Stefania Travagnin

The Impact of Politics on the Minnan Buddhist Institute: Sanmin zhuyi 三民主义 and aiguo zhuyi 爱国主义 in the Context of Sangha Education

This article analyzes patterns in the direct and indirect influence of the Chinese government on the redefinition of Sangha education during the twentieth century. My research examines three moments in the history of the Minnan Buddhist Institute (minnan foxueyuan 闽南佛学院, hereafter mbi): the foundation years (1927–1933), the reopening in 1985, and its new mission and structure since 1997. I investigate the different ways in which political ideologies were incorporated into the curricula and training seminars for monastics. Specifically, this study addresses the effects of the Nationalist ideology of the Three Principles of the People (sanmin zhuyi 三民主义) and Communist Party patriotism (aiguo zhuyi 爱国主义) on the Sangha learning systems. The final section will consider the mbi as a case study of Buddhist cross-strait relations, and will map the exchanges between Buddhist education programs that developed in different political contexts by examining the values shared by Buddhists on Taiwan and on the mainland.政治对闽南佛学院的影响：僧伽教育中的三民主义与爱国主义摘要本文分析二十世纪中国政治对僧伽教育的影响。我的研究对象是闽南佛学院，主要关注其历史上三个重要时期，即 1927 年到 1933 年的成立期、1985的重建期、以及 1997 年以来的新时期。本文着重分析政治意识形态，即三民主义与爱国主义，是如何影响佛学院课程的。最后，本文以闽南佛学院作为两岸交流的案例，通过分析两岸佛教共享的价值观念，来刻画不同政治环境下成长起来的佛教教育之间的交流。

Buddhist education between tradition, modernity and networks: reconsidering the ‘revival’ of education for the Saṅgha in twentieth-century China

ABSTRACT In line with the overall focus on the special issue, this article offers a critical evaluation of Welch’s writing on Buddhist education. It analyzes the vocabulary and conceptual binaries used by Welch, and assesses the impact of his arguments on the field. The first part of this study will also critically contextualize Welch’s publications within a wider range of works that have been published in the Welch and Post-Welch eras. The second part of the article rethinks the research paths that have been undertaken so far and propose new trajectories for an alternative study of Buddhist education. It also suggests adopting the conceptual category of networks in order to unveil connections and dynamics of the actual religion on the ground that remain unexplored. Finally, given the debates that the idea of ‘revival’ has provoked, this article will conclude with some reflection on if and how we could frame the situation of the Saṅgha education in twentieth-century China in relation to the revival paradigm.

YINSHUN'S RECOVERY OF SHIZHU PIPOSHA LUN A MADHYAMAKA-BASED PURE LAND PRACTICE IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY TAIWAN

Yinshun (1906–2005) is regarded as one of the eminent monks of twentieth-century Chinese Buddhism. In the mission of reinventing Chinese Buddhism Yinshun engaged particularly in the revival and restatement of Madhyamaka. His interpretation of Nāgārjunas texts, the reassessment of the links between pre-Mahāyāna Buddhism and the Prajn˜āpāramitā tradition, and the critical analysis of the Chinese San-lun became the core of the new Mahāyāna that he planned for the twentieth-century China. Yinshun also adopted Madhyamaka criteria to reconsider the Mahāyāna schools that were popular in China, and theorized a Madhyamaka-framed Pure Land based on his reading of the Shizhu piposha lun [T26 n1521]. This article discusses Yinshuns views on the Easy Path (yixing dao) and Difficult Path (nanxing dao) in the Pure Land practice, and contextualizes Yinshuns interpretation within the past history of the Chinese Pure Land School, as well as within the new debates on Pure Land that emerged in twentieth-century China.

Review of the Book 'Theorising Religion: Classical and Contemporary Debates', 2006, ed. By James A. Beckford and John Walliss

A growing number of anthropologists are conducting research in the field of Christianity and culture, and this excellent volume of essays marks an important contribution to this burgeoning area of research. Cannell frames the volume as offering ‘fresh accounts of particular, local Christianities’ (5), and the essays focus on the ways in which Christianity is lived, addressing questions of orthodoxy, personhood, conversion, and agency (among others), generally eschewing any stereotyping of Christianity as an homogeneous salvation religion that has simply been imposed, in monolithic fashion, on different parts of the world. The central theoretical premise of the volume is that ‘Christianity’s meaning is always underdetermined by any single historical, social or ideological context’ (43) and, as such, anthropological research on Christianity should attend to how Christianities are worked out at the local level. The essays themselves are the result of detailed, empirical studies carried out among Christianised populations. Olivia Harris’ ‘Christianity in Highland Bolivia’ explores ‘what the indigenous peasants mean when they identify themselves as Christians’ (54) with specific attention paid to local beliefs and practices relating to the dead. Harris frames her essay by saying that while the anthropology of Christianity has been concerned with the generation of new meanings in the encounter between Christianity and local cultures, in the Andean context ‘the debate is still conducted . . . in terms of whether or not the peasants can be said to be proper Christians at all’ (69). As such, Harris’ essay problematises essentialist accounts of Christianity, gently reminding us that the results of mission are always an ambiguous and fraught negotiation of values and social practices that cannot be specified in advance. Similarly, Christina Toren’s essay ‘The Effectiveness of Ritual’ looks at Fijian Christianity and the role of ritual activities surrounding death—both Christian and ‘traditional’—to suggest that ‘orthodox Christian practice is by no means bound to produce orthodox Christians’ (186).

Shi Cihang 釋慈航: The First Case of Mummified Buddhist in Taiwan

Shi Cihang 航慈釋 (1895-1954), is one of the eminent figures in the so-called Modern Buddhism in Taiwan. Engaged in improving education and training of Buddhist monks and nuns, and promoter of the so-called renjian fojiao 教佛間人 (Buddhism for the Human Realm), which refuses any sort of superstitious understanding and practice of Buddhism and calls for the return to the original and pure essence of the Dharma, Cihang is also the first Buddhist monk in Taiwan who attempted to, and eventually succeeded in, preserving his body afterdeath. Nowadays, the gilded relic-body of Cihang is enshrined and venerated in Xizhi, Taipei county, as well as being included in the list of the roushen pusa 薩菩身肉 (flesh-body Bodhisattvas) who appeared in the history of Chinese Buddhism. This paper analyses Cihang’s relic-body as case-study of Chinese mummified Buddhist in the scene of contemporary Taiwan and modern Taiwanese Buddhim, discussing the Buddhist significance, sociological implications and eventual impact of mummification within the reality of the new renjian fojiao .