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Document Details : Title: Buddhist Studies or Buddhist Learning? Subtitle: Formulating Foxue in Modern China Author(s): GILDOW, Douglas M. Journal: Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume: 47 Date: 2024 Pages: 25-70 DOI: 10.2143/JIABS.47.0.3294220 Abstract : The academic field of Buddhist Studies not only probes Buddhism’s past but also shapes its future, sometimes simply by endorsing alternative, non-traditional ways to study it. This article describes early proposals for Buddhist Studies in China and analyzes how Buddhist leaders responded to them. It examines some two dozen publications from the Republican period (1912-1949), especially those of the politician-educator Cai Yuanpei (1868-1940) and the monk-activist Taixu (1890-1947) during the late 1920s and early 1930s. I show how Cai and Taixu formulated contrasting programs for the study of Buddhism, both called foxue (Buddhist studies or learning), which fundamentally differed in their aims, methods, and conclusions. Cai’s foxue was a variant of modern, academic Buddhist Studies. In contrast, Taixu’s foxue was a variant of traditional Chinese Buddhist learning which partially responded to academic foxue and incorporated modernist rhetoric. These two types of foxue, which I argue were nonconfessional and confessional, respectively, have persisted until the present day. |
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