[ { "id": 204314, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n78\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nson of Li Ching is Hui-an () who was a disciple of Kuan Yin (Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara), while his name, Mu-ch'a (*), is not mentioned except in one verse, and not in the prose part of Ch.21. This is the name the author of the Fêng-shên Yen-i adopted. The origin of the name Mu-ch'a can be found in chüan 18, Kan-t'ung P'ien (A) of the Sung Kao-sêng Chuan (***) by Tsan-ning (), who was a follower of the Monk Sangha (@). The latter was said to be an incarnation of the Avalokitesvara of eleven faces and died in A.D. 710. Apart from Mu-ch'a, Hui-an was also one of his disciples. Therefore, in popular literature, Mu-ch'a and Hui-an are mixed up into one person and in the \"Four Travels\" Hui-an remains a disciple of Kuan Yin. It was the author of the Fêng-shên who changed the character ch'a (X) to cha (RE) in his novel so that the name could have the same second character as No-cha. In some popular editions of the \"Four Travels\" the character ch'a (X) has also been changed.\n\nNow, in the Tantric works, though the second and third sons of Vaisravana (Tu Chien and Nata) play rather important parts, his other sons, especially his first son, are not mentioned. I have read through a large number of sutras about Vaisravana and consulted some Buddhist scholars in Japan,1a but they could not give me any definite opinion. In Oda Tokuno's (1) Buddhist Thesaurus (#) and in the Chinese work Fu-hsüeh Ta Tz'u-tien (BAND) edited by Ting Fu-pao (TR) based upon it,19 we find that the names of P'i-sha-mên wu t’ung-tzu (£££7 Five Attendants of Vaisravana) include Tu Chien and Nata, but no origin is given. I think they may be identical with the \"Five Yakshas\" which appear under the sub-title \"Princes and Family Members\" (ERB) in Caturmaharaja (19F諸小王及眷屬)in E) in chuan 6 of the Ch'i Shih Ching (). They are, in translation, Fifty-feet (wu-chang £), Wilderness (k'uang-yeh ), Golden Mountain (chin-shan ), Long Fellow (ch'ang-shên ) and Hair of A Needle (chên-mao E). They appear (translated literally from the Sanskrit) also in the Caturmaharaja of the Shih Chi Ching (H) and in chüan 19 of the Dirghagama (£§ÂŒ) as \"Five Attending Genii of Vaisravana.”\n\n20\n\nI Dr. Henmi Baiei), Professor of Buddhist Art, Tama University (9) and others. I have also consulted the Chinese Buddhist priest Tan-hsü (1), aged 89, a disciple of the late T'i-hsien (M) of the Tien-t'ai Sect (R) and some Tantric scholars.\n\n19 The 4th ed., I Hsieh Shu Chũ (885), Shanghai, 1939.\n\n20 No. 24, The Tripitaka in Chinese, translated by Jñanagupta. cf. No. 25, Ch'i-shih Yin-pên Ching (#LFXE), chữan 6 & 7.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204334, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n98\n\nBUDDHIST ORGANIZATIONS IN HONG KONG\n\nby\n\nHOLMES WELCH, M.A.\n\nI. INTRODUCTION\n\nBuddhism has a long history in Hong Kong, going back at least to the fifth century A.D., when the monk Pui To1 is said to have set up a hermitage at Castle Peak. A few monasteries claim an antiquity of one or two hundred years. Most were established after the British acquisition of the Colony as a result of its growing wealth and population.\n\nHong Kong's census-takers have never attempted to discover the number of Buddhist monks, nuns, and their followers, nor has any question on religion been included in the census of 1961. For what it may be worth, the Hong Kong and Macau Regional Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists estimates the number of Buddhists in Hong Kong at 500,000, among whom 5,000 are \"active, cultured Buddhists who not only believe in the Buddha but also devote themselves in earnest to the study and practice of the doctrines of Buddhism.\" On the other hand, a monk who has played a leading role in Buddhist organizations here for many years estimates that 100,000 people in Hong Kong are \"purely Buddhist\", while 1,000,000 are occasionally or partly Buddhist. He puts the ordained monks in the Colony at 250 and the nuns at 1,000. We do know that there are at least 116 monks, 324 nuns, and 3,400 purportedly Buddhist laymen, since these numbers have joined the Hong Kong Buddhist Association. Beyond this, we should not go in appraising the accuracy of the figures given above. Only one generalization seems safe to make: the number of active Buddhist laymen is growing, while the Sangha—or body of monks—is getting smaller.\n\nAs to the number of Buddhist institutions in Hong Kong, there are four lay organizations and, according to the list of registered temples, some 68 monasteries and 119 nunneries. Not all the Colony's monasteries and nunneries are on this list, however, and many that are might better be termed \"hermitages\". Only about nine monasteries and ten nunneries in Hong Kong can be considered \"large\", if by that is meant having more than ten ordained monks or nuns.\n\n1 Here and below, all romanizations are based on the Cantonese pronunciation. In a few cases, the conventional Wade-Giles romanizations are included in brackets.\n\n* Report from the Hong Kong and Macau Regional Centre, 1954-1956.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204335, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 103, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n99\n\nIn general, lay Buddhists have been increasingly active here over the past twenty years, particularly in social welfare work. The Sangha, which had declined almost to the vanishing point by 1949, was restored in size and quality by an influx of refugee monks (estimated at 800-1,000) in the early 1950's. Most of these, however, gradually moved on to other areas. With one or two exceptions the monasteries now tend to be static and withdrawn. Though nunneries, like lay organizations, have taken an increasingly active role in social welfare, the initiative in many cases has come from laymen.\n\nThus we may say that Buddhism in Hong Kong fits into the pattern of Chinese Buddhism as a whole over the past hundred years; revitalization of faith and practice among laymen, sparked by a few really able monks, whose talents stand in all the greater contrast to those of most of their brethren.\n\nII. ORGANIZATION OF THE SANGHA\n\nThe monastic institutions of Hong Kong, like those of China proper, are individual entities, not subject to the authority of a patriarch or any other central organ of the school to which they belong. It is best, in fact, not to think of them as belonging to distinct and separate schools. In any given monastery one monk may \"study Ch'an\" while another \"studies Pure Land\". Monasteries are usually classified according to the school of the abbot and a change of abbot can mean a change of classification. Thus the Chuk Lam Monastery in Tsuen Wan was once Ch'an, is now Pure Land, but shelters monks of other schools, like the Esoteric disciple of the great T'aai Hui [T'ai Hsü], who was himself of the Idealist School. Generalizing, one might say that whereas religious tolerance in India and Tibet is usually based on an awareness of the difference between one's own doctrines and those of one's neighbour, tolerance in China is more often based on a desire to unify all religious doctrines and a belief that it can be done. That is why I spoke above of \"3,400 purportedly Buddhist laymen.\" Some of them may be equally interested in or influenced by Taoism or one of the popular syncretistic sects in Hong Kong. This is not to assert that there is no awareness in Hong Kong that Buddhism is divided into schools. At the Tung Wah Hospitals Prayer Meeting, last held September 6-13, 1958, there were separate altars for Wah Yim [Hua Yen]; Pure Land; Mat Tsung [Mi Tsung or Esoteric School]; Faat Wah [Fa Hua]; while monks of other schools participated in prayers at three common altars. The place of honour in the entire meeting was given to the venerable abbot T'aam Huilt [Tan Hsü], whose school is T'in T’oi [T'ien T’ai or Fa Hua].", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204336, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n100\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nThe atomization of the Sangha in Hong Kong, as in China proper, has caused a wide variation in the quality of institutions. One monastery, for example, is little better than a public house. It has a restaurant that serves wine; the sound of mahjong drowns out the crickets on summer evenings; there are ping pong tables in the monastery garden; rooms are available; and the abbot (if one can call him that) is said to have originally joined the Sangha in China to escape criminal prosecution. In another, not entirely dissimilar monastery, the abbot is unable to read and write. Yet in both cases, there is a Buddha Hall and worship is carried on. These are two of the monasteries most often visited by tourists.\n\nOn the other hand, there are some institutions that really do credit to Chinese Buddhism. The members study the doctrine and, in many cases, do admirable welfare work, as we shall see below. The Vinaya is observed. The premises are well kept. There is an atmosphere that can make even the casual visitor think of taking refuge there from the dust of the world. The best example is probably the Po Lin Tsz on Lantao.\n\nMost Hong Kong monasteries are in the New Territories, built on hillsides, often with a fine view. They usually have an extensive set of buildings, capable of accommodating a much larger number of persons than are actually in residence (a reminder of greater prosperity in times past). Nuns and lay women devotees may be found in the same institution, living and worshipping separately from the monks. One reason for this type of \"co-educational\" arrangement is that only monks can be dharma masters, qualified to teach. In a nunnery, therefore, disciples must await their occasional visits.\n\nThe largest of the Colony's monasteries is the Tung Po Toh* in Tsuen Wan, which has about 40 monks, 60 nuns and 30 lay women. The Chuk Lam Shim Yuen, also in Tsuen Wan, has 20 monks, 30 nuns, and 100 lay women. On the other hand, another of Tsuen Wan's well-known institutions, the Wang Faat Tsing She, has monks only, ten in number. These figures are representative for the Colony's larger monasteries. Actually, the only other large monastery is the Po Lin Tsz, which has 30 monks, 20 nuns, and 50 lay women.*\n\n* All these figures are approximate, partly because there is a certain amount of coming and going and partly because of the feeling on the part of informants that a round number is adequate\n\nThe internal organization of Hong Kong monasteries (and the same would apply to nunneries) is generally as follows. All authority rests in the hands of the abbot. Under him there are, theoretically, four departments in charge of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204338, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n102\n\n: \n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nBesides the nine large monasteries and ten large nunneries in the Colony there are several other categories of institutions that are, in fact, far more numerous. In the urban areas, for example, there are small business establishments that go under the name of monasteries or nunneries, but are actually funeral specialists. They are summoned by the families of the deceased to perform the necessary rites at the coffin for one to seven days. They burn incense, offer sacrifices of food, read sutras, employ esoteric mantras and mudras, and (theoretically) concentrate their minds on the joint tasks of saving the soul from hell and saving the household from the soul (who may have become an unquiet ghost). Except for Christians and Muslims, most traditionally minded Chinese in Hong Kong consider that such funeral services are appropriate in the case of the death of one of their relatives, though many people, of course, die without the benefit of any funeral service at all, either because their families cannot afford it or do not care—or because they have no families. The funeral specialists wear monastic robes when \"on duty\", but they are not, in fact, ordained and they lead a secular life. Persons who have money or are strongly Buddhist usually prefer to have funeral services performed by monks from one of the Colony's monasteries, but this is more expensive: a donation of HK$30 a day for each monk is considered suitable. The funeral specialists only ask for a third as much. Usually theirs is a family business, handed down from father to son, in which perhaps half a dozen people participate—mostly members of the family. There are perhaps 15 to 20 such institutions in Hong Kong and Kowloon.\n\nAnother type of institution found in urban areas is the study centre, where services are held and instruction is offered to laymen by one or more ordained monks. Examples would be the To Ts'z Fat She30 in Kennedy Town and the Buddhist Lecture Hall of Abbot To Lun in Happy Valley (where greater emphasis is placed on contact with foreigners). Perhaps the best known is the Ching Kok Lotus AssociationEH, founded in 1950 by the Reverend Kok Kwong. It holds Pure Land services every Saturday, attended by about a hundred people, and occasional dharma meetings to receive instruction by eminent Buddhist teachers from Hong Kong and abroad. Kok Kwong, who is also one of the directors of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association (see below), has recently established a Buddhist monthly, Buddhism in Hong Kong, the first issue of which was dated June 1, 1960. It contains both doctrinal articles and items of local Buddhist news and history.\n\nMembers of the Sangha also operate two libraries. One is the Hong Kong Buddhist Library, Boundary Street, Kowloon, established in 1957. It has a collection of over 10,000 volumes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204341, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n105\n\nBecause of their limited resources monasteries in Hong Kong have never been able to act as is'ung lam, that is, public monasteries which on the mainland made it their obligation to accept all wandering monks. There has been and is no religious obligation for Hong Kong monasteries to receive refugees or visitors. They are private institutions and a stranger, even though he is an ordained monk in good standing, can be refused admission. There have, however, been some monasteries here (notably the Tung Pu Toh) that did manage to shelter hundreds of refugee monks in the years immediately following 1950, and they have been much admired for so doing. Most of these monks have since emigrated to Taiwan.\n\nOne of the problems facing the Sangha in Hong Kong is how to maintain its size. While the number of lay Buddhists is growing, the Sangha is not. Only the Po Lin Tsz performs ordination. Other monasteries do not have the equipment and personnel required. The South China Buddhist Academy (at the Wong Faat Tsing She), which was the only seminary in the Colony, has ceased to function because there were not enough candidates for the rigorous training it offered. It may be that the atmosphere in Hong Kong does not favour the development of the attitudes that best lead a young man to take refuge in the Three Jewels. If his only reason for accepting the hardship of monastery life is to escape greater hardship outside the monastery, he is unlikely to have the diligence necessary for seeking enlightenment or to contribute much in the way of helping others to seek it. The Sangha faces the danger of decline both in size and quality.\n\nIV. GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION\n\nThe Chinese Temples Ordinance, passed in 1928 to protect the public from extortion and fraud which were then becoming more prevalent in the urban areas, deals with places of Chinese worship open to the public where fees or other charges are levied. Such temples are placed under the control of a statutory Chinese Temples Committee, consisting of leading Chinese citizens with the Secretary for Chinese Affairs as the chairman and the only government member. The Committee can require the transfer of any temple falling within the provisions of the Ordinance and all its property, without compensation, to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs' titular ownership. Five old temples are specifically excluded from the operations of this Ordinance; a sixth one, the Man Mo Temple in Hollywood Road, often used by film companies, has for over 50 years had a separate Ordinance of its own placing it under the control of the Tung Wah Hospitals; the administrative and financial supervision of seven others is delegated by the Temples Committee to the Tung Wah Hospitals. The Temples Committee at present directly administers 36 temples,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204343, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n107\n\nV. WELFARE ACTIVITIES OF THE SANGHA\n\nGenerally speaking, the monasteries of the Colony do little in the way of public service, except in so far as a few of them provide food and, in some cases, accommodations for visitors (the most famous in this regard being the Po Lin Tsz near Lantao Peak). An increasingly active role in welfare work, however, is being played by the nunneries of Hong Kong.\n\nFirst mention should probably be given to the 30 nuns and 50 lay devotees of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen A, a Pure Land nunnery established by Lady Clara Ho Tung in 1935. Housed in a handsome set of buildings, it operates: (1) the Colony's only Buddhist \"seminary\" for nuns, which provides an eight-year course in Mahayana Buddhism; (2) a primary day school; (3) a primary night school; (4) the Po Kok Vocational Middle School; and (5) a branch primary school in Ping Shan F, New Territories. The total enrollment (all girls) at these various schools is 1,256,* ranging from 503 for the primary day school to 26 for the seminary. All the schools except the seminary receive a government subsidy, which according to the regulations of the Education Department means that they must charge the standard tuition fees of HK$50 a year at primary level and HK$320 at secondary level. Only 10 per cent of the enrollment in the case of a primary school, and 30 per cent in the case of a secondary school, may be free of tuition. The subsidy covers all operating expenses not covered by tuition, that is, about 80 per cent of gross expenditures for urban schools, and over 90 per cent for rural schools (where tuition is only HK$10 a year). The Education Department does not object to having the tuition partly or wholly donated by the school or its supporters. Thus, in effect, the tuition requirement is only for the purpose of computing the amount of the subsidy.\n\nIn the case of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen, pupils all come from poor families and pay HK$20 a year at primary level and HK$40 a year at secondary (which means that most of their tuition is donated). About one-third of the operating expenses comes from gifts and the nunnery's general income on the real estate that forms its principal endowment. About two-thirds comes from a government subsidy.\n\nThe study of Buddhist sutras forms part of the curriculum for all pupils (other main subjects being Chinese, English, history, and mathematics, plus vocational training in the middle school). Pupils attend Buddhist services in rotation at least once a week; and before each year's graduation they all are given a lecture by a prominent dharma master. After graduation a small number\n\n* Here and below all school enrollment figures are as of June 30, 1960.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204344, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n108\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nusually decides to transfer into the seminary and become nuns. The educational standards are high: in 1959 and 1960 over 90 per cent of each graduating class of the middle school passed the Chinese School-leaving Certificate examination, nearly a third with distinction.\n\nOther institutions of the Sangha that are noteworthy for their welfare activities are:\n\n(1) The Chi Lin Tsing Yuen, a nunnery established at Diamond Hill in 1945, where 68 nuns now operate a subsidized primary school (opened in 1953) for 236 underprivileged boys and girls; an orphanage with 24 girls from 6 to 15 years old; and the Chi Lin Home for Aged Women which has 100 inmates who live there free of charge. Both the Home and the orphanage were built in 1956 with funds donated by Aw Boon Haw 胡文虎,\n\n(2) The Po Yeuk Tsing She, a nunnery in Shatin where about 30 nuns operate the Po Yeuk Home for Aged Women. The Home was built in 1955, also with funds donated by Aw Boon Haw, and has 100 inmates, who live free of charge.\n\nin Shatin, where a group\n\n(3) The Ts'z Hong Tsing Yuen of about 30 women lay devotees, under the direction of an ordained nun, operate a co-educational subsidized free school with 216 pupils (tuition actually paid is HK$10 a year),\n\n(4) The Taai Kwong Nunnery\n\nnear Tai Po, where about 10 nuns operate a co-educational subsidized primary school with 309 pupils (established in 1945) and are planning to open a middle school in 1961. This nunnery also runs a small orphanage, which now has 4 girls and 5 boys from 1 to 15 years old. Visitors get a very pleasant impression of the atmosphere created by the abbess, who has all these enterprises in her sole charge. Financial support comes from Buddhist laymen.\n\nVI. LAY ORGANIZATIONS\n\n1. HONG KONG BUDDHIST ASSOCIATION 香港佛教聯合會 This is the leading Buddhist organization in the Colony. It was originally founded in 1932 as the Hong Kong Buddhist [Studies] Association, to foster solidarity among Buddhists, dis-seminate the dharma, and promote social welfare. During the Second World War it became inactive, one reason being that its members did not wish to have it exploited by the Japanese, who had become adept at using Buddhism for political penetration abroad. It was revived, however, in 1945 under its present name and incorporated on May 2, 1959. Its membership has risen from 1,500 in 1952 to 3,850 in 1960. Of the latter number, 116 are monks, 324 are nuns, and 20 are institutions (e.g., the Po Lin Tsz and the Hong Kong Lotus Association). The rest of the membership is composed of laymen, among whom the purely devout probably outnumber those who take a more intellectual approach to Buddhism. Dues are HK$10 a year for most members.\n\n7 Tuition actually paid is only HK$24 a year.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204345, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n109\n\nbers, although poorer members may elect to pay $5 and well-to-do members may pay $40 or $100. The activities of the Association are in the hands of a Board of Directors of 35 members, of whom 15 are monks and nuns and 20 are laymen, the Chairman of the Board being the Abbot of the Po Lin Monastery, while the Vice Chairman is a prominent Buddhist layman. The directors hold office for two years and vacancies are filled through election at the annual General Meeting. The Association's office is at 15 Shan Kwong Road, Hong Kong, on the premises of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen MW (see above p. 44).\n\nTo disseminate the dharma, the Association has sponsored courses of nightly lectures on various sutras, delivered by an authority from the Sangha. These courses have been held three or four times a year, lasting two or three weeks each time, usually at the Tung Lin Kok Yuen. Attendance has run about 200 people.\n\nThe Association's welfare enterprises include four schools, a cemetery, and two clinics.\n\nThe Chinese Buddhist Free School, at 117 Wanchai Road, was established in October 1945. It is co-educational, and has an enrollment of 223. Though it is government-subsidized, pupils pay no tuition. Another school, also at the primary level, was opened during September, 1960 in the ground floor of a resettlement block at Wong Tai Sin (the use of such ground floor space for classrooms is encouraged by the Resettlement Department). Known as the Buddhist Boddhi Primary School, it accommodates 1,440 boys and girls, operates on a government subsidy, and charges the standard tuition fees.\n\nBy far the most impressive educational enterprises of the Buddhist Association, however, are the two schools on Eastern Hospital Road (near Causeway Bay). They began operation in September 1959 and comprise a primary school with 1,053 boys and girls (\"Buddhist Wong Cheuk Om Memorial School\") and a middle school with 321 boys and girls (\"Buddhist Wong Fung Ling College\" #+4) HK$350,000 of the construction cost was donated to the Association by two devout Buddhists, whose names the schools bear, while the other $650,000 was provided by the Hong Kong Government, $150,000 of this being in the form of a loan that the Association will eventually repay out of its portion of the school fees.\n\nThe Board of Directors of the Buddhist Association has full responsibility for and control over the operation of all these schools, although about 70 per cent of the operating costs, including teachers' salaries, are met by Government subsidy. The curriculum includes the study of Buddhism which, at the suggestion of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association, was accepted by the Education Department in 1959 as one of the optional subjects thereafter to be included in the Hong Kong School-leaving Certificate examination.\n\nUp until now Buddhists, unlike Christians and Moslems, have had no separate cemetery facilities. The Buddhist Association's cemetery, which occupies seven acres of land recently allocated by the Government on Cape Collison, opened early in 1961.\n\nM\n\nHK$3 a month \"t'ong fei\" added to the standard fees for subsidized schools of $5 and $32 a month.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204415, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "38\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\nelement of the many-sided popular religion. I shall be talking about the small percentage who were consciously Buddhist.\n\nThe first stage of the Buddhist career was that of a lay devotee, the chü-shih ±. He was someone who was interested in Buddhism, studied it, and perhaps joined a devotees' club, that is, a chu-shih lin ½±✯. There were many such clubs in China, particularly in the large cities. He might attend lectures there once a week, at which an eminent monk would come to talk about the sutras. He might learn from the monk to chant the basic liturgy and to handle the liturgical instruments, the gong, clapper, and so on. He might even learn to expound the sutras himself, although an ordained monk was always supposed to be present to attest to what he said.\n\nThe second stage of the Buddhist career was taking the Refuges, kuei-i. The layman went to a monk and repeated the formula: \"I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha (i.e., the congregation of monks); and I acknowledge herewith that such and such a monk is my master.\" Afterwards he would get a certificate of this master-disciple relationship. One could take the Refuges over and over again, that is, one could have several masters.\n\n11\n\nThe third stage was to take the Five Vows, shou wu-chieh 1. This was normally done only once, perhaps at a small temple, but more probably at a big monastery in conjunction with an ordination of monks. Sometimes laymen would participate in the very first part of the ordination ceremony, which included the Five Vows, and then they would watch the ordinands go through the rest of it. Taking the Five Vows meant that a Buddhist was probably quite serious about his religion. Specifically it only committed him not to kill, not to steal, not to lie, not to drink wine, and not to indulge in illicit sexual intercourse. But many a layman who had taken the vows would recite a sutra every morning before breakfast in his household shrine, perhaps the Heart Sutra. On the first and fifteenth of the lunar month he would probably abstain from eating meat and he would also fast during the whole of the sixth month. But he was still a layman and likely to remain one.\n\nThe fourth step was to enter the novitiate. This was termed \"leaving home\" ch'u chia. It solemnized the layman's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204417, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 49, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "40\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\nand, as there were two hundred monks living on the premises all year round, you can imagine what an enormous place it was. According to the rules, ordination lasted fifty-three days and included an intensive period of study, repentance, and purification, as well as three rites, that is, first the novices' ordination sha-mi chieh; then about ten days later the bhikkhus' ordination pi-ch'iu chieh; and finally the bodhisattvas' ordination, or p'u-sa chieh.\n\nAt the end of the latter, six to eighteen pieces of moxa were placed in two rows on the ordinand's shaven head and set afire. They burned down to the scalp and left permanent scars. If you ever want to tell a monk from a layman, look at his head. If he has the marks, he is a monk. If there are no scars, he may still be a monk, but he was not ordained in China.\n\nOrdination meant a complete break. One no longer had his mother and father, wife and children. One had instead his master and brother disciples. All former responsibilities were dissolved. There was only one responsibility: to seek out salvation with diligence. Ordination was usually irrevocable. A monk could not be released from his vows except for some very good reason, as, for instance, if he were an only son and his parents fell ill. In practice very few monks returned to lay life.\n\nI said at the beginning that one seldom went through all stages of the Buddhist career. Most lay devotees did not go on to become monks; and many monks entered the Sangha without having first taken the Three Refuges or the Five Vows. This happened, for example, in the case of the person who \"left home\" in childhood. Usually he was given to a temple by his parents, sometimes because he had fallen ill and they had made a vow that if he were healed, he would become a monk, sometimes because they were too poor to raise him or took a pessimistic view of human life. I know of one monk, for instance, who was given to a temple when he was ten years old because his father had repeatedly failed his civil service examinations and did not want his son to be exposed to the same disappointments. I can think of another ten-year-old who was literally kidnapped by a wandering mendicant, but who lived to bless him for this act of anomalous charity.\n\n44\n\nSome \"left home\" in their late teens or twenties and of their own volition. They did so for a variety of reasons.\n\nOften", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204418, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "THE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\n+4\n\n41\n\nthey had a relative in the Sangha, an older brother or uncle whom they admired and who urged them to follow in his footsteps. Perhaps they had accompanied their mother when she went to the monastery to worship. They had played in the courtyard and had been impressed by the vast buildings, which were so much finer than the house they lived in. The monks were especially nice to children and told them stories that stimulated their interest in Buddhism. But the reason most often given for entering monastery life is that it was so peaceful ch'ing-ching \" I am not sure yet what is really meant by this, but we should remember that China has been in a turmoil for a century now, during most of which the individual's future has looked rather uncertain. The monastery has offered the hope of a kind of serenity not available elsewhere and it would appear that, although they were young, these people already wanted serenity. In any case, we should not accept the thesis of many Confucian scholars and Christian missionaries that the priesthood was a universally despised profession. This was true in some parts of China, but in other areas monks were much respected. In northern Kiangsu province, for example, it was done to become a monk and there was usually one in every family with three or four sons.\n\nLA\n\nto\n\nIn the last category, we have those who “left home\" in middle age, many of whom had had a lifelong interest in Buddhism. Now they wanted to work harder at religious exercises under optimum conditions, without interruptions and without the demands of family life. Therefore, they turned their backs on wife and offspring.\n\nAll three categories (those who became monks as children, in their youth, and in middle age) came from varying backgrounds. Some were rich, some were poor. Some of those in their twenties were university graduates. Some of the older ones had been successful businessmen, officials, or army officers. One cannot generalize, and I think it is a mistake to believe that most Chinese monks entered the monastery to escape from hunger or from some personal disappointment. This was, of course, the case with many. They were usually the ones who, after the ordination, went back to the small temples where they had trained and led lives of varying sanctity. Those who were more serious and more religiously motivated entered the Meditation Hall, either", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204424, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "THE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\n47\n\n(in the big monasteries one had to get permission every time he left the premises). Talking was permitted during meals and people could go to bed when they felt like it. Some small temples were centers of institutionalized laziness--and worse.\n\nBut small temples were very necessary, not only to provide a break from the rigor of life in the big monasteries, but also as a link between the clergy and the laity. The big monasteries were often remote in the mountains, whereas in most Chinese cities there was a small temple “just around the corner.\" More important than this, however, was the fact that a monk could not accept tonsure disciples \"in his capacity as officer or resident of a big monastery, but only in his capacity as officer or resident of a small temple. The novice during most of his training prior to ordination could not live in a big monastery, but only in a small temple. Thus small temples were the channel through which all new recruits had to enter the Sangha.\n\n55\n\n**\n\nThe crowning stage of a monk's career was being the old monk lao ho-shang, a term usually applied to an ex-abbot. He lived either in his own small temple or in special quarters of the big monastery that he had headed. He had no obligations, although he probably still carried on with his work of teaching. In fact, this might be the most productive part of his life, when he had the widest following and exerted the greatest influence, particularly on the laymen who came in great numbers to listen to him expound sutras and to take the Refuges with him. It is extraordinary how old some old monks got to be. The most famous case of recent times is Hsü-yün, who died at the age of a hundred and twenty in 1959. Now we have T'an-hsü, who is eighty-eight and still preaches on the Surangama Sutra every Sunday evening at nine o'clock. I recommend that you go to the Buddhist Library, 144 Boundary Street, and listen to him some Sunday, for he is a wonderful person.\n\n77\n\nHere in Hong Kong, I have often wondered why certain monks lived to be so old. They would attribute it, perhaps, to the peace that comes with enlightenment. A more prosaic explanation might be that they have a low cholesterol count. Dr. C. A. Wang, who will return to Hong Kong in 1962, tested a number of monks two years ago and found that, presumably because they ate vegetarian food, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205122, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "73\n\nTHE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM IN MODERN CHINA\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\n(This article is the preliminary version of a chapter in a forthcoming book, The Buddhist Revival in China. It deals with most aspects of its topic except for certain activities of T'ai-hsu, who is the subject of a separate chapter. Some readers may have personal knowledge of the events described and be in a position to add or correct. The author hopes that they will communicate with him at the East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, so that the chapter in its final form may be as complete and accurate as possible.)\n\nThe Ch'ing government frowned on its people having contact with foreigners almost as much as does the government in Peking today. From 1911 to 1950, however, there was a forty-year interlude during which foreigners could travel freely in China and the Chinese found it relatively easy to go abroad. This was also the period when foreign ideas and ways of doing things enjoyed the highest esteem, when the impact of the West was at its zenith. The Buddhist monastic establishment could not remain unaffected, although, being \"outside the secular world,” it was affected somewhat less than other segments of Chinese society.\n\nSometimes the foreign impact on Buddhism was circuitous--such as, for example, the Western military victories, which led to the call for modern secular schools, which led to the confiscation of monasteries, which led to the establishment of Buddhist associations, seminaries, and social action by the sangha. But in other ways foreign impact was direct. Chinese Buddhists entered into contact with foreigners for a variety of reasons and purposes.\n\nContact with Japan\n\nFrom the sixth through the seventeenth century imports of Chinese Buddhism had been entering Japan. In the late nineteenth the process was reversed. Japanese Buddhism began to be imported to China, partly because of the Japanese parishes that were springing up in the Treaty ports and partly because of the possibilities for the use of Buddhism as an instrument of foreign policy.\n\nCopyright 1966 by Holmes Welch.\n\nThe author is a Research Associate of the East Asian Research Center, Harvard University.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205126, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\n77\n\nthem and in Kyoto they were welcomed by a crowd of ten thousand persons. Their host both at the working sessions and on the tour was Mizuno Baigyo, the same monk who had helped Chinese monasteries resist confiscation in 1904. \"It was chiefly through his good offices that the great conference in Tokyo was brought into being.\" Among those present was E. Kimura, Director of the Asiatic Bureau in the Foreign Ministry, which had apparently been at work in the background. Of course many of the Japanese who attended may have felt that they were using government help for their good purposes and would have denied that government was using them. Similarly the Chinese participants, although they were aware of the threat of Japanese militarism, probably felt that by taking part in the conference they had more to gain for their religion than to lose for their country. They saw the hope not only of a central role in the world Buddhist movement, but also of higher status for Buddhism at home, where a Japanese connection would impress their adversaries. Thus three years later, when the Japanese Buddhologist, Tokiwa Daijo, toured the monasteries of southeast China, he met Yüan-ying, who was soon to set up the Chinese Buddhist Association (Shanghai 1929) in an effort to protect monastery property. Yüan-ying told Tokiwa that his visit had given him courage and that from then on one of the arguments he would use to win over public opinion for the protection of Buddhism was the existence of a Department of Buddhist Studies at Japanese Imperial University. Japan was a country that had successfully modernized, yet it paid attention to Buddhism.10\n\nThis did not mean that the Japanese form of Buddhism was uncritically regarded in China. When T'ai-hsü was addressing the East Asian Buddhist Conference in 1925, he said quite frankly that Japanese monks were too sectarian and nationalistic; too much tainted by modernism and, compared to monks in China, less devout in their religious life and unable to undergo austerities. So strongly did T'ai-hsü feel about this that when he returned from the conference he decided that the Chinese sangha could not model itself upon its counterpart in Japan, since monks there married and ate meat.11 For their part, the Japanese thought that Chinese Buddhists were ignorant of modern critical methods and were content to take a traditional approach to Buddhist texts.12", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205129, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "80\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\nFederation. In April 1941 the Alliance helped arrange an East Asian Buddhist conference in Nanking, and then tried to reactivate the Chinese Buddhist Association (Shanghai, 1929) — apparently without success. It also sponsored some of the Chinese who went to Japan for study.\n\nJapanese-Chinese Buddhist associations set up by the Alliance were to be found in Nanking, Shanghai, Hangchow, Wusih, Soochow, Chen-chiang, Changshu, Pengpu, Nantung, Wuhu, Hofei, and Kiukiang. They were staffed by three categories of personnel: Chinese monks, Japanese priests, and local Chinese officials. If the head was in one category, his deputies would be in the other two. Among the membership the sangha (mostly Chinese) generally outnumbered the laity. The work of these associations is variously described as relief, arranging lectures, and providing guidance for seminaries and devotees' clubs.22 The real work, of course, was mobilizing China's Buddhists in support of Japanese policy.\n\nAlthough the membership included the Panchen Lama from Tibet and the Living Buddha Chang-chia from Mongolia, only a few well-known Chinese monks appear to have been involved. Among them was Shuang-t'ing, the abbot of Chin Shan, who headed the Japanese-Chinese Buddhist Association in Chen-chiang.23 According to one of his disciples the Japanese authorities told him quite frankly that if he refused this post, there would be \"very serious consequences.\" Shuang-t'ing felt that his first duty was to protect Chin Shan, doubly vulnerable since Nationalist officers had been hidden in a cave there during the Japanese attack. Hence he accepted.\n\nOne reason for his decision was that the parent body, the Great Harmony Alliance, was committed to \"do its best when Chinese monasteries and temples applied for protection.\" According to several informants, it generally succeeded. Well-known Buddhist institutions that cooperated with the Japanese encountered few difficulties. Some of the occupation forces behaved badly (one soldier killed a monk at Chin Shan, for example, \"because of a language difficulty\"), but most of those who visited the immense shrines seem to have treated them with respect or reverence.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205134, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 90, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\n85\n\nordination on May 6, 1936 and began what was to have been a three-year program of Theravada studies. One by one, however, they disrobed and scattered.34 In 1940 Fa-fang arrived. He had been teaching in T'ai-hsu's seminaries since the early 1920's, and soon became lecturer in Mahayana Buddhism at the University of Ceylon. In 1945 he brought over two younger Chinese monks. They too disrobed, as did one or more of the monks who had gone to Thailand ten years earlier.35\n\nThis may partly have been because their sense of monastic vocation was undermined by exposure to foreign life and ideas. Another reason was the attitude of their hosts. From the Theravada point of view the Mahayana ordination was invalid. In fact some Theravadins considered that Mahayana Buddhism was such a dangerous heresy that its destruction would be a blessing for the world.36 They saw no question of dialogue, but only of correcting error. In this atmosphere Sinhalese laymen are said to have discriminated against the Chinese and refused to accord them the same deference as they gave to the Sinhalese monks, as, for instance, always taking a lower seat and presenting them with dana. Hence the Chinese monks became disillusioned and left. All the above information comes from a Mahayana informant, whose account may be colored.37 In any case it seems likely that the Sinhalese were entirely unaware of the sensibilities that they were offending.\n\nIn China itself the attitude towards Theravada Buddhism was ambivalent. On the one hand the Chinese regarded it as too narrow. Naturally they could not approve of its rejection of Mahayana doctrine and its air of superiority. On the other hand an increasing proportion of the Chinese Buddhist intelligentsia, both monks and laymen, came to accept the thesis that Theravada was indeed closer to Buddhism in its original form than was Mahayana. Quite aside from the changes the latter had undergone in India, there were the Confucian and Taoist accretions of which they became aware as they studied the history of Chinese Buddhism in the newly established seminaries. Furthermore Theravada, as expounded by Buddhist intellectuals in Ceylon and Burma, seemed less vulnerable to the charge of \"superstition\" and more compatible with the pronouncements of science. The elite of the Theravada sangha seemed to be less involved in\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205142, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\n93\n\ninstitutional relationships developed. The most important of these relationships involved the overseas sub-temple. Sub-temples were wholly-owned branches of a large monastery. Most were in mainland China, but Ku Shan near Foochow had its main sub-temple overseas. This was the Chi-le Ssu in Penang, the origins of which go back to 1885. In that year a delegation of Ku Shan monks were sent to Penang to raise money. One of them, Miao-lien, won a large following among the laity there. This enabled him to construct between 1891 and 1904 an immense, rather garish temple that still covers a whole hillside outside Penang. It is, in fact, the largest Chinese temple in Malaya. Under local law it was an independent institution, but in Chinese Buddhist eyes it was a branch of Ku Shan. That is, the parent institution had the right to appoint its abbots and to audit its accounts. There was frequent intercourse between the two, since not only were there officers going out to take up their appointments, but there were novices and devotees from Penang going back to Ku Shan to receive ordination.55 The Chi-li Ssu provided Ku Shan with a base for raising funds overseas, but also benefited financially itself. For example, Yüan-ying stayed there in 1939 when he was raising funds for the sangha ambulance corps; but such was his eminence that the temple enjoyed a sharp increase in the donations for its own improvement and repair56.\n\nOne of the reasons for the success of the Chi-le Ssu was that most of the residents of Penang originated in Fukien.57 They could understand the dialect of the monks sent out by Ku Shan and were proud of the fact that it was the largest monastery in their native province. Penang, one might say, was in Ku Shan's sphere of influence. Another such sphere was Taiwan, also settled by immigrants from Fukien. Although there was no sub-temple there, Ku Shan lay just across the straits from Tamsui, so that travel to and fro was quick and convenient. Some Taiwanese monks (an elite, perhaps) went to Ku Shan to be ordained and to receive a few years of training. Their names are given in the Ku Shan ordination yearbooks, as are the names of many Taiwanese upasakas and upasikas. According to one informant, the Japanese authorities encouraged this religious traffic with the mainland and facilitated entry and exit procedures. Perhaps they saw a new way of using Buddhism for their own ends.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209159, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "48\n\nHUBERT SEIWART\n\nreligion. The Taoism of the elite, lacking the Buddhist idea of the sangha, was much more a private affair of the individual, while the Buddhist conception of meritorious deeds stimulated the propagation of the faith.\n\nThese might be some of the reasons for the poor state which Taoism was in at the end of the imperial era, and which did not improve much during the first half of this century. Although the starting position was rather poor, today there are signs of a renaissance of religious Taoism in Taiwan8, even if it is much less obvious than in the case of Buddhism. Significantly, the recovery of religious Taoism is promoted not only by the Taoist clergy, whose intellectual standard in general is still rather low, but also by laymen. It is not easy to assess exactly the scope of this Taoist renaissance, but we can say that the position of Taoism as an institutional religion is probably not weaker than in the last century. That means that here, too, no secularizing influence of modernization can be ascertained.\n\nApart from Buddhism and Taoism there is a third major form of institutional religion which played an important though less recognized role in traditional China: popular lay-communities of a more or less syncretic character. Most of these communities call themselves Buddhist or, less often, Taoist and indeed can be regarded as popular forms of these religions. From the observer's point of view, however, many of them are clearly distinguishable from the \"orthodox\" forms of Buddhism and Taoism. Not only do we make this distinction, the Chinese authorities also regarded some of these societies as heterodox and proscribed them. The best-known examples of this are the communities related to the White Lotus tradition. It would, however, probably be a mistake to believe that the majority of popular lay-communities belonged to this class of secret sects.\n\nIn contrast to orthodox Buddhism and Taoism these communities do not seem to have suffered from a significant decline during the last phase of traditional China. Quite the contrary, one gets the impression that in a certain way their strength corresponded to the weakness of the orthodox religions during the final years of the empire. Many people found relief from political and economic pressures by turning to the various popular forms of religion, ranging from consulting witch-doctors and spirit-mediums to joining one of the many smaller or larger sects which offered the hope of deliverance of the faithful or even an impending end to the present misery and the coming of a new era10.\n\n10", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209180, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS RESPONSE TO MODERNIZATION IN TAIWAN THE CASE OF 1-KUAN TAO 69\n\nagainst I-kuan Tao see L. Deliusin, “The I-kuan Tao Society\", in Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China 1840 – 1950, ed. by J. Chesneaux, (Stanford, 1971) pp 225-233.\n\n21 In orthodox Buddhism San Pao stands for Triratna, i.e. Buddha, Dharma and Sangha (W. E. Soothill and L. Hodous: A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, Reprint Taipei 1970, p 63)\n\n22 Cf. for example Ching-fen Hsiao, loc.cit., p 17.\n\n23 Cf. Shih Wen-tu *, \"Wo tsen-yang t'uo-li I-kuan Tao” #, in Chuch Shih #(Kao-hsiung, Sept. 1977) pp 20 -- 32.\n\n24 Since these accusations can neither be proved nor refuted by the observer it is very difficult to give a fair description of the sect.\n\n25 Cf. Chao Wei-pang, \"The Origin and Growth of the Fu-chi\", in Folklore Studies, 1 (1942) pp 9 — 27; Hai Ti-shan #, Fu-chi mi-hsin ti yen-chiu *****(Taipei 1966).\n\n26 Cf. G. Seaman, Temple Organization in a Chinese Village, (Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs, No. 101 Taipei 1978) pp 20 – 35.\n\n27 Cf. Halao, loc. cit., pp 12 – 16. For a case-study ref. Seaman, op. cit.\n\nThe members trace the origin of the sect back to Fu Hsi and have an elaborated list of the transmission of the Tao through the centuries. The historical evidence for the existence of I-kuan Tao as a separate tradition does not reach beyond the last century, however.\n\n29 The ordinary fu-luan cults have sessions much more often, in general eight or twelve times every lunar month.\n\n30\n\nObviously many teachings of the fu-luan cults have their origin in the popular \"Buddhist” tradition which is also a main source of the I-kuan Tao teachings. It is difficult, however, to assess to which degree there is a direct influence of I-kuan Tao on these cults in Taiwan today. Probably there is a mutual influence since many followers of I-kuan Tao participate also in ordinary fu-luan cults. Actually, some fu-luan cults seem to be reservoirs of potential I-kuan Tao proselytes.\n\n31 Tian-jan *, 2 (Hsinchu Febr. 1980) pp 2 - 3.\n\n32 Cf. K. Ch'en: \"Anti-Buddhist Propaganda During the Nan-Ch'ao\", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 15 (1952) pp 166 - 192.\n\n33\n\nFor examples see J. Chesneaux ed. Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China 1840-1950, (Stanford 1972).\n\n34 Of course, Mohammed is not regarded as a god in Islam. The knowledge of Islam in China, however, is rather poor and Mohammed is thought to be a divine person much like the Chinese \"historical\" gods or for that matter – Jesus.\n\n36\n\nThe medium belonged to the Sheng-hsien t'ang in Taichung.\n\n36 W. Grootaers, \"Une société secrète moderne, I Kuan Tao: Bibliographie annotée\", in Folklore Studies 5 (1946) p 332f.\n\n37 Tian Tao Kai Lun (1979 2nd printing), p 61.\n\n38 ibid., pp 61 – 62.\n\nby Su Ming-tung (Kaohsiung, 1978)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209786, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "THE SELF-PERCEPTION OF BUDDHIST MONKS\n\nI.\n\nIN HONG KONG TODAY\n\nBARTHOLOMEW P. M. TSUI\n\nChinese University Of Hong Kong\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe title of this article may be ambiguous. One can imagine that in answer to the question of his self-perception a monk may say that there is no self according to Buddhist teaching and that therefore there cannot be such a thing as self-perception. To a student of religion the term 'self-perception' can be used to imply the value of the monk's activities in the context of the society he lives in. 'Self-perception' means the subjective awareness by the monk of the state of monkhood in relation to the reality around it. As the monk's perception of the world changes so must the state of monkhood be altered in order that its attractiveness be maintained. But does the monk's perception of the world change? Has it not been philosophically determined once for all by earlier writers? The truth is that changes in the secular sphere such as in the economic condition of society, customs, and trends of thought, did, and still do, affect life in the sangha. For example, Ch'an monks made it a point that they ought to cultivate land for their own livelihood. This is in direct contrast to the monks in India where begging is the accepted norm of the ascetical life. It is an integral part of the scheme of things. However, in China, nothing positive can be said of begging. The Chinese monks could not change the cultural opinion around them. In order to make themselves acceptable, they abolished their rule of begging. This is a case where the secular definition of reality has affected life in the sangha.\n\nBut 'self-perception' deals with problems larger than what has been described as \"the value of the monk's activities in the context of the society he lives in.\" A change in self-perception ultimately calls for a change in the conception of the religious quest, or at least a different configuration of it. However, a clear perception that such a necessity exists would demand an immense\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209787, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "24\n\nintellectual effort of redefining religious aims and methods and it is doubtful whether monks in Hong Kong have embarked on this soul-searching trip yet.\n\nThis article is about how Hong Kong has provided a unique challenge to the Buddhist sangha and a report of its response to these challenges. Hong Kong is unique in the sense that it is a rare meeting point of Chinese and Western cultures and a highly developed city where technology and science have taken hold. One can imagine that because of this Buddhism would have had to make dramatic changes. However, the case is not so simple. The changes made to Buddhism in Hong Kong should be seen in context. Many of the temples in Hong Kong have long connections with those in China. The changes in the sangha are better seen as a continuation of the adjustments to modern life which have arisen in China generally since the latter half of the nineteenth century. Holmes Welch's observation a little over twenty years ago is still basically valid:\n\nWe may say that Buddhism in Hong Kong fits into the pattern of Chinese Buddhism as a whole over the past hundred years: revitalization of faith and practice among laymen, sparked by a few really able monks, whose talents stand in all the greater contrast to those of most of their brethren.1\n\nOf course, the march of time has forced what twenty years ago were recognized merely as tendencies to become vastly more powerful currents, some of which have reached critical proportions.\n\nThe problems confronting the practical aspect of this research are many. The concept of 'self-perception' is not a frequent item within the monk's vocabulary. None of the monks I interviewed could give a satisfactory answer when the question was put to them directly. My conclusions are deductions based on the above interviews and on magazine articles.\n\n11. General situation faced by Buddhism in Hong Kong\n\nWe need a general description of the sangha in order to provide the context in which specific issues can be discussed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209788, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "25\n\nFirst we want to investigate the composition of the sangha. A convenient date to take as our start is 1949, when the present communist regime took control of the whole of continental China. Previous to that date, most of the monks in Hong Kong were Cantonese speaking. They lived in a few monasteries scattered throughout some isolated spots in the New Territories and in the rather inaccessible peaks of Lantao Island. There they practiced their religion quietly. Occasionally, they were asked to perform ceremonies for the dead. They were rather typical of the monks in traditional China. Like the majority of the monasteries in China, the ones in Hong Kong were not public monasteries (***) and were rather easy-going. However, it must not be thought that these temples were completely cut off from China. There was always a steady stream of contact with other monasteries.\n\nAfter 1949 a large influx of northern monks came with immigrants who tried to escape the communist regime. For a time they saturated local monasteries, but the majority have since migrated to Taiwan, Malaysia and elsewhere. Nowadays, northerners make up about half the total number of monks. Connections with South-East Asia and Northern America enable the monks to travel about rather frequently and this fact makes the Hong Kong sangha a rather fluid entity. Some of these northern monks came from renowned monasteries in central China and favoured a stricter life style. However, none of the temples in Hong Kong could maintain in full the system of public monasteries,\n\nThe coming of northern monks coincided with the beginning of certain developments in Buddhism unseen in previous ages. The unprecedented affluence created during the two decades 1960-80 was the material cause of these developments. Popular Buddhism flourished with the increase in population and wealth. Monks were increasingly sought to perform ceremonies over the dead () by well-to-do devotees and large sums of money were paid. Burial grounds in Hong Kong have become extremely scarce and expensive. The alternative to finding a burial plot or keeping cremated ashes within the equally crowded home was to deposit the ashes within a monastery. That way,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209789, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "26\n\nthe problem of space was solved and the ancestors acquired additional merit by sharing that gained by the monks' prayers. Thus, the ancestors' hall (1) has become a rich source of revenue in many Hong Kong monasteries. The affluence of the sangha is most easily seen in the many very spacious and ornate temples built or rebuilt in recent years. These magnificent buildings in turn become centres of attraction for devotees and tourists. As we shall see below, these temples do not really serve the direct needs of the sangha, which has diminished in number. (Very often, only a handful of monks live in a monastery which could accommodate hundreds.)\n\nThe affluence of the monks is again seen in the proliferation of small temples and houses of cultivation (#4). There are altogether about 400 big and small temples and the significance of this large number is self-evident if we bear in mind that there are altogether only about 200 to 250 monks and about 1,000 nuns in Hong Kong. It is estimated that there are about a dozen big monasteries each of which holds in excess of ten monks, and a significantly larger number of nunneries containing about that number of nuns. It appears then that a small temple has on the average only one monk or two or three nuns. If a monk is wealthy enough, there is a great attraction for him to own a temple himself, for then he can avoid the difficulties of living in common with other monks or of subjecting himself to an abbot. The impact of this development on the monk's religious cultivation is yet to be investigated.\n\n4.\n\nAnother development during this period was the establishment of Buddhist centres within the urban areas. Many of the small temples mentioned above are situated within high-rise blocks of flats in the crowded areas of the city. Thus, the monks make themselves readily accessible to the populace whether for the purpose of spreading the Buddha's teaching, doing social work, administering to the schools or performing Buddhist ceremonies. The old centres in the New Territories were not given up. With the expansion of the population and the development of new towns, these old centres have in turn become readily accessible. Constant streams of devotees and tourists are a normal happening nowadays. The net effect has been that contact between monks and ordinary people has become very considerably increased.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209790, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 49, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "27\n\nA third development was the considerable growth of interest in the Buddhist faith among laymen. It seems that the growth of affluence and the acceptance of science and technology have not diminished spiritual needs. Devotees come in ever-increasing numbers. They are not limited to the aged, either. Children are taught to bow to images. The offering of incense by young people is a common sight. The more intellectually minded laity are interested in Buddhist philosophy. They are attracted to Buddhism because it has acquired the reputation of having the most abstruse teaching of all religions and because it is believed to be part of Chinese culture. Lay believers have also taken a very active role in organizing a large number of Buddhist activities. They have organized study groups, formed Buddhist associations, printed and distributed sutras, assisted in operating and building schools, charitable institutions and a hospital. They have tried to draw the rather independent groups of monks and nuns together. In all these activities, they collaborated with monks closely. The increase in the numbers of serious laymen contrasts sharply with the decline in the number of monks. This could be a serious point in assessing the appeal of monkhood for the Buddhist laymen.\n\nWith these developments the Buddhist sangha was faced with unfamiliar problems. Many traditional ways of living have broken down. Monks are expected to perform new social roles. Intellectually, the sangha feels a need to respond to an affluent, intellectually sophisticated and science-oriented society. However, the monks' response has been marred by a lack of unity among themselves. Their spirit of independence has made it difficult for any new proposal, however sound that proposal might have been, to be universally accepted. In the following, I shall document some of the major responses the monks have made to modern life and from these responses I shall deduce their self-perception.\n\nIII. Specific Areas of Concern Faced by the Sangha\n\nA. Sangha Recruitment\n\nThe single most critical problem which has confronted the Hong Kong sangha in the past twenty years has been the lack", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209791, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "28\n\nof eligible young men who are willing to become monks. This problem has also become the starting point of the sangha's extensive self-examination and reflection in recent years, resulting in the voicing of proposals for the entire reorganization of the sangha system. The lack of recruits has not been limited to Hong Kong. Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore have reported the same trend. Suddenly, it has appeared that the disappearance of Chinese Monks was not inconceivable, but could indeed be approaching fast. In 1977, a leading monk expressed his fear of such an eventuality in an open letter to all Chinese monks. He said,\n\nThere is to-day a lurking crisis within Mahayana Buddhism and that is the scenario of a shortage of monks,\n\nthe sangha treasure, and a void of successors.\n\nMainland China has been the source of all Chinese monks in various parts of the world. Now, with the change of political regime in Mainland China, Buddhism no longer exists there and all Chinese monks have also died out. Nowadays, the greatest concentration of Chinese monks are in Taiwan and Hong Kong. However, various factors such as the chaotic social change brought about by advanced industrialization and military service in some areas have posed an extremely serious threat to the source of Chinese monks who can carry on (with the sangha).\" \n\nThe same monk called upon all Chinese monks to think of ways to remedy the situation and suggested, among other things, a major re-organization of the sangha. This open letter solicited a number of responses. The following is a summary of the opinions expressed.\n\nIt is unanimously agreed that the sangha is an integral part of Buddhism. Buddhism would not be Buddhism without the sangha. All agreed that the shortage of young monks was posing a serious problem. Directly or indirectly the responses contained speculations on the causes of decline. They can be summarized as: 1. The changed social situation, which has rendered the monastic life unappealing to young people. Unfortunately, this point has not been elaborated upon. 2. Young people nowadays", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209792, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "29\n\nare bent on material enjoyment. 3. The sangha system is seen as out-moded. It seems to belong to strange old men who cling on to superstitious beliefs and customs. 4. Military service in certain countries has robbed young men of opportunities to join the sangha. 5. Parents may have discouraged their children from joining the monks.\n\nThe monks made it clear that, while objective causes outside their control do play a part in the decline of young recruits, they put the major share of the responsibility on themselves. They were dissatisfied with the image they projected. This is an important indicator of their changing perception of themselves.\n\nThe remedies they proposed also indicated their perception of the need to change roles. They were aware that their life-style should be seen as attractive and relevant to the present age. Secondly, they felt responsible for communicating this attractive new monkhood to eligible young men through as many channels as possible. They encouraged more contact with young men through education, youth work, study groups, and choirs. Parents were to be exhorted to nurture some of their sons towards the possibilities of entering monkhood. Short-term going-forth-from-home ceremonies were undertaken so that young people could get a taste of monkhood. The last was an innovation borrowed from the Theravada tradition in Thailand and was quite new to the Mahayana tradition. Lastly, someone suggested that, as a last measure, each monk should adopt an orphan so as to train him to become a monk when he grew up.\n\nUnfortunately, such good intentions remain largely on paper and one seldom hears more about them nowadays. The reason for this is that the problem of recruitment has been linked to the issue of re-organization of the sangha, and, as the latter ran into trouble, the former was also dropped from discussion. Nevertheless, the problem of recruitment remains as real as ever.\n\nB. Sangha Re-organization\n\nThe Buddhist community is organized according to rules laid down in the vinaya which claim Buddha himself as the authority.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209793, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "30\n\nThus, the written rules for community living are considered perfect and valid for all times and places. However, in common with all traditions which rely on the written word as the sole authority, difficulties in interpretation arise as soon as conditions and environmental customs change. The built-in weakness of written rules is that they can never hope to provide solutions to all situations and yet they have to claim perfection in order to boost their authority. With changed conditions and times, many Buddhists have asked themselves: Should the letter of the law be kept or should the spirit of the founder be preserved when the letter is no longer seen as embodying the spirit? If the spirit is considered the more important thing, how does one know that one has the founder's spirit? Would knowledge gained aside from the rules be mere guessing? These tensions have plagued the sangha throughout its 2,500 years' of history. There are situations where the rules are verbally recited and yet only certain ones are kept, while the others are tacitly ignored. Such has been the practice of the sangha in China. The monks verbally received 250 precepts at their ordination ever since the introduction of Buddhism into China and yet many of these precepts were never kept. The inherent difficulty in adapting the written law to suit the situation of a different time and place so that the true Buddha spirit may be readily lived is the lack of a central Buddhist authority which is strong enough to effect such a change. The result is a schizophrenic verbal adherence to the law with constant deviation in practice. Conscientious monks realize the unsatisfactoriness of such a situation but there is little they could do to alter the situation. Recent discussions of the re-organization of the sangha fall readily into this familiar pattern.\n\nThe biggest recent discussion of the re-organization of the sangha was initiated by an agenda of proposals to be discussed at the conference of Chinese monks in 1977. The agenda was presented in the context of an open letter which called for responses to matters concerning the sangha system, dress, ranking of monks, education etc. The initial reaction was collected in volume 209 of the magazine Buddhism in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the media got hold of the report and rightly or wrongly, made a sensational report that monks were contemplating marriage. The scandal, real or imaginary, killed any further", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209794, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "31\n\ndiscussion of reform. Nevertheless, the monks' opinions were a revealing source of how they saw themselves.\n\nThe main reasons why the monks thought change in the sangha system was necessary were three: 1. The old system was no longer suited to modern life. That was why monkhood was no longer appealing to the younger generation. 2. The old system has been crumbling. It was necessary to redefine the monkhood more clearly. The old public monastic system (**41), with its numerous monks, long meditation and formalized life-style, was forever gone. There were simply not enough monks in any one monastery for the monastic system to work. Furthermore, not a single monk could keep all 250 precepts. Most did not even know what they were.\n\nSome of these precepts were thought to be unsuitable to modern life. Would it not be a better policy if they were changed, to make it realistic to demand that they be kept? 3. The old system of prayer and meditation no longer met the needs of society. What was needed was to render service to society.10\n\n11\n\nOf the proposals for changes in the sangha the most detailed one belonged to Pai Shen (). His greatest innovation was to divide monkhood into two great categories, the Shang Tso Pu (the elders) and the Ta Chun Pu (the great assembly). The elders preside in the temples and devote themselves to cultivation. Besides, they must preach the Buddhist doctrine and act in such a manner as to benefit all living creatures. They are divided into four ranks (hsin, chieh, hsing, cheng). Promotion to the next higher rank is considered every five years and is determined by an examination.\n\nThose who are deficient in learning or lack the capacity for the rigours of cultivation are allotted to the great assembly. These monks must develop some skill or learning to become self-supporting. They should get into professions such as education, law, social work and cultural activities. They must support the livelihood of the elders, take care of the properties of the temples, promote Buddhist enterprises, and assist the elders in spreading the teaching. Monks of the great assembly are allowed to get married and have families if they so wish.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209796, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "33\n\nsangha could be healed and raised by strict adherence to the old rules. 14\n\nBut how can adherence to old rules be encouraged when monks are living in vastly changed conditions, and when nearly every monk has his own temple? It seems that supporters of the old system had not faced the challenge of the changed condition of the time. Some realized that verbal exhortation alone would have little effect in bringing back a better observance of the old rules, and so proposed a centralization of authority into a hierarchical structure. How to reconcile this with the traditional egalitarian ideal was not discussed. Despite this talk of retaining the old system, all the discussions also encouraged active participation in social life, especially in the form of rendering social service to the community.\n\nThe full implication of these discussions of the reorganization of the sangha for the understanding of the monks' changing self-perception is very great and will be discussed later. Here, one may note that one common agreement of these discussions is that monks should be more than just monks. They should acquire skills which will equip them to render social service to the community.\n\nC. Education of the Monks\n\nThe agenda planned for the Conference of Chinese Monks also contained an item on the education of monks. The responses to this item were numerous and quite unanimous. Basically, it was felt that all monks should receive a secular education in addition to the traditional Buddhist schooling in doctrine, rituals, precepts, and cultivation. In the words of one monk who responded, the monk's education should consist of two parts: internal education, comprising the traditional education of the monk with the exception of outmoded matters, and an external education, which was the same as a secular education. The latter was judged necessary for the propagation of the faith and for active service to the community.1 Another proposal divided education into four categories: 1. Fundamental education; 2. professional education, i.e., a secular training preparing the monks to take up jobs which render service to the community; 3. education for the propagation of the faith, which trains eligible monks for the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209797, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "34\n\npurpose of preaching and debate; 4. remedial education, which is planned for old monks who have missed their chances for education when they were young.17 Other proposals for the reform of sangha education ran along similar lines. Three points are of interest here. First, all the proposals look on education as something very important. Their expectation that all monks should at least be university graduates, given the situation in Hong Kong where only an extreme few have gone to a university, appears a little unrealistic. Does this reflect the fact that the monks themselves feel a little insecure about their own education? Second, all proposals put a great stress on secular learning. This probably tells something important about the monk's self-perception. Secular learning is necessary for better understanding and communication. The desire for secular knowledge indicates an orientation towards openness with the world. Third, professional training is often stressed. This indicates a willingness to render direct service to the community.\n\nD. Role of the Monk in Modern Society\n\nFormerly in traditional China, monks did not have to ask themselves what they wanted to do in life. The career of monkhood was clear and no surprises were expected. Ritual, prayer and meditation were the order of the day, occasionally punctuated by participation in prayers for the dead when they were asked for. The more ambitious and talented monk might have applied himself to study and became a master of the dharma. But that was all that a monk could hope to become.\n\nThe coming of modern life has instilled a new consciousness into the monk's mind. Suddenly, he feels that prayers and meditations are not enough. Somehow he feels that something more is needed to justify his existence. He may attempt to explain this new desire to be useful to society as really the extension of the Mahayana ideal of benefiting all living creatures. Nevertheless, he would be hard put to it if he were asked why this new trend has happened only now while the Mahayana ideal had been around for a long time. The search for a new role became acute when the monks moved from the quiet and peace of the monasteries in the New Territories into the hustle and bustle of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209798, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "the city. Prayers and meditations have become simplified. At any rate, these were less understood and appreciated by ordinary people. The search for a new role is a search for an identity which can be understood and appreciated by an average person. For this reason, it is not a surprise to hear discussions about new prospects for monkhood and new Buddhist enterprises in welfare and education.18\n\nBuddhist advances in welfare and education have been rapid and have paid off well in forging an identity which has gradually become recognisable. Buddhist success in this area is all the more remarkable when it is contrasted with the fact that hardly any of these social activities had any place in the traditional sangha. In the old days, any schooling given by a monastery was for the purpose of training monks and nuns. Nowadays, the Hong Kong Buddhist Association alone runs fifty educational institutions, ranging from primary to tertiary levels. While there was some caring for orphans in the old days, the running of hospitals, care and attention homes and homes for the aged on a large scale are a modern phenomenon. Buddhist involvement with youth work, another new venture, is in its initial stage of development.\n\nOne of the more curious developments of this out-going trend of the sangha is the creation of the Buddhist marriage ceremony. Buddhist monks have always been present at rituals for the dead. The Buddhist doctrines of the insubstantiality of the world and the suffering inherent in it are appropriately associated with death in the mind of the average individual. But for one who holds a doctrine which has nothing positive to say about marriage and family life to be present at a marriage ceremony would be rather odd. Still more so, for a monk to preside at the marriage ritual is almost beyond comprehension. Yet this kind of ritual is how proposed and practised by monks in Hong Kong. Somehow, Hong Kong monks want others to know that Buddhism is relevant for ordinary life. They want to wash away the reputation of being uninterested in ways of the world. This reputation is synonymous with being outcastes from society; strange, unwanted rejects. No, Buddhism has something", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209800, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "37\n\nhas apparent existence because of the apparent union of countless dust particles. Aside from the dust particles, there is no world. Similarly, according to modern scientific view, the world is made up of atoms. Aside from the atoms, there is no world.23\n\nThe third argument is that since the Buddha's teaching is the truth, it must contain all the knowledge ever discovered by science. However, the Buddha's words do not contain every detail of science, but they do contain the principles from which science is derived. One writer puts it: \"Although Buddhism is not science, it is science and philosophy on a higher level.\"24 Another writer puts it: \"Buddhism is the philosophy from which science is derived.”26 Since Buddhism is super science, it fulfills the a priori conditions of not getting into conflict with science.\n\nThe fourth kind of argument is the reconciliation of apparent contradictions between science and Buddhist teaching. One problem discussed is the existence of Amitabha's western paradise. The conviction that the world is a globe spinning round the sun has rendered the interpretation of the term \"west\" rather problematical. Two essays have been written to solve this problem and I leave the reader to reconstruct the arguments for themselves.20\n\nIV. The Self-perception of the Monks\n\nAt the outset of this paper, the observation was made that the monk's self-perception changes in relation to his perception of the reality around him. At whatever point in time, monkhood must maintain its sense of purpose. The monk must find his own life attractive and his sense of value adjusted to his perception of reality, which cannot be totally cut off from the community's perception of it. Hong Kong has experienced a lot of changes in recent decades and these changes posed challenges to the sangha and I have documented some of its major responses. Here I shall discuss the monks' self-perception in terms of these responses.\n\nDuring the last two or three decades, monks in Hong Kong have experienced great changes in material conditions. There have been great fluctuations in the numbers of monks when immigrant monks came from mainland China and later dispersed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209801, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "38 \n\ninto other areas. There have been a migration of temples from isolated and inaccessible locations into the urban areas. \n\nThere has been some rather substantial accumulation of wealth and a proliferation of temples. These changes have had an incalculable impact on the life-style of the monks. Northern immigrants accustomed to the well-ordered daily schedule of prayer and meditation at public monasteries cannot find the support to continue such practices. There simply are not enough monks for such a system to work. Monks of local origin lose their incentive for whatever spiritual work they perform when they take up lodging in the city. Above and beyond these changes in material condition, there is a growing sense of the futility of old spiritual practices like prayer and meditation. These are increasingly looked upon as quaint, archaic, backward, if not downright superstitious by the ordinary citizen. It would not be a surprise if the monks were losing their sense of purpose. Hence, consciously or not, they are looking for a new definition of monkhood, a monkhood appreciated by society at large, a monkhood the monks themselves can be proud of. The new monkhood should accentuate its visible contributions to society. The monk is not a parasite on society but one who dedicates himself to the welfare of all in accordance with the Mahayana ideal of self-giving. What can manifest this spirit more than involvement with education, welfare, social work, homes for the aged, hospitals, youth work and so on? The new monk is not solely concerned with antiquated, unintelligible religious practices, but is a man dedicated to the service of all. \n\nThe articulation of this new image of monkhood was precipitated by an acute shortage of recruits for the sangha, which in turn initiated self-reflection and examination. A wide range of issues came under discussion. There was a recognition of the necessity of adjustment to modern life in a city. There was a conviction that the old manner of living had gone forever. \n\nforever. There was a belief that old-fashioned prayer and meditation were not appreciated by society at large. Cut off from the old way of living, the monks experienced an increasing sense of inadequacy. Were they to be judged a backward and superstitious lot who tried to make a living with their rather dubious ceremonies for the dead? It was with this scenario in mind that they stressed the \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209802, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "39\n\nneed for a solid education, both in secular subjects and in Buddhism. The new education proposed would also support the monks in new professional works, which would fulfill the Mahayana ideal of benefiting all beings. Thus, the monks would have an honourable means of livelihood which would externally win respect from all corners of the society, and internally, would give a new sense of purpose in life. A new orientation towards the world is also seen in the recent institution of a Buddhist marriage ceremony at which the monk acts as the chief witness.\n\nRecent responses of Buddhist monks to the changing social situation have lent themselves easily to a psychological analysis. This is precisely what has been done in the above article. The reason for the shift of self-perception has largely been psychological. That is to say: the changes have not been precipitated by convictions of a doctrinal nature and this fact sets limits of change. From what the Buddhists write about science, it is clear that the sangha does not yet have a clear notion of the implications of science for Buddhism. When such a clear notion arises, the effect would be very serious for the sons of the Buddha. But they may yet emerge chastened, but with the founder's vision essentially intact.\n\nNOTES\n\nHolmes Welch, \"Buddhist Organizations in Hong Kong,\" Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, I (1960-61), 99.\n\n*火頭僧,「偕實延續問題」,香港佛教 (abbreviated to 香), V. 208 (1977), p. 4 :「近二十年來,香港佛教界一部份,是適應的,最明顯一點是各道場佛事興隆, 財政延,做到經濟掛帥。佛事一語,指出家人替人誦經禮懺,超度亡靈,或過生日消災延壽。正因誼種佛事興隆,利之所在,不少投機人士崛起,也替人大做佛事,一樣收得」\n\n*編者(速道),「本月二十週年紀念縱橫談」,香, V. 241 (1980), p. 17 : 「二十年來的香港僧團由聚而散,大有一人一樓的傾向,所謂制度,幾乎成了自治區。」\n\n*高永得,「香港佛教各宗派弦做概況」,香, V.241 (1980), p.4.\n\n7\n\n*ibid., p. 8. 「鑑於香港各佛教團體多數是各自為政,尚未收團結一致之效。」\n\n*白聖「致華附大德法師一封公開信」,香, V.206 (1977), p. 5.\n\nThat monks received 250 precepts at their ordination at an early time can be seen in a Han document Mo-tzu li huo lun, T2102, 2a, line 2.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209803, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "40\n\nOn the point of the monks' helplessness to alter anything themselves one can call to mind a monk's cynical remark that with respect to the reformation of the sangha, nothing would come of it unless it is passed into law by the government. 法輪,「華僧大會七大提案之剖親」香·V. 209 (1977), p. 20: 「如何改革僧伽制度, 這一點, 我覺得沒有通過政府立法程序, 是辦不通的。」Is this lack of a Buddhist central authority one of the contributing reasons why the government exerted control over the sangha by its institutions of monk-officials, ordination certificates and examinations?\n\n5.\n\n* op. cit., p. 19\n\n大頭儈, 「但寶延續問題, 十四」, 香, V.221 (1978), p. 5.\n\n11 白聖, 「我對佛制改革的意見」香, V. 209 (1977), pp. 11-15.\n\n1* 覺光, 「華僧革新勢在必行」, 香, V. 209 (1977), pp. 8-9, 21.\n\n1 火頭會「惟實延續問題, 十四」, 香, V. 221 (1978), p. 5.\n\n34 永惺・「佛教的延續問題」, V. 209 (1977), p. 16.\n\n* 源慧, 「有關華僧問題的討論」, V. 209 (1977), pp. 25-28.\n\n14 王聯章, 「培養後繼的我見」, V. 209 (1977)、pp. 36-37.\n\n** op. cit., p. 9.\n\n** See 廣義法師, 「慶祝衛塞節聲中勿忘(尼)的出路」, 香, V.164 (1974)、p. 6. and \"#98#, · 6 · V. 170 (1974) p. 8. See also the report of the activities of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association in 'SMWUA& IR ̧ · Ñ · V. 227 (1979), p. 36, and the Hong Kong Buddhist Journal, Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Buddhist Association, 1978. Although the Hong Kong Buddhist Association includes a significant contribution from laymen, monks also take active part in its work.\n\n* For example, see, ##4#RTIí, · ✯ · V. 225, p. 14, and★ · BEANS, · · V. 233 (1979) · pp. 3-6.\n\n30\n\n1 正安, 「佛學的新認識」, 香, V. 230 (1979), p. 4, section on 「鬼神思想的混合」.\n\n1 金明, 「佛教在太空時代扮演的角色」, 香, V. 230 (1979)・p. 12.\n\n22 Ibid. p. 13.\n\n18 Ibid.\n\nE op. cit., p. 4.\n\n26 op. cit., p. 4.\n\n20 歸耕盛, 「淨土宗的哲學觀和科學觀」, 否, V, 230 (1979), pp. 6-11 and 張通文, 「佛陀的正確宇宙觀」, 香, V. 232 (1979), pp. 6-8.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 } ]