Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism

Introduction: Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism

histories based on canonical texts, biographies of great masters, and institutional records provide only a partial account of Buddhism in China. Likewise, the place of Buddhism in Chinese aesthetic life is much more complex than suggested by the selection of Buddhist objects and sites described in mainstream art historical scholarship. In historical and art historical accounts alike, traditional Chinese and Western notions of authoritative sources and subjects worthy of study have limited our perceptions of Chinese Buddhism.These views have also been truncated chronologically. Contrary to the impression given by much traditional scholarship, the story of Buddhism in China does not end with the so-called golden age in the Tang dynasty (618–907) or even with Chan (Zen) Buddhism in the Song (960–1279).The last chapters have yet to be written. In spite of the wholesale Maoist secularization of Chinese society in the midtwentieth century, Buddhism is growing on Chinese soil once again. Twenty years ago the foregoing statements would have been deemed eccentric in scholarly circles. Scholars generally agreed that Chinese Buddhism and its art peaked in the Tang dynasty and then steadily declined, reaching a truly deplorable state by the Ming (1368–1644). This judgment was not based on demographics, for the faith continued to grow in popularity and insinuate itself ever more thoroughly into Chinese culture after the Tang, but on a perceived decline in Buddhist leadership, spiritual purity, and intellectual rigor. Further evidence was found in the art historical canon created by Ming- and Qing-dynasty (1644–1912) connoisseurs, which renders post-Tang religious art nearly invisible. Such notions about the institutional contours and canonical landmarks of the Chinese Buddhist landscape are still found in introductory and survey texts, as if written in stone. But erosion is well under way. Historians of religion and, more recently, art historians have begun to let go of the biological model of birth, florescence, and decay and to evaluate later Chinese Buddhism on its own terms, not necessarily regarding it as better or worse than what went before, but as something distinct that invites di¤erent modes of research and analysis.1 More catholic, interdisciplinary, culture-based approaches to “later” Chinese Buddhism have begun to provide critical counterpoints to the older, institutionalized narratives derived from o◊cial sources and elite perspectives. 1 introduction Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism Marsha Weidner The essays in this book demonstrate the possibilities of such approaches. These studies are unified, in part, by what they do not address, namely, the bedrock subjects of traditional Buddhist historiography: scriptures and commentaries, sectarian developments, and the lives of notable monks. The authors examine instead a wide range of extracanonical materials to illuminate specific cultural manifestations of Buddhism from the Song dynasty through the modern period. In straying from well-trodden paths, the authors often transgress the boundaries of their own disciplines. Historians address art and architecture. Art historians look to politics. A specialist in literature treats poetry that o¤ers gendered insights into Buddhist lives. Investigations of painting, calligraphy, architecture, and literature mingle with examinations of religious ritual and political patronage. Some of the essays explore constructions of power through art and ritual in ways that resonate with work in the area of cultural studies. In sum, the broad-based cultural orientation of this volume is predicated on the recognition that art and religion are not closed systems requiring only minimal cross-indexing with other social or aesthetic phenomena, but constituent elements in interlocking networks of practice and belief. Culture, variously defined, links these essays. It is an umbrella under which to gather studies of subjects traditionally excluded from the diachronic o◊cial histories of Buddhism in China based on sources vetted by the Chinese church, state, and social elite. But more important, a broad definition of culture allows us to juxtapose subjects that might otherwise be treated in discipline-specific journals or anthologies, where their intersections with other aspects of Buddhist culture might easily be missed. Failure to appreciate these many connections has contributed to our blindness to the pervasiveness of Buddhism in later Chinese culture, not just as a system of belief, but also as a vehicle for expression and enrichment of everyday life. Arguably, the real strength of later Chinese Buddhism lies in its thoroughgoing penetration of Chinese life on all levels.Thousands of Buddhist monasteries all across China were nuclei of faith and culture. Men and women of all walks of life and many nationalities passed...