朝鮮「寺剎令」對於中國民初及台灣宗教政策的影響=How Chosen’s Regulations Governing Buddhist Temples Made an Impact on Religion Policy Promulgated by Early Republic of China and Taiwan
寺剎令=Regulations Governing Buddhist Temples; 寺院管理暫行規則=Provisional Rules on Temple Property Management; 台灣宗教調查報告書=Report of the Investigation into Religion in Taiwan
Taiwan and Chosen (now Korea) had been previously ruled by Japan as its overseas colonies for decades. Japan, as the mother country, took proactive actions to teach their new Buddhism (formed after Meiji Restoration) to these two colonies. In turn, the formulation of religion policy by Government-Generals of Chosen and Taiwan was partly influenced by Japanese colonizers, and partly an outcome of what Korea and Taiwan learned from each other. The Government-General of Chosen promulgated the Regulations Governing Buddhist Temples in June 3rd, 1911. Although these were religious decrees issued under Japanese colonial rule, they had influenced the regulations governing religion in early Republic of China. In June 1913, the Yuan Empire Government promulgated the Provisional Rules on Temple Property Management, which was the first set of laws on religion since the establishment of Republic of China. Upon close examination, it is clear that these provisional rules (consisting of only seven articles) were a replication of the Regulations Governing Buddhist Temples issued by Korea. In 1915, the Selai Temple Incident took place in southern Taiwan, which led to a turnaround of religion policy by the Government-General of Taiwan. Specifically speaking, the No-policy period (1895–1915) was replaced by the Investigation period (1915–1931). Around that time, the Government-General of Taiwan commissioned Marui Keijiro (1870-1934) to conduct a religion survey across Taiwan. After two rounds of surveys, the first volume of Report of the Investigation into Religion in Taiwan was published. Consider the overall survey conducted by the Government-General of Chosen after its Regulations Governing Buddhist Temples were enacted, it seems very clear that the religion survey across Taiwan was also a replication of the former survey conducted by Korea.
