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  • Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries
  • Grant Hardy (bio)
Jacques Gernet . Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries. Translated by Franciscus Verellen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. xvii, 441 pp. Hardcover $42.50, ISBN 0-231-07380-1. Paperback $18.50, ISBN 0-231-11411-7

Les aspects économiques du bouddhisme dans la société chinoise du Ve au Xe siècle was first published in Saigon in 1956. Since then it has been reprinted several times, and indeed it helped shape the field of medieval Chinese studies. Its author, Jacques Gernet, has gone on to a long and world-renowned career as a historian of China. In 1995, Columbia University Press reissued this work in an English translation by Franciscus Verellen (with only slightly updated notes and a supplemental bibliography). There is no doubt that in the 1950s this book was of ground-breaking and seminal importance. The question, however, is whether this study, or perhaps any work of historical scholarship, is worth republishing some forty years later. [End Page 85]

The happy answer in this case is yes. First of all, language study occupies a great deal of time for serious students of Chinese history, and in the scramble to learn Modern Chinese, Classical Chinese, and Japanese, crucial European languages such as French and German often get short shrift. While the essentials of Gernet's study can be grasped with only a cursory knowledge of French, this new translation will encourage American students to grapple with his arguments and examples in close detail.

Second, despite advances in our knowledge of Tang-dynasty China, most of Gernet's work is still valid. This is because it takes the form of translating and interpreting specific documents, particularly those found at Dunhuang. To the "official" history of Buddhism derived from decrees, memorials, scriptures, standard histories, and inscriptions, Gernet adds population registers at various monasteries, itemized bills for construction projects and feasts, ordination certificates, wills, deeds, contracts, auction receipts, loan certificates, lists of revenues and expenditures, price lists, banquet calendars, catalogs of assets, annual reports, records of offerings, bylaws of Buddhist associations, dinner invitations, and so forth. To a large extent, Gernet bases his analysis and arguments directly on the primary sources that are still at the heart of our understanding of this period of history.

And third, this translation of Gernet's book is timely in that it forces our attention back to the mundane details of Buddhism. It is still the case that many of our students encounter Buddhism in a quick survey course, or in idealized popular accounts that focus on the "great tradition" of doctrine, famous monks, and imperial sponsorship, and this is still a problem. Buddhism was part of the lives of millions in China, many of whom would have known little of elite practices and opinions. To see the tradition as a whole, it is necessary to take into account powerful, wealthy monasteries that owned animals and slaves, that regulated the lives of serfs and rented out land, that spent enormous sums on construction, art, fabrics, and eventually appropriated vast tracts of farmland. Monasteries owned and maintained (but did not operate) mills and presses, and, at least at Dunhuang, it appears that they provided nearly the entire supply of flour and oil to the region. They served as inns, shops, and pawnbrokers, and they loaned out both cash and grain (at rates ranging from zero to 50 percent interest). They also cared for the sick, provided medicines, distributed food to the poor, and welcomed visitors. Individual monks made loans, bought property, and worried about who would inherit their possessions. Monks also interacted with laypersons when they accepted offerings, performed services for the dead, practiced medicine and divination, and attended festivals and the popular torch-lit public vegetarian feasts. Laypersons were no doubt also impressed by monks who performed magic, miracles, exorcisms, and self-mutilations.

One of the most exciting developments in Buddhist pedagogy in recent years is Donald Lopez' Buddhism in Practice, a book that takes students past the regularly [End Page 86] anthologized great tradition...

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