The Blooming of the Azure Lotus in the South Seas: A Preliminary Investigation of Chinese Indigenous Scriptures in Buddhist Vegetarian Halls of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asian vegetarian halls (zhaitang 齋堂) serve as crucial agents in the circulation and reinterpretation of Chinese indigenous scriptures associated with a popular Chinese religion, the Qinglianjiao 青蓮教 (Teaching of the Azure Lotus). This religious group was largely influenced by Buddhism, hen...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2020]
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| In: |
Journal of Chinese religions
Year: 2020, Volume: 48, Issue: 2, Pages: 233-284 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
China
/ Buddhism
/ Asia
/ Assimilation (Sociology)
/ Folk religion
/ Nun
/ Appartment-sharing
/ Vegetarianism
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| IxTheo Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements BL Buddhism KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | B
vegetarian halls
B Buddhist women B Three Teachings B precious scrolls B Lay Buddhism B vegetarian nuns |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Southeast Asian vegetarian halls (zhaitang 齋堂) serve as crucial agents in the circulation and reinterpretation of Chinese indigenous scriptures associated with a popular Chinese religion, the Qinglianjiao 青蓮教 (Teaching of the Azure Lotus). This religious group was largely influenced by Buddhism, hence its vegetarian halls are widely regarded by the public and by practitioners as Buddhist. Vegetarian halls and their scriptures are, however, objects of contestation in the studies of Chinese Buddhist history in China and in Southeast Asia, due to their syncretic religious content. Nevertheless, such halls and their religious networks have generated a multidirectional flow of cultural, economic, and religious resources that remains largely unexplored; their vernacular texts (such as precious scrolls 寶卷) show how Buddhist ideas were localized, adapted, and circulated. This paper shows how: 1) scriptures of the Three Teachings (sanjiao 三教) were integrated, conceptualized, and reconciled in the local Buddhist scene; 2) the scriptures address issues pertaining to gender and religion; and 3) indigenous Buddhist scriptures were significant. |
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| ISSN: | 2050-8999 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Chinese religions
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