This study articulates a prescriptive vision of gender and family put forth by the renowned leader of the laity-led Yogācāra (Consciousness-only) revival, Ouyang Jingwu 歐陽竟無 (1837–1943), whose vision of a Buddhicized family remains unexplored. This vision is best illustrated in his 1931 edited anthology of scriptures, The Must-Read Buddhist (Inner) Classics for Laity 在家必讀內典, sometimes dubbed a Buddhist bible by its readers. It was produced at the request of the Buddhist politician Dai Jitao 戴季陶 shortly after the Nationalist Party elder Hu Hanmin 胡漢民 masterminded the New Civil Code. While Dai held politically conservative beliefs about gender, Hu stipulated absolute gender equality in family settings. This study demonstrates that to garner wider support from intellectuals with diverging views on gender and family, Ouyang refashioned ancient Indian gender anxiety into disciplinary techniques intended to marshal the entirety of life and afterlives in service of the emerging nation-state.
