Chen Hailiang’s Vision of Buddhist Family Life: A Preliminary Study

This paper attempts to provide an overview of how modern Chinese Buddhists worked to blend self-cultivation and family life, with a focus on the ideal of the “Buddhicized family” (Fohua jiating 佛化家庭) as expressed in the writings of the lay Buddhist elite Chen Hailiang 陳海量 (1910–1983), which provided spiritual and material advice for readers striving to achieve equilibrium between religious requirements and social norms. Due to his extensive work with young Buddhist men and women who were seeking spouses, getting married, and starting their own families, Chen’s works paid close attention to issues of gender and sexuality, including childbirth, menstruation, masturbation, etc. Chen’s vision of modern Buddhist family life sheds light on significant processes of change taking place in the early twentieth century, with that religion’s urban elites seeking to define their approach to Buddhism in such a way that both maintained their commitment to social activism yet established the basis for a rich religious life. The data below highlight the complexity of Buddhist thought during the modern era, the interaction between religious discourses and others circulating at that time, and the continuing relevance of these issues in present-day Chinese societies around the world.

摘要:

本文欲探討近代中國佛教徒如何致力於融合自我修行與家庭生活，以居士精英陳海量（1910-1983）著作中「佛化家庭」理念為討論核心。陳海量的論著，向讀者提供了達致宗教要求與社會規範平衡之精神與物質層面的建議，探討年輕佛教徒男女尋偶、結婚與組織家庭時，更密切關注於性別與性行為的議題，包括分娩、月經、手淫等。陳海量對近代佛教徒家庭生活的願景，揭示了20世紀初重大演變過程，即城市宗教菁英份子，以參與社會活動為豐富的宗教生活奠基的方式來實踐佛教。下文將凸顯近代佛教思想的複雜性，包括宗教論述與其他當時流傳的其他思想間的互動，以及那些討論議題在當代華人世界社會中的延續性。