Upload
prentice
View
25
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Charitable activities and religious life. prefatory remarks. enable VPN to Oxford. definitions. the voluntary giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver (Wikipedia) Terminology gong 公 , yi 義 types: related to livelihood ritual services for others than family - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
1
Charitable activities and religious life
2
prefatory remarks
enable VPN to Oxford
3
definitions the voluntary giving of help to those in need
who are not related to the giver (Wikipedia) Terminology
gong 公 , yi 義 types:
related to livelihood ritual services for others than family
to be distinguished from local mutual help? “without expecting a direct return from the
recipient”
4
charity in Europe connected to Christianity: late ME onwards in
Western Europe (esp. NW Europe) need to deal with orphans, widows and the
poor in general in urban centres innovation NW Europe: cheap urban labour
force regions which suffered from labour shortage
after the great plague epidemics of 14th century region of religious reform > (unsuccessful)
reformation (Flanders, Low Countries)
5
local mutual help hard to document historically in the absence
of sources & research not impossible through anecdotal literature
( 待考 ) 20th century fieldwork
Japanese (Mantetsu 滿鐵 etc.) Western/Chinese (Sidney Gamble, Li Jinghan
c.s.) missionary accounts “missionary cases” 教案 (Litzinger a.o.)
bias: northern China and coastal southwest China
6
an attempt at reconstruction late 19th early 20th century (not
necessarily same as before, but maybe indicative of informal neighbourly help) crop watching cooperation on harvest etc. credit societies self-defence societies to maintain temples & festivals irrigation networks (LY & Southern China)
7
forms of help state charitable institutions
expression of the paternalistic obligation of the ruler to his people
lineage organizations mutual help for those within the same line of
descent mutual help within a village
restricted to those who were accepted as members of the village community
charity per se: indiscriminately help of all
8
social functions of charity alleviating social stress symbolic expression of attitude of
caring for larger whole on part of elites
9
Buddhist charity
10
circulation of gifts In Theravada B. traditionally gifts primarily to
monastic community, in Mahayana B. also to lay people
gifts managed together to maintain Buddhist institutions recitation & rituals for the benefit of all (incl. dead) monasteries as shared investments/pooling
resources (?) ultimate aim: gathering merit & public standing
(doing good is never invisible)
11
Buddhist merit fundamental Buddhist concept of
gathering merit 功德 by giving (to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha)
different forms of giving: to adorn the teachings (grotto temples,
statues, wall paintings and so forth) charity for the needy (identified
recipients) alms (entirely anonymous)
12
“Fields of merit” 福田 principal concept is planting a field of merit different lists of very practical activities:佛告天帝:”復有七法廣施,名曰福田,行者得福,即生梵天。何謂為七?”
一者、興立佛圖、僧房、堂閣; 二者、園果、浴池、樹木清涼; 三者、常施醫藥,療救眾病; 四者、作牢堅船,濟度人民; 五者、安設橋梁,過度羸弱; 六者、近道作井,渴乏得飲; 七者、造作圊廁,施便利處。
maintaining the community
13
常施醫藥興立佛圖、僧房、堂閣
園果
14
early charity problems of information
quantitative estimate impossible, only qualitative
normative (as above) rather than descriptive known concrete examples (usually urban &
individual/incidental) distribution food to poor monastic “hospitals” inn-function of monasteries for travellers and
pilgrims
15
Song-Yuan Buddhist monks building bridges etc. (merit) Buddhist lay believers (merit)
bridges roads free tea
state (northern Song): local order medical aid
hospitals distributing medicine
old people’s homes homes for foundlings (including wet nurses) distributing food aid, coffins (incidental)
private/local (southern Song): local order (same contents)
16
religious vs. secular religious charity clearly continued into Yuan state and private charity Song period: were
people involved only secularly motivated? the very active lay Buddhist Su Shi founded a kind
of hospital , built the nearby Su Dike on West Lake! problem of insufficient knowledge private
convictions would be strange when (re)invention in late Ming
was Buddhist inspired and earlier Song efforts would not have been religiously inspired
Water and Land Gatherings & rituals to feed the hungry ghosts can be seen as forms of charity!
17
towards secular charity?
18
background to charity differences charity
from Buddhist perspective from state perspective from Neoconfucian perspective
presently standard view: Buddhist (religious) charity evolved into largely secular charity
similar the in West: Christian (or Christian socialist, do not forget Judeo-Christian origins Marxism/ socialism)
but: is there a “secular” world in premodern China? and: to what extent did this new charity really
become fully secular (same applies to Western situation)
19
Li Gong: secular or not 1659-1733 famous for classicist lifestyle in which he tried to stay
faithful to the Analects and other classic works Worship and religious beliefs
burned incense (much later than Analects) visited his parents and his natal mother on 1st and 15th days maintained all kinship rituals and paid respect to graves of
acquaintances gathered relatives at 清明 for sacrifice of animals and music also set up paper spirit tablets 紙位 for relatives in female
lines without descendants (of at least two different family names) on New Year's day
kept a Ledger of Merit and Demerit supported ritual suicide by widows (rather than remarriage)
hardly just a secular classicist philosopher
20
the charitable movement (1) one large movement of performing shan 善 ,
institutionalized in generic “charitable gatherings” 善會 and “charitable halls” 善堂
Setting Free Life Gatherings (fangsheng hui 放生會 ) => charitable movement, in terms of: support group and audience (the local gentry elite) internal organization combination of moral education with moral acts change: from preserving animal life to saving
human life conspired by growing Neoconfucian interest in
human life
21
Shanghai
Guilin
22
the charitable movement (2) Buddho-Daoist inspiration
祩宏 1535–1615 introduces Daoist Ledgers or Merit and Demerit 功過格
Morality Books 善書, e.g. 太上感應篇 (Daoist inspiration), later Buddhist and cultic versions of morality books (e.g. 陰騭文,關聖帝君覺世真經 )
bureaucratic procedures Community Compacts 鄉約
23
activities taking care of orphans (Keeping Infants Halls 留嬰堂 or Nourish Infants Halls 育嬰堂 ) taking care of widows to prevent remarriage prevention of cremation and making available free burial alleviating famine (esp. late Ming, taken over by state
during Qing)
In service of Confucian values, though often initiated first by elites with primary lay Buddhist identity
But: to what extent had this become a Confucian movement?
24
again: secular or religious Zhang Cai 張才 (fl. late Ming)
founder Restoration Academy moral lecturer in “secular” hall devout worshipper Lord Guan
Shi Chengjin 石成金 (fl. 1660) Yangzhou Nourish Infants Hall active lay Buddhist (influential commentary on Jin’gangjing) the popularizer of Buddhist and Confucian values among non-literate
people (in baihua) Liu Shanying 劉山英 (1733-1806)
official who became active lay Buddhist at circa 40 years of age. active in charitable works, including a large public cemetery in
Huzhou in the late eighteenth century and the publication of a Buddhist inspired morality book. Efforts continued by his, who was also a lay Buddhist ánd a conscious Confucian official
his own 信心應驗錄 reprinted by pp with Buddhist background as well In all 3 cases: religious context not clear from the sources
directly dealing with the charitable activity
25
佛緣之印度為甚廣也
26
傳家寶
27
moral rearmament increase “Confucian” values does not mean
secularisation, but moral rearmament reliance on specific deities a source moral values:
Wenchang, Lord/Emperor Guan, Lu Dongbin, and so on
late 18th century onwards spirit writing movement starting out in eastern Sichuan
during 19th century fusion with practice of reciting the Saintly Edict 宣講聖諭 inYunnan
developed into the new religious movements of early 20th century
28
内鄉縣衙門宣講聖諭
29
宣講聖諭 in Yunnan:洞經音樂
30
other forms of religious charity
31
missionary charity Christian charity in China as much part of
Chinese history as other forms foundling homes (source
misunderstanding) medical mission (beginning with eye
surgery, took off in 20th century) educational mission (to enable often
illiterate converts to read the Bible, took off in early 20th century)
32
Daoist charity True Man Wu (Fujian)
popular cult since 11th -12th century, strong Daoist links Quanzhou elite developed it into venue for dispensing free
medicine from 1878 onwards Liu Yuan 劉沅 (1768-1855) (Sichuan)
founder influential Daoist-Confucian family tradition of teachers
found inspiration in texts that we conventionally label Confucian and Daoist
himself advocated Daoist ritual for the common good sixth son added charitable activities (namely the free
distribution of grain, clothes and medicine; the provision of coffins and burial land; setting free life, as well as not eating bovine and dog meat)
33
清
1878 Quanzhou gentry and merchants founded an Office for Dispensing Medicine in the local 花橋慈濟宮 , on basis of myth of True Man Wu (Tao 夲 )
34
20th century and after
35
Taiwan & mainland with you!