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BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN: A HISTORICAL SURVEY

by Charles Brewer Jones

Durham, North Carolina

 

B.A., Morehead State University, 1980
M.T.S., Divinity School, Duke University, 1988
M.A., University of Virginia, 1992

A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia
in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Religious Studies
University of Virginia
May, 1996

 

Copyright by Charles Brewer Jones, May 1996

All rights reserved


Table of Contents

 

 

i BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Abstract

 

ABSTRACT

     While Buddhism as a pan-Chinese religion has been well-researched by both Asian and Western scholars, and folk religion in Taiwan has received detailed treatment by anthropologists and sociologists. Buddhism in Taiwan has been neglected by the scholarly community. Recently, however, scholars have come to realize that Taiwan is a unique part of China with its own history and culture, and Taiwan studies has come into its own as a separate area of inquiry. This dissertation seeks to present an overview of the history of Buddhism in Taiwan, concentrating on its transmission to the island, major figures, institutions, doctrinal developments, and interactions with the three regimes which have ruled Taiwan over the last three centuries.

     Chapter one deals with Buddhism's arrival on Taiwan with successive waves of Chinese immigration, encompassing both "orthodox" Buddhism and the folk religion known as zhaijiao or "vegetarian religion." Chapters two and three take up the story with the cession of Taiwan to Japan in 1895 and deal with developments in Taiwan Buddhism during the fifty years of Japanese rule. Finally, chapters four through seven continue the story with the return of Taiwan to Chinese rule in 1945 and the retreat of the Nationalist government to the island in 1949. These chapters give separate treatment to the early period of political consolidation under the Nationalist regime, the Buddhist Association of the Republic of China (BARIC) as the leading Buddhist organization of the period, the subsequent period of pluralization, and educational issues.

 

 

ii BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN
Table of Contents

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

ABSTRACT
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii
NOTE ON PRONUNCIATION x
INTRODUCTION
1
Chapter 1. THE QING DYNASTY PERIOD
12
  I. The Arrival and Development of Buddhism in Taiwan
12
  II. Zhaijiao During the Qing Dynasty
30
    A. Overview
30
    B. The Longhua Sect
44
      1. The Yishi Hall Branch
50
      2. The Hanyang Hall Branch
52
      3. The Fuxin Hall Branch
54
    C. The Jinchuang Sect
55
    D. The Xiantian Sect
62
  III. Conclusion
68
Chapter 2. THE EARLY JAPANESE PERIOD
72
  I. The Advent of Japanese Buddhism
73

 

 

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BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN

 

 

 

Table of Contents

 

  II. The Four Great Lineages of Taiwan Buddhism During the Japanese Period
81
    A. Overview
81
    B. Ven. Shanhui (1881-1945) and the Lingquan ("Spirit Spring") Temple Lineage
84
    C. Ven. Benyuan (1883-1946) and the Lingyun ("Soaring Clouds") Temple Lineage
93
    D. Ven. Jueli (1881-1933), Ven. Miaoguo (1884-1964), and the Fayun ("Dharma Cloud") Temple Lineage
100
    E. Ven. Yongding (1877-1939) and the Chaofeng ("Surpassing the Peak") Temple Lineage
112
    F. Conclusions
128
Chapter 3. BUDDHIST ASSOCIATIONS AND POLITICAL FORTUNES DURING THE LATE JAPANESE PERIOD
130
  I. The Need to Associate
130
    A. Overview
130
    B. The Patriotic Buddhist Association
132
    C. The Buddhist Youth Association
136
    D. Taiwan Friends of the Buddhist Way
144
    E. The South Seas Buddhist Association
146
  II. The Japanization Movement and Temple Regulation
156
  III. The Fate of Zhaijiao
168
  IV. Conclusion: How Great an Impact?
174

 

 

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Table of Contents

 

Chapter 4. RETROCESSION AND THE ARRIVAL OF THE MAINLAND MONKS
178
  I. Interlude: 1945-1949
179
    A. The Expulsion of the Japanese and the Reorganization of Taiwan Buddhism
179
    B. The 2/28 Incident
184
    C. Ven. Cihang and his Times
187
  II. The Mainland Monks Arrive in Taiwan
191
  III. The BAROC's Impression of Buddhism in Taiwan and Definition of Its Own Task
201
  IV. Early Doctrinal Controversy: Pure Land Buddhism
207
    A. The Continuing Influence of Ven. Yinguang's Pure Land Revival
207
      1. Yinguang (1861-1940) and his Pure Land Revival
208
      2. The Adoption of Lingyan Shan Temple Liturgies into the Taiwan Breviary
219
      3. Li Bingnan (1890-1986)
223
    B. The Controversy over Ven. Yinshun's "New Treatise on the Pure Land"
226
      1. Ven. Yinshun (1906- )
226
      2. The "New Treatise on the Pure Land"
230
      3. The Controversy and its Aftermath
238
Chapter 5. THE BUDDHIST ASSOCIATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA
246
  I. The Early Period 1949-1960
247

 

 

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Table of Contents

 

    A. The Flight to Taiwan
247
    B. The BAROC's Organization, Mission, and Activities Under the Zhangjia's Presidency
254
      1. Organization
254
      2. Relations with the Government
257
      3. Mission and Activities
259
    C. The BAROC's Efforts to Reform the Monastic Ordination System
266
    D. The Vitality of the Nun's Order after 1952
272
    E. After the Zhangjia
279
  II. The Middle Period Under Baisheng 1960-1986
281
    A. A Biography of Ven. Baisheng
281
    B. Internationalism under Baisheng
290
      1. Ordinations of Foreign Monks
291
      2. Involvement in International Organizations
292
        (a) World Fellowship of Buddhists
292
        (b) World Buddhist Sangha Council
302
        (c) World Chinese Buddhist Sangha Council
305
        (d) Other Foreign Contacts
306
    C. Continuation of the Struggle to Regain Possession of Japanese-era Temples
307
    D. Criticisms of the BAROC
320
    III. The Period of Pluralization and the BAROC's Diminished Role
325

 

 

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Table of Contents

 

Chapter 6. THE PERIOD OF PLURALIZATION
327
  I. Background
328
    A. Chronology
329
    B. Factors That Contributed to Pluralization
330
      1. Internal Factors
330
      2. External Factors
332
        (a) Lifting of Martial Law, 1987
332
        (b) 1989 Revised Law on the Organization of Civic Groups
334
  II. The Chinese Buddhist Lay Association
337
  III. Fo Kuang Shan
341
    A. Biography of Ven. Xingyun
341
    B. The Founding and Elaboration of Fo Kuang Shan
345
    C. Developments in Fo Kuang Shan after 1989
348
    D. "Fo Kuang Buddhism" as a New Form of Chinese Buddhist Sectarianism
351
      1. Standardization
351
      2. Religious Dimensions
355
    E. Conclusions
362
  IV. The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association
362
    A. Ven. Zhengyan and the History of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association
363
    B. The Association as a Lay Organization
383

 

 

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Table of Contents

 

    C. The Religious and Moral Vision of the Tzu Chi Association
390
    D. The Tzu Chi Association as a Women's Religious Phenomenon
396
  V. Other New Buddhist Organizations
398
Chapter 7. EDUCATION AND RECRUITING
401
  I. Buddhist Seminaries After Ven. Cihang
401
    A. General Characteristics and Problems
401
    B. The Chung-Hwa Institute
409
    C. The Fa-Kuang Institute
417
    D. Buddhist Seminaries
424
  II. College, University, and Technical School Fellowships
427
  III. Efforts to Found a Buddhist University 432
    A. Motivations for Establishing a University 432
    B. The BAROC's Efforts to Found a University 435
  IV. Conclusions 449
Chapter 8. CONCLUSIONS 453
EPILOGUE 459
ABBREVIATIONS 460
CHINESE CHARACTER GLOSSARY 461
BIBLIOGRAPHY 483

 

 

viii BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

     It goes without saying that an undertaking such as this cannot hope to see the light of day without the aid of many friends and helpers along the way. Although I cannot list all of the people whose time and assistance made this study possible, a few stand out prominently as having given crucial help at several points.

     I therefore wish to thank Prof. Chu Hai-yüan of the Ethnology Institute of the Academia Sinica, whose sponsorship enabled me to reside in Taiwan from 1993 to 1994. My classmates at the University of Virginia, Miss Yang Yih-feng and Miss Huang Yi-hsün, both opened doors and helped with perplexities on several occasions. I also wish to thank the monks and nuns of the Xilian Temple in Sanhsia, especially the vice-abbot, the Ven. Dr. Huimin, and the guest prefect, Ven. Huiqian, for their hospitality and willingness to answer my endless stream of questions. Special thanks go also to the teachers and staff of the Fa Kuang Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies for their help and compassion, especially the latter for allowing me to spend days on end in their storage facilities rooting through back issues of various Buddhist journals. The Ven. Dr. Heng Ch'ing of the National Taiwan University Philosophy Department provided much needed guidance, as did Profs. Lin Meirong and Lu Huixin of the Academia Sinica Ethnology Institute, the former for help in understanding zhaijiao and the latter for pointers in approaching the Compassion Relief Tz'u-Chi Association. The monks and nuns of the Nongchan Temple in Peitou also deserve mention, especially Ven. Guogu and the abbot, Ven. Dr. Sheng-yen, for their patience with me during the time I was struggling most with the language.

     This study also benefitted greatly from the expert language instruction offered by the Inter-University Programs for Chinese Language Study in Taipei. Xiexie nimen!

     I also benefitted from interaction with other western scholars working in the field of religion in Taiwan, and I wish to express my gratitude to Philip Clart, and especially to Dr. Marcus Günzel of Göttingen University for many timely cautions. Dr. John Shepherd of the University of Virginia Anthropology Department also steered me to many sources that helped enormously in contextualizing my study in terms of modern Western scholarship.

     Financial assistance came from several quarters during the research and writing phases. Funding for fieldwork came in the form of a Dupont Fellowship from the University of Virginia for the 1993-94 academic session, and from a grant (no. SC6811) from the Pacific Cultural Foundation. During the writing phase I was supported by a Skinner Scholarship administered through St. Paul's Memorial Church, Charlottesville, and a University of Virginia Graduate Arts and Sciences Dissertation Year Fellowship.

     I cannot begin to put into words the incalculable debt of gratitude that I owe to my advisor, Prof. Paul Groner, who has helped me in more ways than I

 

 

ix BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Acknowledgements

can number. His discipline, academic rigor, and high standards of scholarship set an example that I will spend the rest of my professional career seeking to emulate. I am also grateful that his patience, good humor, and friendship made the graduate school process enjoyable and rewarding.

     I would be less than filial if I omitted to mention my deep gratitude for my parents and my in-laws for their unstinting support, both material and moral, through the whole graduate school experience.

     And finally, there is my dear wife Brenda. Although dedications to spouses appear de rigueur in theses and dissertations, there are probably few who would have allowed themselves and their children to be dragged halfway around the world and back in pursuit of a dream, and so it is with all my love that I dedicate this work to her.

     Having said all that, I want everyone to know that I typed this dissertation myself.

 

 

x BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Note on Pronunciation

NOTE ON PRONUNCIATION

 

Most letters in Hanyu Pinyin are pronounced as they are written. However, a few letters require explanation:

 

j
=
"j" with the tip of the tongue touching the back of the lower front teeth; as the "dg" in "judge."
zh
=
Also a "j", but much harder and more explosive, with the tongue curled back so the tip is pointing directly at the roof of the mouth.
x
=
An "sh" sound, but with the tongue positioned as for "j".
q
=
A "ch" sound, but with the tongue positioned as for "j" and "x".
z
=
A soft "dz" sound.
c
=
A hard, aspirated "ts" sound, as at the end of the word "suits."
e
=
By itself, like the "oo" in "book." Followed by "n" or "ng," like the short "u" in English. Example: "leng" would be pronounced like the English word "lung." When following another vowel, pronounced like the English short "e."
ui
=
Pronounced "way." Thus, the word "shui" ("water") would be pronounced "shway."
i
=
By itself at the end of a word beginning with "sh," "ch," or "zh," pronounced like an "r" sound. Example: "shi" is pronounced "shr," "chi" is pronounced "chr." At all other times, pronounced like a long "e." Example: "qi" is pronounced "chee."
u
=
As an umlauted "u" in German. However, the letter "u" is pronounced as if it had an umlaut after y, x, q, and j.
ong
=
Pronounced as if written "oong."

 

 

1 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

INTRODUCTION

 

     This dissertation is about the history of Chinese Buddhism in Taiwan from the mid-1600s to the late 1980s. Because religion in Taiwan has been the province of anthropologists and sociologists in the past, it is important to state that this study is not based either of these two disciplines, although it certainly makes occasional use of their results, particularly where the authors have drawn on historical source materials in their investigations. As a study of Chinese Buddhism in Taiwan, it also omits a few recent developments such as the small but growing presence of Theravāda Buddhism, and the current popularity of Tibetan esoteric Buddhism and the concomitant influx of Tibetan masters. More significantly than either of these two omissions, however, it also does not purport to examine the activities of Japanese Buddhists during the fifty-year period when Taiwan was a part of the Japanese empire in any depth, except as they impacted upon the lives of the Chinese Buddhist population.

     Stated positively, the primary focus of this study is the history of Chinese Buddhism as an organized religion in Taiwan, and consequently it deals with the following: the transmission of Buddhism and its cousin zhaijiao (the "vegetarian religion") to the island; the development of institutions that were or are island-wide

 

 

2 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

in scope and function; biographies of significant figures; doctrinal negotiations that have helped shape the identity of Taiwan Buddhism; Buddhism's interactions with government authorities under the three regimes that have ruled the island during the period under discussion; and the legal environment with which Buddhism often had to contend.

     It sometimes appears that historical surveys such as this one, whose chief aim is to present the reader with a synopsis of events over a long period of time, lack an "argument" or a "thesis." They simply provide copious amounts of information and data organized chronologically and then consider their task done. However, this study does have a central thesis, one which is implicit in the very choice of the topic. That is that Taiwan Buddhism has its own development and identity, and its regional self-consciousness sometimes puts it into contention with Buddhist institutions it regards as allied with foreign regimes. This is particularly true during the periods of Japanese Viceregal and Nationalist Party rule. One sees examples of these conflicts and the strategies by which Taiwan Buddhism sought to preserve itself in the Buddhist associations that arose during the Japanese period in order to distance believers from seditious movements, and in the conflicts between Taiwanese clergy and refugee monks and nuns from the mainland over living quarters and material support during the early years after Retrocession.

     This is not to say that there is necessarily such a thing as "Taiwanese Buddhism" to be set over and apart from "Chinese Buddhism." While Buddhists

 

 

3 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

on the island may be aware of themselves as members of a particular cultural or ethnic group, they still hold to ideals common to Buddhists all over China, such as the desirability of maintaining a vegetarian diet, clerical celibacy, transmitting the precepts in an orthodox way within an orthodox lineage, and so forth. This has especially been true since the immigration of many eminent monks and nuns from the mainland in 1949, as a result of which many reforms were instituted which caused Taiwan Buddhism to conform even more to the models of Jiangsu Province. A question that the reader should keep in mind throughout this study is the degree to which one may see the development of a distinctively "Taiwanese" form of Buddhism, and to what extent any perceived distinctiveness may simply be due to the fact that these Buddhists are products of local culture. We will return to this question of how much of Taiwan Buddhism's uniqueness is due to local culture and how much is due to real factors of religious doctrine and practice in the concluding chapter.

     This study came into being in the wider academic context of the acceptance of Taiwan studies as a separate field of inquiry. During the period from 1949 to the mid-1980s, the Nationalist government actively discouraged scholarship that concentrated on Taiwan as a discrete politico-cultural entity, fearing that "Taiwan studies" might be a code word for Taiwan separatism.[1] Western researchers, who depended upon the government's good graces for visas and access to materials, were forced to adopt this viewpoint. Not only that, but during periods of severe anti-Nationalist criticism in the West, scholars who wished to concentrate on

 

 

4 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

Taiwan fell under their Western colleagues' suspicion of being Nationalist sympathizers or apologists.[2] Furthermore, the fact that researchers had no access to sites or materials located on the mainland prior to America's diplomatic recognition of the Beijing government in 1979 forced scholars to come to Taiwan for language training and field research on the subject of "greater China" as defined by both the Nationalist regime and their own academic communities. As a result, many researchers came to Taiwan to pursue the goal of understanding "Chinese society," "Chinese culture," or "late imperial Chinese history," a project open to very severe criticism.[3]

     Religious studies were not immune to the exigencies imposed by these conditions. The most massive study of Chinese Buddhism ever undertaken in Taiwan to date was that of Holmes Welch in the early 1960s. Although he did much of the research for his books The Practice of Chinese Buddhism and The Buddhist Revival in China on the island, his overall aim was not to understand Taiwan Buddhism as such, but to gather oral histories from refugee monks from the mainland so as to reconstruct what Chinese Buddhism looked like there prior to the Communist takeover.[4] As far as I can determine, he never once interviewed a native Taiwanese cleric, nor did he address any issues peculiar to Buddhism in

 

 

5 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

Taiwan, such as the lingering effects of the Japanese occupation, or the conflicts that ensued after the influx of the very mainland monks upon whom he depended for his research.

     A few scholars from Japan, notably Nakamura Hajime, Kubō Noritada. Yoshioka Yoshitoyo, and Kamata Shigeo, did write on Buddhism in Taiwan during this period, but their scholarship is largely unsatisfying on two counts. Studies such as Kubō's are overly dependent upon Nationalist government sources, such as the 1956 Draft Gazetteer of Taiwan Province or the 1971 Gazetteer of Taiwan Province, which he uses uncritically and often simply quotes verbatim.[5] Others, such as Yoshioka's, are impressionistic and lack documentation.[6] Perhaps the best of the Japanese accounts are those by Nakamura, who commissioned a Taiwan scholar, Zhang Mantao, to write the basic text which he then arranged to have translated into Japanese,[7] and Kamata's, since he has worked in the field for a long time and has come to a deep understanding of Taiwan Buddhism.[8]

     Many things have changed since the publication of these studies. The lifting of the Bamboo Curtain after 1979 meant that scholars interested in mainland China now had direct access to their sources, and no longer needed to rely on Taiwan as the sole source of information on China as a whole. The lifting of Martial Law in the 1980s did much to alleviate the threat of government sanctions should the scholar appear too much a partisan of Taiwan culture and possibly

 

 

6 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

Taiwan independence (although I would still counsel caution with regard to the latter). The Nationalist government itself has initiated wide-scale democratization, allowing local culture to find its own voice and make its own presence felt. Notably, the official government school curriculum now includes large sections on local history and culture.[9] Scholars in Taiwan itself, particularly those of Taiwanese heritage, are beginning to turn their attention to the study of Taiwan as a separate cultural and historical unit, and at the same time are involving themselves more with the international academic community, making their findings available on a wider basis.

     The academy in the West has responded to these changes. In 1992 the John King Fairbank Center at Harvard University set up its Taiwan Studies Workshop.[10] The Association for Asian Studies now has a Taiwan Studies Group, and the American Political Science Association has a Conference Group on Taiwan Studies.[11] Many academics, even if they consider themselves China specialists, are still paying more attention to Taiwan as a source of pressure and influence on the mainland. The government in Taiwan has further encouraged scholarly inquiry by opening up academic resources and funding. The result has been an explosion in publications in Taiwan area studies.

     I was personally unaware of these developments at the time I chose this topic, and indeed I have had no ready answer for those who ask me about my interest in Buddhism in Taiwan. It stems from an affinity for the island that I felt

 

 

7 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

even before I visited it for the first time, and this has led some of my Buddhist friends to remark (whether jokingly or not, I do not know) that I must have been a monk on Taiwan in a past life. Be that as it may, other scholars of Taiwan and of Chinese Buddhism have expressed an interest in this field of study, and the number of requests I have received for copies of this work has surprised me. It is surely a timely endeavor.

     At this point I want to say a few words about the aspects of Taiwan Buddhist history that make it distinctive, in order to press the point that it deserves its own study.

     Taiwan has been part of "greater China" for only four of the last hundred years (1945-1949). From 1895 to 1945, it was part of the Japanese empire, and Chinese Buddhism had to exercise caution in plotting its course. It had to make itself acceptable to the Japanese government in order to survive such catastrophes as the backlash against religious groups that resulted from local rebellions early in the colonial period, and it accomplished this by forming Buddhist associations with Japanese Buddhism under the aegis of the Viceregal government. The most important of these associations was the South Seas Buddhist Association, founded in 1922. The same circumstances forced zhaijiao and Buddhism to make common cause for mutual protection, and their institutional affiliation during this time constitutes the only instance in Chinese history where the "orthodox" Buddhist establishment recognized and worked together with a form of White Lotus-style folk Buddhism.

 

 

8 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

     Later, when the "Japanization Movement" [kominka undō] and its concomitant "temple renovation" [jibyō seiri] measures took effect most lineages of Taiwan Buddhism put themselves directly under the administrative control of Japanese lineages. All through this period, however, one finds the countervailing sentiment that Japanese Buddhism, in which priests drink wine, eat meat, and marry, was decadent and that its influence was to be resisted. Thus, at the same time that Taiwan's ethnic Chinese Buddhists were joining Japanese associations and subordinating themselves to Japanese lineages, they also brought "orthodox" Chinese Buddhist ordinations to the island for the first time and tried very hard to keep the Chinese sangha ideal alive.

     When the Nationalist government fled to Taiwan in 1949 in the face of the Communist victory on the mainland, it was accompanied by two kinds of Buddhist clergy. One kind consisted of clergy who came to Taiwan as refugees or as soldiers in the Nationalist army. These monks and nuns found themselves struggling for bare subsistence in a strange land which viewed them with great suspicion. The other kind consisted of eminent monks, men who had been high functionaries in the BAROC on the mainland and who readily found government patronage through preexisting connections. These monks gained quick ownership of Japanese temples that had been confiscated, and were able to set themselves up as the governing body administering the Buddhist establishment in Taiwan. Local clergy found themselves underrepresented in a legislative body that claimed to house representatives from all over China, just as the population at large

 

 

9 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

found itself outnumbered by mainland representatives in the Legislative Yuan. The consequent imposition of mainlander rule has occasionally been a source of tension within the Buddhist community. The need to cope with ill-feeling and resistance on the part of the local culture also colored the BAROC's mission and effectiveness, and probably contributed to the extreme cliquishness that hampered it in subsequent decades.

     Even before the advent of Japanese rule, Taiwan was a unique territory within the Chinese sphere. It was an island on the Chinese frontier, far away from the centers of power and completely dominated by the aboriginal Polynesian tribes right up into the 17th century. The Dutch and Portuguese ruled it as colonial powers during the first half of that century until Zheng Chenggong (or Koxinga) drove them out in 1662. Even after the Qing court asserted control over Taiwan in 1683, the island remained at the periphery, with the Chinese population small, poor, and overshadowed by the aborigines. Real integration into the Chinese empire was slow in coining, and was achieved only by the end of the 18th century. During that time, the ethnic Han inhabitants lacked a real consciousness of themselves as citizens of the empire; instead, they identified themselves in terms of their clans, home provinces, counties, and towns. This manner of self-identification was intensified as immigrants from Fujian province waged wars with immigrants from Guangdong Province or even from other areas within Fujian Province over land and trading rights.

     The above remarks should make it clear that Buddhism in Taiwan has a

 

 

10 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

unique history derived from a unique set of historical and environmental circumstances. The author hopes that the present study will fill a need yet to be addressed in the current boom in Taiwan studies: the need for an examination of Buddhism as an organized, institutional religion on the island of Taiwan.

 

TECHNICAL NOTE ON ROMANIZATION

     The scholar whose research area is Taiwan faces a real dilemma when choosing a romanization system. Western sinologists for the past several decades have cut their linguistic teeth on the pinyin system which is the standard on the mainland and in international journalism. However, the ROC government on Taiwan has only recently acknowledged the fact that this system is the international standard, and English materials produced in Taiwan itself make a very inconsistent use of Wade-Giles. Religious studies as a discipline has also been very slow in accepting pinyin as the standard.

     However, when the 1992 edition of the Far East Chinese-English Dictionary came out in Taiwan, it dropped Wade-Giles altogether and adopted pinyin as its system of romanization and indexing.[12] Thus, I have decided to utilize pinyin as my primary system of romanization. (The reader should note, however, that both systems ignore the fact that many of the personages discussed in the following pages spoke only Hokkien, and may have lived their entire lives without ever hearing their own names pronounced in Mandarin!)

 

 

11 BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN Introduction

     I have made exceptions to this in two cases: 1) geographical names that are already well-known under a certain non-pinyin spelling (i.e., Taipei instead of Taibei, Kaohsiung instead of Gaoxiong, etc.); arid 2) Chinese authors who have published in English under their own romanizations of their names (i.e., Chu Hai-yuan instead of Qu Haiyuan).

     In the case of Sanskrit words and names, I have attempted, within my limited knowledge of the language, to ensure that they are romanized with the correct diacritical marks. There are, however, a few words that I deem to have become English words and so have presented them without diacritics. These words are samsara, nirvana, Mahayana, Hinayana, and sutra.

 

 

 


Footnotes

[1] Vuylsteke 1994, p. 14. [back to text]

[2] Vuylsteke 1994, p. 8. [bact to text]

[3] See, for example, Murray and Hong 1991, p. 273-299. Murray and Hong call into question the notion that American researchers in history and anthropology could look at Taiwan for examples of Chinese society and Chinese culture from the late Qing period when the Japanese Viceregal government had done all it could do to destroy Chinese culture on the island for fifty years. Most especially, they fault most (though not all) researchers for not recognizing the fact that Taiwan itself is a cultural unit that deserves study on its own terms.[bact to text]

[4] Welch's own statement of the aims, methods, and sources of his research may be found in his "Preface," Welch 1967, p. v-x.[bact to text]

[5] Kubō 1984, p. 47-71. [back to text]

[6] Yoshioka 1974, pp. 31-45. This work is primarily an account of Yoshioka's trip to Taiwan in the early 1970s. [back to text]

[7] Nakamura et al ed. 1976, p. 129-188. [back to text]

[8] See his various works listed in the Bibliography. [back to text]

[9] Vuylsteke 1994, p. 12-14. [back to text]

[10] Vuylsteke 1994, p. 10. [back to text]

[11] Chang 1994, p. 29. [back to text]

[12] This book neatly side-steps the political implications of adopting the pinyin system by railing it the "United Nations phonetic transcription system." [back to text]

 

 

 

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8
 
INTRODUCTION || EPILOGUE || ABBREVIATIONS || GLOSSARY || BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

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