明清之際廣東佛教的發展──以天然函昰法系為考察中心=The Development of Chinese Buddhism of Guangdong during the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties: Focus on Tianran-Hanshi and his Disciples
The dissertation researches into the religious beliefs and practices of Tianran-Hanshi and his disciples of Caodong School and their influences on the development of temples in Guangdong. The dissertation adopts the Inductive Analysis of the Historical Documents, Bibliometric Analysis and Field Studies. It discusses different social aspects from politics to economics and religions. The dissertation has two arguments. First, there is an increasing number on temples, which has reached the second highest peak during this period. The phenomenon runs quite contradictory to the prohibition of the Buddhism during the early Qing Dynasty. This exemplifies that Buddhism won the strong support from local disciples. Second, with a close study on development of the Buddhism in Guangdong, Caodong School in particular, it is shown that Shi Hanshi, Shi Jinwu, Shi Jinshi and Shi Jinzai, the representatives of Tianran-Hansh, hosted the Buddhist temples in Guangzhou and Shaozhou. They gained support from each other as well as from the officers of Qing Dynasty and Ming dynasty adherents. They rebuilt the torn temples, set up the print houses for issuing the Buddhist canons, and developed the Monastic economy. They tried to live up to the practices of Pure Land Buddhism and chanting the name of Amitābha Buddha in order to continue the Revival of Late Ming Buddhism. Based on the study of Tianran-Hanshi and his disciples of Boshan School, it is shown that the monks of Tianran –Hanshi provided good shelter for the adherents of Ming Dynasty. The act helped the fusion of Buddhism and Confucianism, upgraded people’s literacy and promoted people’s creativity in reading and writing poetry and Buddhism canons, which also paved a way for the adherents of the Ming Dynasty to follow.
