingnan (李炳南, 1891-1986).90 Modernists like Taixu and Yinshun on the other hand, had a more critical take on devotional Pure Land practices.91 Though not condemning them completely, both perceived Pure Land devotion as an inferior form of Buddhism.92 Students of Yinshun, for example, published New Treatise on the Pure Land (淨土新論),93 a book based on 86. Hu, Sharing Dharma Drum Mountain (Taipei: Dharma Drum Corporation, 2005), 176. Yu, “A Tentative Exploration,” 6. 88 Shengyan, Nianfo shengjingtu (Taibei, Fagu wenhua, 1997) 3. And Shengyan, Shengyan fashi jiao jingtu famen (Taibei, Fagu wenhua, 2010), 3. Both mention Sheng Yen leading a seven-day nianfo retreat at Dongshan si (東山寺) in Pingtung County. However, this is not mentioned in Lin 70 years; instead Lin writes that Sheng Yen participates in a seven-day nianfo retreat in Beitou’s Zhonghua fojiao wenhua guan (中華佛教文化館) right before his second ordination: Lin, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu, 117. 89 Jones, Buddhism in Taiwan, 115-119. A study on Yinguang’s life and thought in Chinese is Chen Jianhuang, Yuantong zhengdao: Yinguang de jingtu qihua (Taibei: Dongda, 2002). 90 Jones, Buddhism in Taiwan, 124-126. 91 For the differences between Yinshun and Yinguang’s approaches to Pure Land, see Chen Jianhuang, “Yinshun daoshi yu Yinguang dashi de jingtu guandian bijiao - yi 「qili qiji」yu「chengming nianfo」wei hexin,” in Renjian fojiao yanjiu (2013): 71-104. 92 Bingenheimer, “Der Mönchsgelehrte Yinshun,” 102. 93 An excellent study on jingtu xinlun is: Jiang Canteng, Taiwan dangdai jingtu sixiang de xin Dongxiang (Taibei: Xin wenfeng, 2001). 87. 36.

(38) Yinshun’s 1951 lectures in Hong Kong, and a critical examination of Chinese Pure Land devotion. Charles B. Jones writes: “It is difficult to read Yinshun’s New Treatise on the Pure Land without perceiving the distaste for the kind of Pure Land piety advocated by Yinguang and popular throughout China. This simple and exclusive devotion to the practice of reciting the Buddha’s name in the hopes of gaining rebirth in the Western Paradise must have appeared to him to be at the heart of the crass, popular Buddhism that he had vowed to reform in his youth.”94 Yang Huinan (楊惠南) interprets the controversy that this publication and a series of lectures Yinshun gave about Pure Land thought (念佛淺說)95 caused, which led to Yinshun’s resignation from his position at Shandao temple, as an example of the power struggle between traditionalists and modernist reformers in Taiwan.96 Differing from Yinshun, Sheng Yen seemed to have a more “ecumenical” approach towards Pure Land, simultaneously valuing faith in the Buddha and the historical study of Buddhist concepts.97 Chiang Tsan-teng also suggests that Sheng Yen has a more practical approach, which takes into account the differences between an academically minded audience and one consisting of pious believers (凡夫).98. In 1961, Sheng Yen received his full ordination and shortly afterwards embarked on a six-year solitary retreat at Chaoyuan temple (朝元寺) in Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan, spending his time in reclusion on intense Buddhist study and practice. He. 94. Jones, Buddhism in Taiwan, 126. Bingenheimer, “Der Mönchsgelehrte Yinshun,” 101. 96 Yang Wenhui, Dangdai fojiao sixiang zhanwang (Taibei: Dongda, 1991), 21. 97 Sheng Yen, A Journey of Learning and Insight, 40. 98 Jiang Canteng, Taiwan dangdai jingtu sixiang de xin Dongxiang, 43. 95. 37.

(39) continued to write about a variety of topics, including Buddhism and Christianity and comparative religion, but his main focus of study was the Vinaya and the Agamas. Besides meditating and conducting morning and evening ceremonies, Sheng Yen continued to write and participate in intellectual discourse. At the time, Buddhism came under criticism by Taiwanese Catholics. Sheng Yen responded with several articles, which were then collected into book form. He even received visitors, for example Hsing Yun (星雲), who was by then already a renowned figure in Taiwanese Buddhism.99 Jimmy Yu writes about Sheng Yen’s time in southern Taiwan: “He produced two of his most influential works based on his studies of the Āgamas during this period, both were published in 1965: Jielü xue gangyao 戒律學綱要 (Essentials of Monastic Precepts and Regulations) and Zhengxin de fojiao 正信的佛教 (Orthodox Chinese Buddhism). Arguably these two books represent the foundation of his understanding of Chinese Buddhism.”100 In 1969, a year after ending his solitary retreat, Sheng Yen moved to Japan to pursue an academic education. He wrote his master’s thesis on the Tiantai monk Huisi (慧思)101 and his doctoral thesis on the Ming dynasty monk Ouyi Zhixu (蕅益智旭, 1599-1655 CE).102 The 9th Pure Land patriarch Ouyi Zhixu, although mainly identified by many scholars with the Tiantai tradition, stressed religious cultivation over sectarianism and doctrinal specialization. He also popularized the combination of Pure Land and Chan.103. 99. Lin, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu, 149-209. Yu, “A Tentative Exploration,” 6. 101 Title of his master’s thesis: Dasheng zhiguan famen 大乘止觀法門. See Lin, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu, 233. 102 Sheng Yen’s Ph.D. thesis in Chinese: Shengyan fashi, Mingmo zhongguo fojiao zhi yanjiu (Taipei: Fagu wenhua, 2009) 聖嚴法師, 明末中國佛教之研究 (台北市: 法鼓文化, 2009). 103 Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism, 3 and 30. 100. 38.

(40) Sheng Yen appreciated his dual emphasis on mediation and the study of doctrine and his nonsectarian view of the Chinese Buddhist schools.104 A more detailed examination of Ouyi Zhixu and Ming dynasty Buddhism will be provided in chapter 3.. After six years of what Jimmy Yu calls the “integrative years of his intellectual development,”105 Sheng Yen received his doctor in literature from Rissho University. After receiving his doctoral degree, Sheng Yen accepted an invitation from an overseas Chinese Businessman in New York. In the US he served the Buddhist Association of the United States, a Chinese Buddhist organization, founded by his benefactor. In January 1977, Sheng Yen participated at a seven-day nianfo retreat in New York.106 In November of the same year, Sheng Yen received Dharma transmission in the Caodong Chan lineage from his teacher Dongchu, making him the 51th Dharma heir.107 Sheng Yen transitioned from being a scholar monk with interest in the vinaya, the Agamas and Ming dynasty Chinese Mahayana into a Chan master. According to Jimmy Yu, this change was triggered by Sheng Yen’s encounters with several young Americans who wished to learn meditation.108 Albeit, Jimmy Yu states that for Sheng Yen “Chan Buddhism was merely a gateway front for him to reconstruct a more effective form of Chinese Buddhism for the modern world.”109 For the rest of his life, Sheng Yen continued to travel back and forth between Taiwan and the US. In 1977, he led his first Chan retreat in the US. That same. 104. Sheng Yen, A Journey of Learning and Insight, 134. Yu, “A Tentative Exploration,” 7. 106 Lin, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu, 291. 107 Lin, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu, 297. 108 Yu, “A Tentative Exploration,” 11. 109 Yu, “A Tentative Exploration,” 11. 105. 39.

(41) year, his teacher Dongchu passed away, from whom he inherited the Chunghu-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Culture (中華佛教文化館) and Nung Chan temple (農禪寺). A year later he received Dharma transmission in the Linji Chan tradition from Lingyuan (靈源, 1902-1988 CE), making him a Dharma heir of both of the existing Chan lineages.110. 2.2.3. United States and Taiwan. In 1979, he established a Chan meditation center in New York. Indeed, his time in the US was mainly characterized by his work as a Chan teacher. Sheng Yen began to regularly lead Chan meditation retreats in North America, Taiwan, and several European countries. Though by now a lineage holder in both the Caodong and Linji traditions and after earning his reputation as a Chan monk, he still continued to conduct nianfo retreats in Taiwan. In 1982 the Merit and Wisdom Chanting society was established at Nung Chan Temple111, and from around the same time on, Sheng Yen began to lead annual seven-day nianfo retreats in Taiwan.112. With the establishment of the Chung Hwa Institute of Buddhist studies (中華佛學研究所) in Beitou, Taiwan, in 1985, Sheng Yen made substantial progress in another matter. 110. Lin, Shengyan fashi qishi nianpu, 325. Hu, Sharing Dharma Drum Mountain, 170. 112 Shengyan, Shengyan fashi jiao jingtu famen, 3. 111. 40.

(42) that had been close to his heart since his early youth, namely the improvement of the education of the Sangha and Buddhist education in general. Two years later the institution finally received official recognition by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education. In his analysis of the development of Sheng Yen’s Chan teachings, Jimmy Yu calls this his fourth and final phase: “During the last phase, he began to apply his Chan teachings to other areas of interest such as Buddhist education, social and philanthropic programs for Taiwan, and the practical and social issues of contemporary life. The last phase of his teaching of Chan as Education appropriated the discourse of ”Establishing a Pure Land on Earth”.”113. 2.2.4. Dharma Drum Mountain. In 1989, the foundation for his late work was laid with the founding of Dharma Drum Mountain, whose maxim was to Uplift the Character of Humanity and Build a Pure Land on Earth. According to Chiang Tsan-teng114, education played a crucial role in the establishment of Dharma Drum. In comparison to Tzu Chi (慈濟) and Foguangshan (佛光山), Dharma Drum developed relatively late. To ensure its access to the religious market in Taiwan, Sheng Yen singled out the field of education as DDM’s unique characteristic. Sheng Yen adopted the reputation he earned by receiving his PhD from an overseas university to promote the establishment of Dharma Drum College of Humanities and Social Science (法鼓文化社會大學). If Chinese Buddhism wanted to prosper it had to improve the education of the laity and the sangha. Thus, Sheng Yen successfully 113 114. Yu, “A Tentative Exploration,” 11. Jiang Canteng, Renshi taiwan bentu fojiao (Taibei: Taiwan shangwu, 2012), 110. 41.

(43) linked the future destiny of Buddhism with the development of his own organization. This strategy turned out to be immensely effective, especially from 1989 to 1992. Unfortunately, when the Ministry of Education in 1992 granted four Buddhist institutions the right to establish colleges, DDM wasn’t one of them.115 It took another six years, and in 1998, the Ministry of Education approved the application to establish the Dharma Drum College of Humanities and Social Science.116 Today, in 2014 the College is finally under construction. Besides promoting the enhancement of Buddhist education, Sheng Yen developed the concept of Spiritual Environmentalism (心靈環保) to advocate the Establishment of a Pure Land on Earth. Therefor he promoted the implementation of Chan meditation to the life style of the new emerging class of Taiwanese urban business people.117 One way to do so was to hold meditation classes and retreats aimed at the Taiwanese social elite (e.g. 精英禪三). These persons, high ranking politicians, doctors, lawyers and representatives of the media and cultural institutions, were meant to serve as multipliers for Sheng Yen’s vision. 118 Thus, the following decades of Sheng Yen’s work in Taiwan were characterized by the development of Dharma Drum Mountain, its public outreach campaigns, and its educational endeavors. In 1992, Sheng Yen proposed that the core of DDM’s vision should be Protecting the Spiritual Environment. Based on this vision, Sheng Yen went on to launch several other campaigns during the 1990s and 2000s. Some of these campaigns,. 115. Canteng, Renshi taiwan bentu fojiao, 110. Hu, Sharing Dharma Drum Mountain, 181. 117 Jiang Canteng, Zhanhou taiwan hanchuan fojiao shi (Taibei: Wunan, 2011), 116. 118 Jiang Canteng, Taiwan jindai fojiao de biange yu fansi (Taibei: Dongda, 2003), 116. 116. 42.

(44) such as the Fivefold Spiritual Renaissance campaign (心四五運動) and the Six Ethics of the Mind campaign (心六論) are discussed in detail in chapter 4. In 1996 the construction of Dharma Drum’s extensive building complex in Jinshan province in Northern Taiwan was completed and the new headquarters’ inauguration took place. The presence of many high-ranking officials and celebrities at this occasion once again demonstrates Sheng Yen’s interconnectedness with the leading class of the country.119 In addition to his efforts in Taiwan, Sheng Yen continued to be active in the West, mainly in the US. In 1997, Sheng Yen set up the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Bush, New York.120 Finally, in 2001, after over a decade of effort promoting Buddhist education in Taiwan, he established the Dharma Drum Sangha University in Jinshan, followed by Dharma Drum Buddhist College in 2007. In 2006, he established his own Buddhist school, the Dharma Drum lineage (中華禪法鼓宗).121 In his earlier writings, Sheng Yen was critical of Buddhist sectarianism and promoted Buddhism as a whole based on the Agamas.122 Nevertheless, towards the end of his life he founded his own Buddhist school. According to Jimmy Yu, Sheng Yen did so as a response to a perceived crisis in Chinese Buddhism. For him “zong was a vehicle for the preservation, reformulation, and institutionalization of what he perceived as being the most useful aspects of Chinese Buddhism for modern society”123. Similarly, Lin Chihsien stresses. 119. Jiang Canteng, Taiwan fojiao shi (Taibei, Wunan, 2009), 116. Hu, Sharing Dharma Drum Mountain, 180. 121 Jimmy Yu, “Revisiting the Notion of Zong: Contextualizing the Dharma Drum Lineage of Modern Chan Buddhism”, Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal 26 (2013): 113-151. 122 Yu, “Revisiting the Notion of Zong,” 73. 123 Yu, “Revisiting the Notion of Zong,” 144. 120. 43.

(45) that Sheng Yen’s school differs from those of the past. It may take Chan at the center but actually combines the different schools of Chinese Buddhism.124 Only three years later, in 2009, Sheng Yen passed away at the age of 79. As can be surmised from the above, Pure Land has not received that much attention in Sheng Yen’s work: no fewer than 24 of 102 of Sheng Yen’s collected works concentrate on Chan, compared to only one book explicitly about Pure Land;125 but neither can it be said that Sheng Yen rejected Pure Land. As early as 1960, long before his career as a Chan teacher started, Sheng Yen conducted a retreat in reciting the Buddha’s name, while in 1982, his founding of the Merit and Wisdom Chanting Society and the commencement of annual nianfo retreats also demonstrate the importance of Pure Land, if not in Sheng Yen’s thinking, then at least in his approach to practice. Even today, almost every branch of DDM in Taiwan conducts weekly group nianfo practice. This might be a reflection of the demographic situation of Buddhism in Taiwan, where today Pure Land is still the one of the most popular Buddhist practices,126 but it also reveals Sheng Yen’s ecumenical approach regarding the different Chinese Buddhist schools. Unlike, for example, Yinshun, who was highly critical of devotional Pure Land practices, Sheng Yen incorporated Pure Land into his endeavor to reform Chinese Buddhism. In fact, Sheng Yen considered Yinguang as one of the four great contemporary Buddhist masters, together with Hongyi (弘一), Xuyun (虛雲) and Taixu.127 Just like Ouyi Zhixu, the. Lin, “Shengyan fashi renjian jingtu sixiang,” 196. Yu Junfang, “Shengyan fashi yu dangdai hanchuan fojiao,” Shengyan yanjiu diyi ji (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2010), 40. 126 Jones, Buddhism in Taiwan, 115. 127 Shengyan fashi, Shengyan fashi xuesi licheng (Taibei: Fagu wenhua, 2014), 161. 124 125. 44.

(46) Ming dynasty master who was the subject of his doctoral thesis, Sheng Yen tried to integrate the diverse traditions of Chinese Buddhism.. Sheng Yen’s debt to Pure Land is more obvious in one other respect: in Dharma Drum Mountain’s motto Building a Pure Land on Earth. Sheng Yen relates the establishment of Dharma Drum Mountain and its goal to build a Pure Land on Earth explicitly to the discourse of Rensheng/Renjian Buddhism (人間佛教/人生佛教). He sees his work as a continuation of a line from Yang Wenhui, through Taixu and Yinshun, to Dongchu. Yang distributed Buddhist literature, Taixu promoted rensheng Buddhism, Yinshun elaborated on it, Dongchu published the periodical Rensheng, and Sheng Yen founded DDM to establish a Pure Land on earth.128 As we can see, Sheng Yen aimed to implement a Pure Land on earth through the establishment of DDM. The means to reach this ambitious end is through education in a very broad sense. In order to provide a background for the understanding of Pure Land at DDM the next chapter turns first to the history of the concept in Chinese Buddhism.. 128. Sheng Yen quoted in: Pittman, Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism, 283-284. 45.

人間淨土的教化： 聖嚴法師的淨土觀與法鼓山的念佛實踐 - 政大學術集成

人間淨土的教化：聖嚴法師的淨土觀與法鼓山的念佛實踐 - 政大學術集成