“The Three Types of Education” (sanda jiaoyu 三大教育) are an integral part of Sheng Yen’s system of campaigns that all merge in the nexus of “building a Pure Land on earth.” Nonetheless, these three types of education all have different foci and address different audiences. On this basis alone, given that audience is a central concern to rhetoric, we can assume that there is a rhetorical difference between these three types of education, or at least that we can differentiate what is meant by education in these three cases. Another factor to consider is that Sheng Yen’s general audience to which his notion of education was addressed is primarily (if not totally) Taiwanese. Finally, Sheng Yen’s uses of education must be set in the context of the renewed emphasis on education beginning with Taixu and the advent of humanistic Buddhism as well as the changing demands of the educational system in Taiwan in the latter half of the twentieth century. This essay examines the discourse of education in the thought of Taiwanese Buddhist leader Sheng Yen, in particular, how he uses education to promote educational reform in the sangha, a greater understanding of Buddhism among lay Buddhists in Taiwan today, and his vision of “building a Pure Land on earth.” The notion of “interdiscursivity” as put forth by Norman Fairclough will help us to understand how education functions as a metaphor and institutional concern in the broader scope of Sheng Yen’s thought. The benefit of using this perspective is two-fold. First, we will be able to see better how the various aspects of Sheng Yen's teaching interact and contribute to a common understanding of Buddhist practice, while remaining textually separate. Second, an interdiscursive perspective helps us place the various discourses of education itself and question whether they are elements of one discourse, or in fact, separate discourses. It will provide a basis to explore what education means in the Chinese religious sphere and how we are to understand the goals of education."
1.Introduction 93 2.Historical Context 94 2.1 Buddhist education and education in Buddhism 94 2.2 Morality in education in Taiwan 96 2.3 Sheng Yen’s education 98 3.Rhetoric of Education 99 3.1 Education as the Central Focus of DDM 99 3.2 The Three Great Forms of Education 102 3.3 Education, Chan, and spiritual environmentalism 106 3.4 Education as an original Buddhist concern 108 3.5 Humanistic Buddhism and culture of learning 110 4.Sheng Yen and the rhetoric of transformation 111 Bibliography 116 中文摘要 119
