Buddhist Concepts and Phrases in Contemporary China
23. März 2023
Workshop, 23–25 March 2023
The 70th anniversary of the Buddhist Association of China (BAC) in 2023 is widely regarded as an occasion reflect on the development of Buddhism in the People’s Republic of China since its founding in the year of 1949. The present workshop will adopt a discursive approach to take stock of conceptual (re)inventions and their changing meanings over the past 45 years, a period characterized by the opening policy since 1978.
It is time to undertake a more systematic examination of these four decades and look at contemporary Buddhist concepts, phrases and their dynamic evolution. Which concepts and phrases were favored by whom and how were they interpreted in order to fill Buddhism in China with life again? And what can we learn from the discursive experience over the decades including historiographical, doctrinal, or also practical adaptations? For instance, central phrases that played a dominant role in the early stages, like renjian fojiao (“Buddhism for a Human Realm”) and the associated san da youliang chuantong (“three great and marvelous traditions”), which have been propagated by the BAC since the early 1980s, underwent an enormous change of top-down and bottom-up interpretation. While sangha education (sengcai peiyang) developed into a mantra for the monastics under changing conditions, slogans like wenming jingxiang and heli fangsheng (“civilized burning of incense”, “rational releasing of life”) became part of the daily vocabulary of temple visitors with growing relevance. Other concepts and phrases gained popularity an influence in the 1990s, or even later, including the emergance and diverse understanding of what is called wangluo fojiao (“cyber Buddhism”). Many keywords and phrases could be added that represent conceptual positions which played a more or less dynamic role in the recent history of Buddhism.
The objective of the workshop was to bring together experts and to foster their exchange about concepts and phrases that appear significant for a better understanding of the Buddhist preferences with all the possible changes of meanings through the past four decades.
Participants
Keynote Speech:
Kai Vogelsang (Hamburg)
Participants:
Adam Yuet Chau (Cambridge)
Avi Darshani (Tel Aviv)
Weishan Huang (Hongkong)
Ji Zhe (Paris)
Carsten Krause (Hamburg)
André Laliberté (Ottawa)
Shengkai (Beijing)
Stefania Travagnin (London)
Xuan Fang (Beijing)
Discussion Guests:
Daniela Campo (Strassbourg)
Richard Ellguth (Berlin)
Leo Koenig (Hamburg)
Amandine Péronnet (Marseille/Paris)
Convenor: Dr. Carsten Krause
Venue: Hamburg University
Funded by: Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, German Research Foundation
A flyer of the workshop can be downloaded here.