Hao Chunwen 郝春文 is a Yanshan 燕山 Distinguished Professor of the School of History at Capital Normal University, also serving as the head of the university’s Institute of Historical Studies.
Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty (266–420), monasteries and monastics had started to propagate the Buddhist way of thinking and behaving to the people in the villages and towns in the vicinity of the monasteries. People susceptible to the Buddhist teaching were assembled to form the so-called yiyi 邑義, the Buddhist association dedicated to organizing Buddhist activities. Through the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589), Buddhist association had achieved enormous success with its mission. Spreading across North and South China, it was the main form of association for Buddhist followers and served as the most important social basis for monasteries.
During the Tang (618–907) and Five Dynasties (907–960), as the process of Buddhist Sinicization came to its completion, Buddhist monasteries and monastics started to change their attitude and strategy vis-à-vis the traditional private association known as sheyi 社邑. They increasingly favored the strategy that treats the traditional Chinese culture as an equal and seeks to establish common grounds all the while preserving differences. Within the private association, this change led to a gradual fusion between Buddhist and Chinese tradition, in both thoughts and activities. As a result, a private association, while maintaining its traditional activities such as the worship of the God of Earth (she 社) and the God of Grains (ji 稷), and the service of financial assistance, had also started to undertake Buddhist activities. Because of its more refined organizational structure and longer history, private association revealed to play a far more important role than Buddhist association in spreading Buddhism in the society. In this context, then, the Tang and Five Dynasties saw an increasingly diminishing status and role that Buddhist associations played in organizing Buddhist activities. We also have much less documentations on Buddhist associations in this period than the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Like Buddhist association, private association undertakes Buddhist activities under the influence of Buddhist monasteries—they are both the external organizations that monasteries relied on in the society. They represented the main associations of Buddhist followers and the fundamental social basis for Buddhist monasteries during the Tang and Five Dynasties. Almost all the monasteries held a relation, in one way or another, with a private or Buddhist association. Some monasteries even maintained close relations with multiple associations. During the Tang and Five Dynasties, organizing or influencing different kinds of associations had become the main avenue by which monasteries and monastics spread Buddhism in the society.
目次
1. Yiyi 邑義 during the Eastern Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties 81 1.1. General Circumstances and Origins of Yiyi 88 1.2. Concerning the Leadership of Yiyi 113 I.2.1. Yi chief 邑主 117 I.2.2. Weinuo 維那 122 I.2.3. Exhortation patron (huazhu 化主) 124 I.2.4. Yi Master (yishi 邑師) 126 I.2.5. Image patron (xiangzhu 像主), pagoda patron (tazhu 塔主), and others 131 I.2.6. Zhai patron (zhaizhu 齋主), officer for incense and candles (xianghuo 香火), seating regulator (dianzuo 典坐) and recording regulator (dianlu 典錄) 132 I.2.7. Yi rectifier (yi zhongzheng 邑中正), Yi rector (yizheng 邑正), Yi head (yizhang 邑長), secretary (lushi 錄事), Yi elder (yilao 邑老) 133 1.3. The Nature of Yiyi and Their Relationship with Buddhism 136
2. Evolution of Forming of Buddhist She during the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties Periods 148 2.1. The Mutual Convergence of Two Types of Non-governmental Organisations with Different Natures, and the Changes of the Content and Aims of the Buddhist Activities They Undertook 148 2.2. Changes in the Development of Buddhist Formation of She Themselves 162 2.3. Relationship between Foshe and Buddhism 190
