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Buddhist Education, Student-Monks, and Citizenship in Modern China

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Buddhist Education, Student-Monks, and Citizenship in Modern China Praying for the Republic: Buddhist Education, Student-Monks, and Citizenship in Modern China (1911-1949) Lei Kuan Rongdao Lai Faculty of Religious Studies McGill University, Montreal A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Lei Kuan Rongdao Lai, 2013 Table of Contents Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................ iv Abbreviations and Conventions ................................................................................................. vi Introduction Modern Buddhist Education ............................................................................... 1 Student-Monks ............................................................................................................................ 7 Modern Buddhist Print Culture ................................................................................................. 12 Religion, Secularization, and the Modern State ........................................................................ 16 Structure of This Study ............................................................................................................. 20 Chapter One Buddhism in Early Twentieth Century China ................................................ 25 A Tumultuous Century ............................................................................................................. 27 Buddhism in the Late Qing ....................................................................................................... 30 The Invention of “Religion” ..................................................................................................... 35 Miaochan xingxue ..................................................................................................................... 49 Forging a New Buddhism-State Relation in Republican China ............................................... 58 Chapter Two Revitalizing Buddhism through Education .................................................... 69 Traditional Buddhist Education ................................................................................................ 70 New Buddhist Education .......................................................................................................... 80 Sangha Education Societies ...................................................................................................... 83 Yang Wenhui’s Jetavana Hermitage ......................................................................................... 93 The Buddhist Academies (Foxueyuan) ................................................................................... 105 Chapter Three Modern Buddhist Education: Paradigm Shifts ......................................... 118 Taixu’s Educational Thought .................................................................................................. 118 Reorganizing the Sangha ..................................................................................................... 121 On Secular Education .......................................................................................................... 129 An Ideal Sangha Education .................................................................................................. 132 A Model foxueyuan: The Wuchang Buddhist Studies Academy............................................ 140 Founding .............................................................................................................................. 142 Development ........................................................................................................................ 149 The Paradigm Shifts ................................................................................................................ 159 Teacher-Student Relationship .............................................................................................. 160 Student-Monk Community .................................................................................................. 165 Reconstructing Orthodoxy ................................................................................................... 172 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 174 i Chapter Four Toward a Buddhist Citizenship .................................................................... 182 Coming to Terms with the Nation .......................................................................................... 187 Are Monks Citizens?............................................................................................................... 208 Performing Citizenship ........................................................................................................... 216 Property Rights .................................................................................................................... 217 Political Participation ........................................................................................................... 228 Defending the Nation ........................................................................................................... 236 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 244 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 247 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 250 ii Abstract This dissertation is a study of the emergence and impact of modern educational institutions in Chinese Buddhism. My aim is twofold: 1) to produce a history of modern monastic education in China; and 2) to investigate the intended outcomes of this new system of education as shown in the student-monks it produced. Focusing on identity formation, I examine the production of a collective identity – the student-monk – within and outside of the Buddhist academies (foxueyuan). Student-monks were those who identified with the imagined community formed around modern Buddhist academies and, more importantly, Buddhist periodicals that were widely circulated during the Republican period. I argue that this collective identity was indispensable to the young monks’ creation of a distinctly Buddhist citizenship, which allowed them to engage and negotiate with the nation-state in a series of encounters. In other words, student-monks were both the products of a reformulated Buddhism-state relation and agents for that very transformation in twentieth-century China. I maintain that the emergence of student- monks as both an actual and imagined community is crucial to our understanding of the development of modern Chinese Buddhism. Résumé Cette thèse est une étude de l'émergence et de l'impact des institutions d'éducation moderne sur le Bouddhisme chinois. L'objectif de mon projet est en deux temps: 1) produire une histoire de l'éducation monastique moderne en Chine; et 2) étudier les résultats escomptés de ce nouveau système d'éducation tels que visibles chez les étudiants moines sortants. En me concentrant sur l'identité en formation, j'examine la production d'une identité collective, soit l'étudiant moine, au sein et hors des académies bouddhistes (foxueyuan). Les étudiants moines étaient ceux qui s'identifiaient avec la communauté imaginée qui se formait autour des académies bouddhistes modernes, et surtout, les périodiques bouddhistes qui étaient largement distribués lors de la période républicaine. Je soutiens que cette identité collective était cruciale à la création d'une citoyenneté distinctivement bouddhiste chez les jeunes moines, ce qui leur a permis de s'engager et de négocier avec l'État-nation lors d'une série de rencontres. En d'autres termes, les étudiants moines étaient à la fois les produits d'une relation Bouddhisme-État reformulée ainsi que les agents de cette même transformation dans la Chine du vingtième siècle. Je maintiens que l'émergence de ces étudiants moines en tant que communauté et véritable et imaginée est cruciale à notre compréhension du développement du Bouddhisme chinois moderne. iii Acknowledgement The completion of this dissertation would have been impossible without the unfailing support of my supervisors, Victor Hori and Robin Yates, to whom I owe my deepest gratitude. Victor Hori’s clear analytical vision has helped steer my ideas into productive directions. His patience and dedication as a teacher will always remain an inspiration. Robin Yates gave me essential historiographical training. His sharp eye and careful reading of the drafts for this dissertation saved me from many embarrassing errors. I also thank members of my oral defence committee, Anastassios Anastassiadis, Kenneth Dean, Lara Braitstein, and Patricia Kirkpatrick, as well as my external reviewer, Miriam Levering, who provided invaluable feedback and insights. However, all remaining errors and mistakes are entirely my own. The research and writing of this dissertation were generously supported by several institutions. In Taiwan, the Center for Chinese Studies hosted me as a visiting
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