Syncretic and engaged Buddhist thought in early republican China: Tang Dayuan’s vision (1910-1930s)
Zhang, Tengyun
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125709
Description
Title
Syncretic and engaged Buddhist thought in early republican China: Tang Dayuan’s vision (1910-1930s)
Author(s)
Zhang, Tengyun
Issue Date
2024-07-17
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Chow, Kai-wing
Committee Member(s)
Chen, Jingling
Callahan, Christopher
Department of Study
E. Asian Languages & Cultures
Discipline
E Asian Languages & Cultures
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
Chinese Buddhism
Republican China
Tang Dayuan
Abstract
This thesis explores the intellectual and cultural contributions of Tang Dayuan (1885? -1941), an understudied Confucian-Buddhist scholar in early 20th-century China. It examines the intricate relationship between Chinese Buddhism and socio-cultural dynamics during the late Qing and Republican periods, employing a combined approach of philosophical and socio-cultural perspectives, focusing on Tang Dayuan’s insights. In past scholarship, Tang Dayuan has often been portrayed as a representative of the Consciousness-only school, a follower of Taixu, a cultural conservative, and an antagonist of Western culture. This paper, however, focuses on reevaluating Tang Dayuan as a mediator between Buddhism and Confucianism, his overlooked contributions to Pure Land Buddhism, his socially engaged ideals of an “Eastern Pure Land,” and his endeavors to synthesize Eastern and Western cultures in promoting Buddhism. Through a detailed examination of Tang’s syncretic vision, the study investigates how Tang syncretized Confucianism and Buddhism, Tang’s role in the debates over the authenticity of the Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna text and how it is interconnected with his perspective on modernity, science, and nationalism, and his socio-cultural concept of the “Eastern Pure Land” with a Buddhist identity as a practitioner of Pure Land and Consciousness-only dual cultivation.
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