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Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism : Taixu's Reforms / Don A. Pittman.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, [2001]Copyright date: ©2001Description: 1 online resource (420 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780824822316
  • 9780824865269
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 294.3/0951/09041 22
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note On Romanization -- INTRODUCTION In Search Of A New Buddhism -- CHAPTER 1. Defending The Dharma In A Revolutionary Age -- CHAPTER 2. The Sound Of The Tide For A New China -- CHAPTER 3. An Ecumenical Vision For Global Mission -- CHAPTER 4. Mahâyâna And The Modern World -- CHAPTER 5. A Creative Recovery Of Tradition -- CHAPTER 6. Taixu'S Legacy -- Notes -- Glossary Of Chinese Characters -- Selected Bibliography -- Index
Summary: The Venerable Master Taixu (1890-1947) is the most important and controversial Chinese Buddhist reformer of the twentieth century. Viewed as dangerously rash by conservative Buddhists, irrelevant by secular humanists, and spiritually misguided by Christian missionaries, Taixu was nevertheless committed to forging a socially engaged form of Buddhism and to organizing a Buddhist mission in the West. His bold and inventive "Buddhist revolution" continues to shape aspects of a revitalized Buddhism in East Asia and around the world. The present volume is the first major study in English to focus on the charismatic reformer and his teachings and provides a comprehensive and absorbing interpretation of Taixu's aims and the divisive controversies that surrounded him. This nuanced work is richly documented with "ations from Taixu's own writings and from various Chinese intellectuals and evangelists of the period. As the most politically involved of all the Buddhist leaders in the Republican period, Taixu sought to present Mahâyâna Buddhism as the core of a new Chinese culture and the only adequate foundation for a truly global civilization. Distancing himself from those masters who focused on otherworldly paradises and stressed dependence on celestial buddhas and bodhisattvas, he emphasized what could actually be accomplished in this world through the work of thousands of living bodhisattvas dedicated to building a pure land here and now. A realist who acknowledged the complexities of the human condition in an increasingly interdependent and violent world, Taixu was also a utopian who tried to imagine how Buddhists could begin to realize their ultimate ideals-ideals that in fact lay beyond the preservation of institutional Buddhism itself.Students of Buddhism, Chinese religion, contemporary Chinese history and culture, and Taiwan studies will welcome this study of a crucially important and intriguingly complex individual whose life encapsulates many of the forces and possibilities apparent within Chinese Buddhism in the contemporary world.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780824865269

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note On Romanization -- INTRODUCTION In Search Of A New Buddhism -- CHAPTER 1. Defending The Dharma In A Revolutionary Age -- CHAPTER 2. The Sound Of The Tide For A New China -- CHAPTER 3. An Ecumenical Vision For Global Mission -- CHAPTER 4. Mahâyâna And The Modern World -- CHAPTER 5. A Creative Recovery Of Tradition -- CHAPTER 6. Taixu'S Legacy -- Notes -- Glossary Of Chinese Characters -- Selected Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

The Venerable Master Taixu (1890-1947) is the most important and controversial Chinese Buddhist reformer of the twentieth century. Viewed as dangerously rash by conservative Buddhists, irrelevant by secular humanists, and spiritually misguided by Christian missionaries, Taixu was nevertheless committed to forging a socially engaged form of Buddhism and to organizing a Buddhist mission in the West. His bold and inventive "Buddhist revolution" continues to shape aspects of a revitalized Buddhism in East Asia and around the world. The present volume is the first major study in English to focus on the charismatic reformer and his teachings and provides a comprehensive and absorbing interpretation of Taixu's aims and the divisive controversies that surrounded him. This nuanced work is richly documented with "ations from Taixu's own writings and from various Chinese intellectuals and evangelists of the period. As the most politically involved of all the Buddhist leaders in the Republican period, Taixu sought to present Mahâyâna Buddhism as the core of a new Chinese culture and the only adequate foundation for a truly global civilization. Distancing himself from those masters who focused on otherworldly paradises and stressed dependence on celestial buddhas and bodhisattvas, he emphasized what could actually be accomplished in this world through the work of thousands of living bodhisattvas dedicated to building a pure land here and now. A realist who acknowledged the complexities of the human condition in an increasingly interdependent and violent world, Taixu was also a utopian who tried to imagine how Buddhists could begin to realize their ultimate ideals-ideals that in fact lay beyond the preservation of institutional Buddhism itself.Students of Buddhism, Chinese religion, contemporary Chinese history and culture, and Taiwan studies will welcome this study of a crucially important and intriguingly complex individual whose life encapsulates many of the forces and possibilities apparent within Chinese Buddhism in the contemporary world.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)