DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2019.3.29613

Abstract: This paper revisits the concept of “school awareness”, which in previous scholarship was mostly regarded as a result of the penetration of Chinese patriarchal patterns into the Buddhist community against the background of loosened state control during the late Ming Period. Particular attention is directed to the fact that such a viewpoint concerning the Buddhist community existed up to as late as the 18th century. One of the primary examples of "school awareness" at the late stage of its existence is Wenhai Fuju (1685 - 1765), who adopted a series of steps to promote the prestige of the Qianhua branch of the Vinaya school of Chinese Buddhism. In order to examine his activities in detail, this paper synthesizes data from various sources producing a complete, chronologically-arranged biography. The analysis of obtained results demonstrated that the majority of Wenhai Fuju’s endeavors embodying his “school awareness” were in fact driven by the needs and possibilities of interacting with the Yongzheng (1723 - 1735) or Qianlong (1736 - 1795) emperors. This allows the author to conclude that the official authorities expected and approved the aim towards a dominating position of a particular Buddhist school. Hence, it was the impact of imperial policy that had kept up the active support of  “school awareness” of the Buddhist monks in China during the 18th century.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2019.1.28558

Abstract: The main sources for studying the history of the revival of the Vinaya school of Chinese Buddhism at the end of the Ming dynasty - beginning of the Qing dynasty, to date remain genealogies and monastic chronicles. This article presents the possibility of expanding the topic's source base through works of religious and ethical nature. Using the example of “the Initial Approach to Bodhisattva Vows in the Sutra Network of the Brahma” by Yijie Shuyu, the author demonstrates how such works can contain additional historical and biographical information. The author reveals specific historical reasons, methods and aims of using the religious commentary genre to transmit this information. In the article, the author undertook a comparative analysis of the biographies of the Vinaya School monks, which are part of the work under study, with their biographies in earlier and later sources. The study shows that Yijie Shuyu innovatively reworked the material available to him through sources within the framework of the concept of the lineage of reincarnated patriarchs, which was created to enhance the prestige of the Vinai school. The author comes to the conclusion that Yijie Shuyu used the available to him commentary genre on questions concerning Vinaya to raise the prestige of the lineage to which he himself belonged.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2017.5.23931

Abstract: The research topic of this article is the relationship between secular literati and Buddhist monasteries in China, one of the forms of which was the recruitment of literati by the monasteries for the composition of monastery chronicles. This paper focuses on the activities on Liu Mingfang (Liu Nanlu), the author of "The Chronicle of Mt. Baohua," in the Jiangnan region in 1740-1750s. The importance of studying the circumstances of the compilation of this chronicle is justified by the fact that Mt. Baohua was the seat of the patriarchs of the Qianhua school, which claimed dominance within the Vinaya tradition of Chinese Buddhism in the late Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties. The article examines what place the composition of this Buddhist mountain chronicle had in the activities of Liu Mingfang, who was a member of the secular literati. This research relies on several chronicles compiled by Liu Mingfang, as well as the texts of his contemporary associates. The main conclusions of this research are as follows: Liu Mingfang primarily associated himself with poetry and the Daoist culture. Lacking a stable income, Liu Mingfang compiled local chronicles under commission. Accordingly, on the one hand, "The Chronicle of Mt. Baohua" is not supposed to reflect any personal Buddhist ideas of Liu Mingfang, but on the other hand, it is very probable that the text of this chronicle reflects the wishes of its commissioner – Wenhai Fuju, the abbot of Mt. Baohua.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2017.4.23195

Abstract: The subject of this article is the 17th-20th-century sources containing biographical information on Wenhai Fuju (1685-1765), the seventh patriarch of the Qianhua school of Vinaya in China. The revival of the Vinaya school in China in the shape of the “Qianhua school” (“the Thousand Flowers School” or “the Mount Baohua school”) constituted the main change in the structure of Buddhist schools in China during the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) as compared to the era of Yuan (1271-1368) and most of the Ming Dynasty. It was precisely Wenhai Fuju who strengthened the Qianhua school, which through his help began to claim to be the only proper school of Vinaya in China. All this motivates the interest in researching the figure of the seventh Qianhua patriarch. By means of researching the contents of sources and their authors, the sources are subdivided according to the chronology of their creation and the fullness of information concerning Wenhai Fuju they contain. The novelty of this article is that it reveals the main sources for conducting a biographical research on Wenhai Fuju based on the fullness and authenticity of their content. At the next stage of research the author offers a comparative analysis and critical review of these sources in order to construct an integral biographical account of the seventh Vinaya Qianhua patriarch.