Questioning the Legitimacy of Chinese Buddhism: From the Chinese Critical Buddhists’ Critique of Xiong Shili (1882-1968) to Their Rejection of Chinese Buddhism
作者單位:Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, University of the West
關鍵詞
Critical Buddhism; Yinshun; Lü Cheng; Ouyang Jingwu; Ouyang Jian; Modern Chinese Buddhism; Buddhology in China; Taiwanese Buddhism; Buddhist apocryphal studies
摘要
In the early Republican period (1911-1942), the academic discipline of Buddhist studies as practiced in Europe and Japan had spawned a new breed of Buddhists in China. When it came to interpreting Buddhist doctrines, they did not defer to the medieval, exegetical writings of the Chinese schools as most of their Chinese Buddhist compatriots and predecessors did. They were keenly aware of what they perceived to be meaningful and profound differences between Indian Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism, the latter being viewed with increasing suspicion and criticality. As it were, the modern academic methods for studying religions can and have served as a sculpting and informative source of the very religions they study; and Chinese Buddhists in the modern times are increasingly defining orthodoxy and historical realities by a global discourse that is arrived at through modern academic methods.