22
MARJORIE TOPLEY
use of by such personalities rather than Buddhism and Taoism, the two other important indigenous religions operating in China in the nineteenth century.
Buddhism
Buddhist monastic establishments were usually situated in the open countryside and members might be connected with a number of different villages in an area. A large proportion of the Buddhist clergy, particularly of the female contingent, consisted of persons joining at least partly for other than religious reasons: those who did not want, or could not afford to marry; those becoming unattached through death and separation, persons who found their lives unbearable; partners to unhappy marriages, and those with other family troubles.26
Buddhism offered a number of social as well as spiritual satisfactions for the unattached. The unattached adult was very much outside traditional society: there was no room for an unmarried daughter at home (custom even forbade she should die in her father's house), and there was little opportunity in most parts of China for outside remunerative work for women; the unmarried male and female and those without children could not be served in the ancestral cult.
Monastic institutions provided a home during life and undertook burial and the ritual needs of inmates at death. They also trained members for a religious profession and religion was regarded traditionally as a particularly suitable occupation for unattached women. The religion itself as presented at the popular level suggested both spiritual and social advantages to those who would become members of the clergy. Those practising abstinences were assured they would meet a better fate in the next life. The Lotus Sutra states that women who practise constant devotions will be born male in the Pure Land (a Buddhist paradise). And popular folk stories with a religious flavour and aimed mainly at women sometimes hint at possibilities for greater power and prestige. Cantonese "wooden fish" books (mu-yü shu) tell of women taking high officials and their wives as lay-disciples, and enjoying the respect and deference thereby of formerly cruel and sceptical parents, mothers-in-law and even husbands; and of others who in their next lives became themselves high officials
22
MARJORIE TOPLEY
use of by such personalities rather than Buddhism and Taoism, the two other important indigenous religions operating in China in the nineteenth century.
Buddhism
Buddhist monastic establishments were usually situated in the open country-side and members might be connected with a number of different villages in an area. A large proportion of the Buddhist clergy, particularly of the female contingent, con- sisted of persons joining at least partly for other than religious reasons: those who did not want, or could not afford to marry; those becoming unattached through death and separation, persons who found their lives unbearable; partners to unhappy marriages, and those with other family troubles.26
Buddhism offered a number of social as well as spiritual satis- factions for the unattached. The unattached adult was very much outside traditional society: there was no room for an unmarried daughter at home (custom even forbad she should die in her father's house), and there was little opportunity in most parts of China for outside remunative work for women; the unmarried male and female and those without children could not be served in the ancestral cult.
Monastic institutions provided a home during life and under- took burial and the ritual needs of inmates at death. They also trained members for a religious profession and religion was re- garded traditionally as a particularly suitable occupation for un- attached women. The religion itself as presented at the popular level suggested both spiritual and social advantages to those who would become members of the clergy. Those practising ab- stinences were assured they would meet a better fate in the next life. The Lotus Sutra states that women who practise constant devotions will be born male in the Pure Land (a Buddhist para- dise). And popular folk stories with a religious flavour and aimed mainly at women sometimes hint at possibilities for greater power and prestige. Cantonese "wooden fish" books (mu-yü shu) tell of women taking high officials and their wives as lay-disciples, and enjoying the respect and deference thereby of formerly cruel and sceptical parents, mothers-in-law and even husbands; and of others who in their next lives became themselves high officials
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