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Notes Introduction 1. Wallerstein (1990) distinguishes two usages of the term ‘‘culture.’’ It can refer either to the sense of the traits, behaviors, values, and beliefs characterizing a particular group or to the ‘‘higher’’ arts within a particular group, as opposed to popular, everyday practice. The first of these usages Wallerstein finds heuristically unhelpful. The second he believes to function alongside racism and sexism as a justification of inequities of the world system. 2. In the companion volumes The Practice of Chinese Buddhism (1967) and The Buddhist Revival in China (1968), Welch spoke of Sino-Buddhism in the past tense. This is partially due to the fact that he was recording temple life in mainland China as remembered by elderly monks whom he interviewed in Hong Kong. Beyond that, however, there is also a sense in his attention to detail that, given the antipathy toward the religion displayed at the time by Mao Zedong’s Communist Party, Chinese Buddhism was a moribund phenomenon. Welch evidently agreed with Arthur Wright’s assessment that people were then witnessing ‘‘the last twilight of Chinese Buddhism as an organized religion’’ (Wright 1959, 122). 3. Recent dissertations include Tien (1995), on the life and thought of Ven. Yinshun; Shi Jienshen (1997), on monastic education in Taiwan; Ting (1997), on the health-care approach of Ciji Gongde Hui; Laliberté (1999), on the role played by the Buddhist Association of the Republic of China, Foguangshan, and Ciji Gongde Hui in the democratization of ROC politics; Chern (2000), on Buddhist nuns in Taiwan; Li (2000), on women and Buddhism in Taiwan; Qin (2000), on a convent on Emei Shan, Sichuan Province; Huang (2001), on Ciji Gongde Hui; and Hurley (2001), on Ven. Yinshun’s hermeneutics. Recent English-language articles include Lu (1998), on gender issues in Ciji Gongde Hui, and Lalibert é (1998), on political involvement in Ciji Gongde Hui. 1 A Mountain Monastery in an Urban Society 1. Master Xingyun saw his mother for the first time in over fifty years in 1989 during his visit to mainland China. Months later, he attained a visa for her to emigrate to the United States. She spent her final five years at Hsi Lai Temple (Foguangshan’s large branch monastery just outside Los Angeles), although she did travel somewhat, even making a short visit to Foguangshan in 1990. 2. Ironically, it was Vice President Chen Cheng who had issued the detention order. Chen Cheng never became a Foguang devotee. It was after his grown sons took refuge under Master Xingyun that they decided to transfer the remains of their parents from Taishan to Foguangshan (Fu 1995, 183). 3. For descriptions of miraculous events taking place at Foguangshan, including several concerning the Welcoming Buddha and Maitreya statues, see Shi Yikong (1994). 316 • Notes to Pages 12–25 4. Foguangshan uses the categories zongjiao (religious) and shehui to distinguish the general intent of its undertakings, especially its education system. Shehui, the term that I am rendering as ‘‘social service’’ and ‘‘secular,’’ literally means ‘‘society’’ or ‘‘social.’’ I have chosen ‘‘social service’’ and ‘‘secular’’ to indicate that the programs on this part of the mountain are philanthropic in nature and carry less overt religious significance. 5. Lay monastics (jiaoshi for men, shigu for women) have not taken monastic vows but have pledged to remain celibate and to devote their lives to helping Foguangshan propagate Buddhism. 6. For a description of several orphanages run by Buddhists during the Republican era, see Welch (1968, 122–126). Of the thirty-nine monks interviewed by Welch, six had been orphans (Welch 1967, 259–269). 7. The Venerable Huichan had already become famous in mainland China for his depictions of Tibetan life before he emigrated to Canada in 1989 and, subsequently, renounced under Master Xingyun in 1996. 8. The relationship between Master Xingyun, Chen Lü’an, and Chen Yonghe came to light only after the latter, the Four Seas Gang leader, was gunned down by a rival. The news media included in its initial reports of this event the fact that Master Xingyun had recently put Chen Yonghe into contact with Chen Lü’an, although this turned out to have nothing to do with the assassination. Master Xingyun then made matters worse by announcing, not only that he had made the introduction, but also that, because Chen Yonghe was a Foguang devotee, his ashes would be inurned in Foguangshan’s Longevity Funerary Complex. 9. The concept ‘‘Humanistic Buddhism’’ is discussed at length later in this book...

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