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Report from China: A Post-Cultural Revolution Look at Buddhism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

John  and
Sarah Strong
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Extract

Since August 1966, apart from the scattered reports of a few visitors, the western world has seen nothing substantial of Buddhism in China. In this field, as in many others, the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution brought an almost total eclipse. But today Buddhism is beginning to re-emerge. There are two principal signs of this: in Peking, the Chinese Buddhist Association is starting to function again; and, throughout the country, a number of Buddhist monasteries are once more open to visitors. In addition, there are numerous minor indications: Peking University, for example, is planning a course on Chinese Philosophy which would include lectures on the history of Buddhism; Buddhist art treasures are on display in many of the recently re-opened museums; Mao Tse-tung is said to have patterned his calligraphy on that of a Buddhist monk in Hunan; and handicraft factories are once again producing ivory Kuan-yins and miniature pagodas for export.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 54 , June 1973 , pp. 321 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1973

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References

1. Like many other visitors we were travelling as guests of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries; their knowledge of our own interest in Buddhism, and our family connections with the late American writer Anna Louise Strong may have helped to pave the way to a number of the Buddhist places we saw. Our visit lasted from 7 July to 19 August. Our itinerary from Hong Kong to Hong Kong was as follows: Canton, Peking, Lin hsien, Chengchow, Loyang, Sian, Yenan, Sian, Tachai, Peking, Nanking, Soochow, Shanghai, Canton.

2. It is not the purpose of this report to trace the history of the Chinese Buddhist Association, its relation to the government, and its role in Chinese foreign policy. Readers may wish to refer to Welch, Holmes, “Buddhism since the Cultural Revolution.” C.Q., 40 (10–12 1969), pp. 127–35Google Scholar.

3. We were, however presented with a number of their ‘old” publications: a biography of Hsüan Tsang; a translation of Nandimitra's Record of the Abiding of the Dharma; a set of prints of Chinese images of Gautama the Buddha.

4. However, we did not see a “tiny venerated statue of the Buddha,” which, according to Nagel's guidebook (the material for which was collected in 1964–5), was kept at the foot of the large image of Tsong Khapa in the main hall.

5. The discovery of the Tooth Relic, its tour of South and South-East Asia, and its subsequent enshrinement in the new pagoda are described in a pamphlet entitled The Buddha's Tooth-Relic Pagoda (Peking: the Buddhist Association of China, 1966)Google Scholar.

6. See above, p. 324.