Buddhism—The Chinese Version
China is not usually classified among the deeply religious countries of the world. The Chinese have tended to find their deeper values in ethical systems—such as that of Confucius which regulate man's conduct without metaphysical overtones or promise of punishment or reward after death.
Of the religions that have made some impress on the Chinese mind, the Indian export of Buddhism has won the largest number of adherents and lasted the longest. Presumably this is because the Buddhist faith has come to accord with such Chinese culture patterns as a pragmatic attitude towards life and the expectation of reincarnation.
As of today the number of Buddhist followers in Taiwan is estimated at six million, about half the population. This is to say that people call themselves Buddhists but without any formal affiliation. Only about 200,000 persons are classified as "members" of Buddhist sects.
Buddhist temples and shrines total 1,875, most of them located in scenic spots or places contributing to serenity.
The largest temple in Taiwan is the Lung Shan Temple in the Wan-hua district of Taipei. It occupies more than half an acre and has grounds of equivalent, size. Lung Shan is famous for beautiful pillars and wall carvings. It was built more 200 years ago by settlers from Fukien province and is dedicated to Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy.
Shih-tou-shan or "Lion's Head Mountain", a 90-minute drive from Taipei, is one of the most interesting centers of Buddhist worship. From lower slopes to peak, the mountain is dotted with pagodas and temples.
Images of the Shakyamuni Buddha, or Gautama, founder of the Indian faith, of Amitabha, one of the principal godheads, and of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy, are to be found in all temples. Yet the Buddhists also may grant shelter to domestic deities such as Ma Tsu, the goddess of the sea, and Tu Ti Kung, duke of the earth.
The burning of incense and candles goes on day and night. Buddhists go to ask the favor of the gods, to pray for the recovery of ailing loved ones, for the blessing of anything from the new baby to the new business venture.
Laymen usually go to the temples on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month. They take flowers and fruit as offerings. Sometimes they burn paper money to the gods. This is not a Buddhist rite. But Buddhists are broad-minded and tolerate local customs in the interests of harmony.
Among the most widely observed of special occasions is Buddha's birthday, which falls on April 8. An unusual feature is the "Buddha bathing". Believers pour water over a statue of Buddha and thereby have their own sins washed away.
Spiritual services are provided by both monks and nuns. The priesthood is a sacred mission and many first enroll in their early teens.
Taiwan has 964 monks and 1,825 nuns. Of the total, 568 were ordained only last April 4 in Taipei's Lin Chi temple. Ages of the novices ranged from a 15-year-old boy to an 80-year-old woman. Most of them were between 20 and 25.
Eleven clerical schools and colleges are attached to temples in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu, and Chungli. They offer courses for novices who expect to become monks or nuns.
To become a Buddhist monk or nun, the individual must 'sever relations with the outside world. No property holdings or private life are allowed. Heads must be shaved. Women are no exception.
The temple authorities set a period during which the candidate will be kept under observation. If the test is satisfactory and the candidate's own intention remains unchanged, ordination as a novice will follow. The aspirant to priesthood will accept the ten commandments of sramanera, bidding him cast out evil and engage in works of goodness and mercy. He also receives his robe and alms bowl, which symbolizes dependence on charity.
Three Ceremonies
Once a novice has been certified for proper observance of Buddhist rites and regulations, the individual will become a monk or nun. The monk must accept 250 commands. For a nun the number is even higher-348.
Although a monk has full status after ordination, he must perfect himself in the attainment of Sukhavati or paradise. Having done that, he takes another oath at the Buddha precept ordination.
This is the third important ceremony of a series. The monk has reached the stage of perfecting himself for perfecting others, and for attaining Buddha-hood.
He is obliged to display three burned marks on his head as signs of his strengthened devotion and spirit of sacrifice. Sometimes a monk has 12 burn scars, the highest number.
Seniority of a monk is shown by the robe he wears. There are three classes: 9 to 13-piece, 15 to 19-piece, and 21 to 25-piece robes. The 25-piece robe can be donned only after 10 years of service to Buddhism.
Monks and nuns are strict vegetarians. The killing of animals is forbidden, and even eggs are forbidden food. To them every creature in the animal kingdom has a chance for reincarnation. With continuous progress, a mosquito may become a human being.
A monk's life is frugal and strict. He gets up at 4: 30. After prayers, he has an hour of meditation to put his mind at one with God and the universe. Then he begins his studies.
In the afternoon he dedicates himself to others. He answers the questions of those who come to learn of Buddhism for the first time or to renew their faith. To those who seek knowledge, he must make detailed explanations.
Different Schools
He conducts routine masses and solemnizes the marriages of Buddhist members. One of his most important duties is to officiate at masses for the dead. Monks and nuns chant sutras (scriptures) or invocations to the accompaniment of music.
Buddhists believe beloved ones can be liberated from the sufferings of hell as a result of the masses conducted for them.
All Buddhists work for the attainment of Sukhavati." But they follow different schools of thought and varied religions practices.
Buddhism has 10 schools or sects. Those represented on Taiwan are the Ching Tu Tsung or Pure Land School, the Chan Tsung or Zen, Chen Yen Tsung or Pure Word, and the Tien Tai Tsung school. The majority of the Taiwan Buddhists belong to the Pure Land and Zen school.
The Pure Land School advooates salvation by faith—simple belief in Amitabha, one of the numerous Buddhas.
Whenever the mind is free to think and the voice is free to invoke Nahma Omito Fo (Hail, Amitabha Buddha), salvation is in sight. The invocation should be as continuous as possible.
With the mind concentrated on the Buddha, it presumably is free of carnal desire and thus conditioned for steadfast faith in the Buddha's saving grace. This is freely offered to all who come in humble belief.
Through faith obtained from advocacy of Amitabha Buddha, man can find a short cut to the Pure Land of eternal blessing. By this faith, he is delivered from karma and transmigration.
Most Taiwan Buddhists belong to this school. It provides the simplest approach to Sukhavati and does not require knowledge of the sutras.
The Chan Tsung, better known to Westerners and the Japanese as Zen, has more followers among the intellectuals. It declares salvation is to be achieved by inner enlightenment and maintains that this insight comes suddenly.
Meditation is accomplished through physical and mental discipline.
Physical discipline requires a serene environment. Meditation is practical while sitting motionless. The position of the hands and feet and even the rhythm of breathing must be controlled.
The successful meditator then goes on to mental control and reaches towards the state of enlightenment.
Buddhism has a double doctrine in its objectives. When it is concerned only with individual salvation, it is known as Hinayana Buddhism or Small Chariot. When it transcends the limits of individual salvation and concerns itself with the spiritual welfare of all, it becomes Mahayana Buddhism or the Great Chariot.
Use of the chariot image is literal. It implies transportation. Both chariots transport humankind from this troubled world to the "other side"—to the ultimate goal of Nirvana.
The Small Chariot implies personal salvation, while the Great Chariot aims to Peace savior as well.
In Taiwan and most other parts of China, the Hinayana school has not caught on despite its popularity in India. The Mahayana school is dominant. Both the Pure Land and Zen sects belong to the Great Chariot.
Buddhist philosophy has had great influence on Chinese life. Its ideas, its attitudes toward life, and its values have influenced hundreds of millions.
The Buddhist concept of immortality through reincarnation has become a universally popular belief in China. Illiterate or educated, most Chinese people believe they will be born anew after passing from this life.
Lin Yutang writes in My Country and My People that "Buddhism has conquered China as a philosophy and as a religion, as a philosophy for the scholars and as a religion for the common people."
Men and women share the same Buddhist faith, yet their attitudes toward it are different.
Chinese men consider frequent temple visits a waste of time. Nor are they enthusiastic about ceremonies. They regard religion as more of a philosophy than a practice.
Many Chinese scholars have styled themselves chussu, intellectuals living in Buddhistic retirement without becoming monks.
Women are more religious in a practical sense and usually observe the rituals. Family shrines are maintained and used by women. They say more Nah Mo Amitabha than men and may chant the sutras without understanding them. For them, faith alone may be the way to Nirvana.
Women seek Buddha's favor with prayer and supplication, but they are also pragmatists. They may throw down the pieces of necromancer's bamboo time and time again until the combination is favorable.
In almost every farmhouse of Taiwan, there is a picture of Kuan Yin - the goddess of mercy who postponed her entry into Nirvana so she could help humans-hanging on the wall of the room in which ancestors are venerated.
Buddhist Organization
Buddhist influence on Taiwan can be found in attitudes toward the butchery of animals. It is regarded as displeasing to the gods, and many people abstain from eating beef for life. They consider the cow a highly useful animal and believe that to kill any animal which works for man is an act of ingratitude.
Taiwan's organized Buddhist movement is headed by the Buddhist Association, reorganized in 1952, which has 35,935 individual and nearly 1,000 group members. It operates colleges, sponsors lectures, and carries on other educational activities.
Under association direction are nine special committees, a provincial branch organization, and 20 sub-branches in cities and counties. A special board grants college scholarships.
Work of city and county branches is varied. Some pursue charitable activities and help all who may be in need, regardless of creed. Others establish choirs to sing Buddhist songs and thus propagate the faith.
Education is emphasized. Classes are sponsored by the Association and its affiliates to teach illiterates, pre-school children, and aborigines.
The National Taiwan University in Taipei offers a number of courses in Buddhism and its philosophy. Buddhists plan to establish their own university.
Twelve Buddhist magazines are published. The oldest is Hai Chao Yin or "The Sound of the Sea Tide", which began publication at the century's turn. Bodhedrum, a monthly, has circulation of several thousand. Publications have considerable circulation in Southeast Asia, especially in Ceylon, Thailand, and Cambodia.
While Buddhism flourishes on this island, it is suppressed by the Communists on the mainland. Many Buddhists have been compelled to recant. Their organizations have been destroyed.
In the 1940s, before the Communist took over, nearly half of the Chinese population was counted as Buddhist. Individual members of the Buddhist Association totaled 4,260,000. Monks and nuns exceeded 500,000.
Mainland monks of former times traveled from monastery to monastery. They were welcome anywhere under the custom of kuatan, which means one who hangs up all his possessions. To the monks these consisted of robes and alms bowls.
Large Monasteries
Monasteries were very large. Those at Pu-to, Wu-tai, O-mei, and Chiu-hua accommodated thousands. As long as a monk observed monastery regulations, he could stay as long as he liked and could even become abbot.
Buddhist rites of the mainland were quite different from those practiced here. They were more purely Buddhist. Worship of deities was seldom to be found. Sects and schools of thought were the same. Most mainland believers belonged to the Zen and Pure Land groups.
The Communists have suppressed all religions. However, Buddhists here say the people of the mainland continue to believe and to practice their religion in secret. Communism cannot easily destroy what took 2,000 years to establish.
Introduction of Buddhism to China is lost in antiquity. Aside from legends, it is known that pilgrims returned to China from India in 65 A.D. They had been sent by the Emperor Ming of the later Han dynasty (A.D. 23-221) four years before. They brought back a horse laden with sacred books and relics. Accompanying them were two Indian monks.
Since then, the exchange of Chinese and Indian scholars included such giants as Kumarajiva (4th century), Fa Hsien (5th century), Bodhidharma (6th century), and Hsuan Chuang (7th century).
Hsuan Chuang is probably the best known. Born in 600 A.D., when the teachings of Buddha reached their height in China, he became a Buddhist in 620. Before he went to India in 629, he was already an eminent scholar. He stayed in India 16 years.
Five years were spent in Nalanda for the study of Vijnanavada, the most subtle philosophy of Buddhism. In 645 he returned to China with many Buddhist books and spent the rest of his life translating them into Chinese. He died in 664.
By the 7th century, Buddhism was beginning to die out in its birthplace. Fewer Indian missions came to China, and Chinese Buddhists no longer were content with translations. The Chinese began to create their own Buddhist literature. Leading Chinese thinkers of the time were Buddhists.
Chinese Changes
Buddhism began to change under the impact of the Chinese way of life and of thinking. In orthodox Buddhism, the world is vanity. It is but an illusion of the mind. But to Chinese philosophers, the world is real. These should be no resignation from the world. The good work done in this existence is the way to salvation.
Some early Buddhists of India maintained that many people did not possess the nature of Buddha and could not attain Buddhahood. The Chinese believed that everybody possessed the nature of Buddha. As long as sins were repented, the way to perfection was open. Even a butcher, who had sinned grievously by killing so many animals, could attain Buddhahood if he gave up his knife.
By the 8th century, there were 10 denominations in China. Three were of Chinese origin and not to be found in India. They were Hua-yen, Tien-tai, and Chan, which are to be found in Taiwan today.
Buddhism also changed China. Most Chinese thinkers have regarded life as worth living and potentially happy. The Confucianists are especially optimistic about human nature. They have been absorbed in the problem of bettering society and have not been overly concerned with the hereafter.
With the introduction of Buddhism came new concepts: divinities, transmigration of souls and life after death. The spiritual horizon of the Chinese people was enlarged. China acquired a cosmology and new forms of religious ritual.
Taoist Contributions
Taoism and Buddhism, being akin to each other in many ways, were mutually influenced. Taoist terms were freely employed in the translation of Buddhist literature, and Taoist deities were taken over. Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism made contributions to each other without surrendering their own identity.
Chinese writing was profoundly influenced by Buddhism. From Tang dynasty times, the novel has owed much to the inspirations of Buddhist literature.
The life of Hsuan Chuang was dramatized in the novel Hsi-yu-chi or "The Record of a Journey to the Western Paradise."
In architecture and sculpture, Buddhist influence also was pronounced. The pagoda is of purely Indian origin. It is seen in every city and village of China. China had only engravings on stone in early times. Sculpture was introduced with Buddhism.
Taiwan's Buddhists regard themselves as the trustees for a great religion that one day will return to the mainland along with political freedom. They believe that the rank and file of the Chinese people have not changed, and that the Communist attempt to enforce atheism has failed.
The Chinese are not among the most metaphysical of people. Their genius is for living and for organization of existing society as opposed to speculation about the next one. At the same time, the strong ethical concepts of China require a faith in something more than an animalistic and aimless existence. Both the Islamic and Christian faiths also are strong in China, but Buddhism is overwhelmingly dominant and presumably will retain that position when Communism is gone.
As the Rev. Pai Shing put it, "With the return to the mainland, the millions will come back to the temples. That is the moment that Taiwan Buddhists are working and praying for."
