民國時期的僧教育理念論爭－以1937年《海潮音》與《佛教公論》為中心=Controversy over Ideas of Sangha Education in Republican China: A Case Study of the 1937 Debate between the Voice of the Sea Tide and Public Opinion on Buddhism
《海潮音》=Voice of the Sea Tide; 《佛教公論》=Public Opinion on Buddhism; 閩南佛學院=Minnan Buddhist Institute; 佛教養正院=Buddhist Institute for the Cultivation of Pure Sangha; 僧教育=Sangha Education
The Republican era witnessed the establishment of two renowned institutes for sangha education in Southern Fujian: the Minnan Buddhist Institute (Minnan Foxueyuan), which was dedicated to senior sangha education; and the Buddhist Institute for the Cultivation of Pure Sangha (Fojiao Yangzhengyuan), founded to meet the educational needs of more junior sangha. Despite the fact that both institutes were attached to the Nanputuo Temple in Xiamen, a brawl between their students over use of the monastery's bathhouse erupted in 1936. This conflict then triggered a debate in 1937 between two leading Buddhist journals -- Voice of the Sea Tide (Haichaoyi) and Public Opinion on Buddhism (Fojiao Gonglun) -- which expressed diverse attitudes about the reform of sangha education among the elite Buddhist circles of that age. Although the debate did not last long, it gave voice to very different viewpoints about Buddhist education in Southern Fujian, as well as how regional traditions responded to the Buddhist reform movement advocated by the eminent monk Tai Xu (1890-1947). This article takes the 1936 brawl as a starting point to analyze the varying regional Buddhist networks and ideas about sangha education underlying the debate that took place in Voice of the Sea Tide and Public Opinion on Buddhism. This evidence is then employed to map out the trans-regional developments of Buddhism during the Republican era, rethink the premise that places Tai Xu and Voice of the Sea Tide at the center of modern Buddhist reform movement, and reconsider conventional wisdom about dichotomies between ＂new＂ and ＂old＂ Buddhism in modern China.
