中國禪宗叢林組織之研究:以《百丈清規》的創建與發展為例=The Study of the Organizational Structure of Chan Monasteries in China : : the Establishment and Development of Baizhang's Monastic Rules
If Buddhism, which originated in India, was to take root in various places outside India, it had to change its original form according to local conditions, so that it could be accepted by the local people. For instance, Chan Master Baizhang responded to the Chinese social environment and created the “Baizhang’s Monastic Rules”, which had a profound influence on Chinese Buddhism. Because of these monastic rules, Chinese Sangha could withstand the test of social changes in China’s different dynasties. However, only very few modern academic researches deal with the organization of the Sangha. Therefore, the research target of the present paper is to study the development of “Baizhang's Monastic Rules”, and trace it back to the internal operation of Sangha in India. Then, the research focuses on analyzing the “Baizhang's Monastic Rules” and its influence on the organizational structure of Chan monasteries, including the development and changes of monastic education, code, and economy. The development of religious discipline in China evolved from religious precepts to what is known as Sengzhi, which refers to the system restricting the behavior of monks and nuns, and then again from Sengzhi to monastic rules. The “Standards for the Clergy” by Venerable Master Dao-An can be considered as the beginning of Sengzhi in the Han Dynasty. The Sangha organized by Master Dao-An was modeled after the Indian Sangha in almost every aspect. However, the Sangha system was too rigid to adapt to the actual Chinese environment. Hence, the Sangha system gradually evolved into the Sengzhi system and then to the organizational structure of Chan monasteries that can be found in China now. The Baizhang’s Monastic Rules came into being during the evolution of the religious precepts. Chan Master Baizhang Huaihai took as a reference the agricultural Chan life of the fourth patriarch master Tao-shin and the fifth patriarch Hongren, as well as Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna Sangha discipline, and created the Baizhang’s Monastic Rules to comply with the local conditions of the Chinese society. Since their launch, the Baizhang's Monastic Rules, have been highly valued by the Chinese Buddhist community. The Chan rules stipulated after the Song and Yuan Dynasties were mainly based on the Baizhang's Monastic Rules with only some minor changes, especially the organizational system of the Qing dynasty. However, they were not affected by the replacement of the dynasties. In fact, they kept on developing and flourishing. The present study found that the Baizhang's Monastic Rules were formulated in accordance with the Vinaya principles, and at the same time they conformed to the original Buddhist precepts, thus keeping the Buddha’s teachings intact. As to the organizational part of the monastic rules, it adopted the educational philosophy of the Indian Sangha, which attached great importance to both the theories and the practice. It also copied the economic system of the Indian Sangha in equally sharing nearly everything among its members and followed the ways of settling disputes among the Sangha members. We can find that the Chinese monastic rules are an extension of the Indian Buddhist discipline and precepts. Minor modifications, such as the agricultural cultivation and the autocracy in the rule of the S
