Heart of Buddha, Heart of China : The Life of Tanxu, a Twentieth Century Monk

The Buddhist monk Tanxu surmounted extraordinary obstacles--poverty, wars, famine, and foreign occupation--to become one of the most prominent monks in China, founding numerous temples and schools and attracting crowds of students and disciples wherever he went. Heart of Buddha, Heart of China traces Tanxu's journey from his birth in 1875 to his death in 1963. Through Tanxu's life we come to know one of the most turbulent periods in Chinese history as it moved from empire to republic. James Carter draws on archives and interviews to provide a book that is part travelogue, part history, and part biography.

The Buddhist monk Tanxu surmounted extraordinary obstacles—poverty, wars, famine, and foreign occupation—to become one of the most prominent monks in China, founding numerous temples and schools, and attracting crowds of students and disciples wherever he went. Now, in Heart of Buddha, Heart of China, James Carter draws on untapped archival materials to provide a book that is part travelogue, part history, and part biography of this remarkable man.

This revealing biography shows a Chinese man, neither an intellectual nor a peasant, trying to reconcile his desire for a bold and activist Chinese nationalism with his own belief in China's cultural and social traditions, especially Buddhism. As it follows Tanxu's extraordinary life, the book also illuminates the pivotal events in China's modern history, showing how one individual experienced the fall of China's last empire, its descent into occupation and civil war, and its eventual birth as modern nation. Indeed, Tanxu lived in a time of almost constant warfare—from the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, to the Boxer Uprising, the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese occupation, and World War II. He and his followers were robbed by river pirates, and waylaid by bandits on the road. Caught in the struggle between nationalist and communist forces, Tanxu finally sought refuge in the British colony of Hong Kong. At the time of his death, at the age of 89, he was revered as "Master Tanxu," one of Hong Kong's leading religious figures.

Capturing all this in a magnificent portrait, Carter gives first-person immediacy to one of the most turbulent periods in Chinese history.

Based on the memoir of a prominent Buddhist monk, Heart of Buddha, Heart of China brings to life important trends and events in China’s modern history, showing the way that one individual experienced the fall of China’s last empire, its descent into occupation and civil war, and its eventual birth as modern nation-state. Rare among books on China, Heart shows a Chinese man who is neither an intellectual nor a peasant, trying to reconcile his desire for a bold and activist Chinese nationalism with his own belief in China’s cultural and social traditions, especially Buddhism. Tanxu spent most of his career in European colonies or semi-colonies, from Russian-founded Harbin, in Manchuria, to the German enclave at Qingdao the international communities of Shanghai and Tianjin, and eventually the British colony of Hong Kong. Juxtaposed with his conservative practice of Buddhism and career reviving and founding Buddhist temples, Tanxu’s life shows the creation of modern China from a combination of nationalism, foreign influence, and Chinese cultural traditions. Heart adds to our understanding of modern China by demonstrating an aspect of Chinese nationalism that is compatible with conservative cultural traditions, rather than the more radical, often Western, ideologies that dominate scholarship and our understanding. At the same time, it illustrates the emotional and physical journey of a man who lived through extraordinary times Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 8 Prologue: The Present Past......Page 12 1. Not Far from Anywhere......Page 24 2. Leaving Home......Page 55 3. New Worlds......Page 79 4. Family......Page 97 5. Conditioned Arising......Page 107 6. Ice and Fire......Page 118 7. Famine and Flight......Page 139 8. Qingdao......Page 154 9. Life During Wartime......Page 165 10. Forward to the Past......Page 185 Epilogue: The Past in the Present......Page 202 S......Page 208 S......Page 209 Z......Page 210 Notes......Page 212 B......Page 222 C......Page 223 D......Page 224 G......Page 225 J......Page 226 M......Page 227 P......Page 228 R......Page 229 T......Page 230 W......Page 231 Z......Page 232