Establishing a Pure Land on Earth : The Foguang Buddhist Perspective on Modernization and Globalization

With more than 150 temples in thirty countries, Foguangshan has developed over the last thirty-five years into one of the world’s largest and most influential Chinese Buddhist movements. The result of two years of fieldwork in Foguangshan temples in Taiwan, the U.S., Australia, and South Africa, this volume is an unprecedented examination of the inner workings of a dynamic and innovative religious movement. Based on direct observations, private interviews, and careful textual and historical analysis, Stuart Chandler looks at the challenges faced by Foguangshan’s leader, Master Xingyun, and his followers as they try to adhere to traditional practices and values while tapping into the advantages afforded by modern, global society. Foguangshan’s slogans (“Humanistic Buddhism” and “Establishing a Pure Land on Earth”) are placed in historical context to reveal their role in shaping the group’s attitudes toward capitalism, women’s rights, and democracy, as well as toward the traditional Chinese virtue of filial piety and the Chinese Buddhist concept of “links of affinity” __(jieyuan).__ Chandler goes on to analyze Foguangshan’s educational system and its understanding of how precepts relate to contemporary problems such as abortion and capital punishment. The book’s final chapters consider the cultural and political dynamics at play in Foguangshan’s ambitious attempt to spread Humanistic Buddhism around the world and how its followers have reinterpreted the Buddhist ideal of homelessness to take advantage of the spiritual potentialities of people’s lives as global citizens.

China’s century of revolutionary change has been heard as much as seen, and nowhere is this more evident than in an auditory history of the modern Chinese poem. From Lu Xun's seminal writings on literature to a recitation renaissance in urban centers today, poetics meets politics in the sounding voice of poetry. Supported throughout by vivid narration and accessible analysis, Voices in Revolution offers a literary history of modern China that makes the case for the importance of the auditory dimension of poetry in national, revolutionary, and postsocialist culture.

Crespi brings the past to life by first examining the ideological changes to poetic voice during China's early twentieth-century transition from empire to nation. He then traces the emergence of the spoken poem from the May Fourth period to the present, including its mobilization during the Anti-Japanese War, its incorporation into the student protest repertoire during China's civil war, its role as a conflicted voice of Mao-era revolutionary passion, and finally its current adaptation to the cultural life of China’s party-guided market economy.

Voices in Revolution alters the way we read by moving poems off the page and into the real time and space of literary activity. To all readers it offers an accessible yet conceptually fresh and often dramatic narration of China's modern literary experience. Specialists will appreciate the book's inclusion of noncanonical texts as well as its innovative interdisciplinary approach.

"With more than 150 temples in thirty countries, Foguangshan has developed over the last thirty-five years into one of the world's largest and most influential Chinese Buddhist movements. Each year millions of devotees participate in the ceremonies, educational programs, and social service projects organized by the disciplines of Master Xingyun - a religious leader known not only for his charisma and energy, but also for his close ties to Taiwan's power elite, his positive attitude toward big business, and his involvement in both national and international politics. The result of two years of fieldwork in Foguangshan temples in Taiwan, the U.S., Australia, and South Africa, this volume is an examination of the inner workings of a dynamic and innovative religious movement." "Based on direct observations, private interviews, and careful textual and historical analysis, Stuart Chandler looks at the challenges faced by Master Xingyun and his followers as they try to adhere to traditional practices and values while tapping into the advantages afforded by modern, global society." "Anyone with an interest in modern Buddhism or Chinese religion and culture will find Establishing a Pure Land on Earth an accessible, in-depth study of one of the most important Buddhist movements of the twenty-first century."--BOOK JACKET. Contents Series Editor’s Preface Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1 A Mountain Monastery in an Urban Society 2 Master Xingyun: Foguang Patriarch 3 Foguang Humanistic Buddhism 4 Humanistic Buddhism in Practice 5 Cultivating Talent through Education 6 Cultivating Faith through Discipline 7 Institutionalizing Buddhism 8 Perpetuating Traditional Modernism 9 Globalizing Chinese Culture, Localizing Buddhist Teachings 10 Globalizing and Localizing: Three Case Studies Conclusion: Global Homelessness Appendix: Chronological Table: Master Xingyun and Foguangshan Notes Glossary References Index About the Author