Buddhism in the Sung (review)

This is volume 13 of the Kuroda Institute's excellent Studies in East Asian Buddhism series. The present volume grew out of the conference "Buddhism in the Sung," hosted by the University of Illinois in April 1996. Peter Gregory, in his fine introduction, "The Vitality of Buddhism in the Sung," clearly outlines the major interests of the essays in this volume. The title of his own essay is indicative of the rejection of the idea that Buddhism entered a period of decline during the Sung dynasty (960-1279 C.E.). The other essays, by noted scholars, amply reveal "the vitality of Buddhism in the Sung as well as its embeddedness in the social and intellectual life of the time" (p. 2). T'ien-t'ai, the other major Buddhist school, for example, "virtually recreated itself in the Sung" (p. 5). "Proponents of T'ien-t'ai and Ch'an were not only involved in lively dialogue among themselves but were also engaged in complex interactions with Sung society at large. These interactions were seen as being mutually beneficial and the forms that they took were basically transactional, although what was understood as being transacted varied according to the circumstance and the people involved. The different forms these interactions took reveal the variety of ways in which Buddhism had become a part of Chinese culture" (p. 11). Gregory concludes his introduction by saying that the study of Buddhism in the Sung affords an important opportunity to integrate the study of Buddhism in China more fully within Chinese studies as a whole: "The study of Chinese Buddhism has long suffered from a twofold disciplinary isolation. On the one hand, it is often marginalized within Buddhist studies, which still tends to focus on Indian Buddhism as normative for the field. On the other hand, it is often ignored or given short shrift by scholars working in Chinese social and intellectual history" (p. 19).

A broad range of topics is covered in essays that might be called microstudies in that they focus on the complex range of activities of an eminent figure in a particular school and at the same time relate the activities of that person to larger questions. The essays do not stand in isolation. It is clear that each contributor is well aware of what is said by the other essayists. This provides for a certain level of coherence that is often missing in books of collected essays. The scholarship is impressive, and in general the essays are clearly written. This book represents the first extended scholarly treatment of Buddhism in the Sung to be published in a Western language (p. 1). The studies presented do not pretend to offer a complete or even representative picture of Buddhism in the Sung. All of the chapters in one way or another deal with the two most important traditions within Sung Buddhism: Ch'an and T'ien-t'ai, although the Pure Land tradition and the cult of Kuan-yin receive ample treatment. For example, Getz in his essay offers an important corrective with respect to Pure Land as an autonomous movement:

The categorization of Pure Land as a school, presumably glossing the Chinese term "tsung" [the older form of romanization is used and a glossary of Chinese characters is included at the end of the book], suggests the possession of one or more distinctive characteristics: a discrete self-contained doctrinal system, a continuous lineage, and/or some form of institutional autonomy. An assessment of the various historical manifestations of Pure Land, however, reveals that for much of the history of Chinese Buddhism, Pure Land was not a distinct institutional entity with a self-conscious lineage or doctrinal system. Rather, until Southern Sung (1127-1279) Pure Land existed as one facet of religious life alongside others. . . .

(p. 477)

With respect to T'ien-t'ai, the focus of the essays is...