Associate Professor of History, Fudan University, Wang Xing
Wu Jiang (Zhang Jing)
Wu Jiang, Master of Chinese Philosophy from Nankai University in 1994, Ph.D. in Religion from Harvard University in 2002, studied under Professors Tu Weiming and Robert Gimello, specializing in the history of Chinese religious thought in the seventeenth century, is now the director of the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of Arizona, a professor in the Department of East Asia, and has been a visiting researcher at the International Research Center for Chinese Civilization at Fudan University. The main areas of Wujiang Buddhism research include the revival of Buddhism in pre-modern China, the formation and evolution of the Great Tibetan Sutra in Chinese, the influence of Chinese Buddhism on pre-modern Japan, and the spatial analysis of Chinese temple databases and regional religious systems.
Professor Wu Jiang's book Leaping for the Rising Sun: Chinese Zen Master Yinyuan and the Authenticity Crisis in Early Modern East Asia is included in the first series of the International Yellow Barberry Zen Culture Research Series, which was recently published by religious culture publishing house. As an important part of this research series, the work describes the experiences of The Hidden Yuan in Japan against the backdrop of the ming and early Qing dynasties, the grand political and cultural background of the ming and qing dynasties, the founding of the Huang Barberry Sect in Japan, and describes the various political and cultural experiences of the Hidden Yuan in Japan against the backdrop of the ming and qing dynasties, the consolidation of the early Tokugawa regime, the growth of nagasaki trade, and the growing interest of the Japanese in The pursuit of Chinese culture and art. Professor Wu Jiang revealed that the significance of the Hidden Yuan Master Dongdu is far greater than the temporary success of a Buddhist sect, and more importantly, the Hidden Yuan Master introduced a new authentic discourse to Japan, which caused the challenge of Japanese nativism and eventually opened up the formation of a new worldview in pre-modern East Asian society. The book provides a unique perspective on revisiting the crisis on the Asian continent and the responses of other parts of East Asia. The original English edition of the book was published by Oxford University Press in 2015 and won the inaugural Tianzhu Award for Best Zen Book.
"The Shadow of the Sea and The East Ying: The Hidden Yuan Longqi and the True Crisis of Pre-Modern East Asian Society", by Wu Jiang, translated by Wu Jinhun, Lu Zhongyang, Zhao Sasa, and Xu Shiling, published by Religious Culture Publishing House in September 2021
Professor Chen Jinhua, a scholar of medieval Buddhist history, has been committed to establishing a narrative of medieval Chinese Buddhism from the perspective of global transportation and political exchanges, arguing that the phenomena of medieval Buddhism cannot be understood simply from the perspective of religion or local society, but should be viewed as part of the imperial changes in the global transportation picture. A similar tendency seems to be evident in your writings. Can we see from the Hidden Yuan Longqi Du ri and the construction of the East Asian "authenticity" that Buddhism, as an important medium of great imperial changes and regional interactions, was still a "weather vane" for macrosocial changes until the late Ming and early Qing dynasties? In the process of sketching your writings, do you also think that the characteristics of this change in medieval Buddhism proposed by Chen Jinhua still existed during the Ming and Qing dynasties?
Wu Jiang: Since its publication in 2015, the English edition of humble books has had some influence and commentary in Western academic circles, and I am very pleased that the recent edition Chinese published by the Religious Culture Publishing House under the care and efforts of all the translators and Master Dingming of Wanfu Temple in Huang barberry Mountain. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the scholars and friends who have helped in the research process over the years. In recent years, Professor Chen Jinhua has actively considered the status and role of Chinese Buddhism in the global vision, and put forward new perspectives and viewpoints, which coincide with some of my long-term views. The question he raised also existed in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In my book, I also deal with Zen Master Yinyuan Longqi in the context of the changes in the pattern of modern East Asia and the world before the seventeenth century, especially the political pattern, culture and religious evolution of China and Japan, rather than viewing the establishment of The Hidden Yuan Dongdu and the Huang Barberry Sect in Japan as a religious phenomenon. Therefore, in the big theoretical framework, I and Professor Chen Jinhua are in agreement. The difference is that we have more knowledge of Buddhist materials in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it is also easier to capture these changes in detail, providing a more refined narrative description. This is the difference between the history of Medieval Buddhism and the history of later Buddhism. As for whether Buddhism can be used as a vane for macroscopic society, I think it is necessary to analyze it in detail. In specific historical periods, such as the seventeenth century, which I studied, the rise of Zen Buddhism in the late Ming Dynasty and the establishment of the Yellow Barberry Sect in Japan, it did become a microcosm of social change.
Buddhism and Methods: Ming and Qing Buddhism and Its Surroundings, edited by Wu Jiang and Wang Qiyuan, Fudan University Press, July 2021
If Buddhism in the Ming and Qing dynasties had this aspect of reflecting the interaction of regional politics, society and ideas, can it be considered that whether Buddhism as an institution or a religious order was marginalized in Chinese and even East Asian social politics, Buddhism itself has always been a focus of national and international politics, elite culture, folk ideology and even economic games? How do you understand Buddhism as an international regional focal point of interaction?
Wu Jiang: This question is related to my answer above. I can understand that there may be an anxiety among Buddhist historians and people in the Buddhist community that you are constantly being "marginalized" and wanting Buddhism to be the focus of politics and culture. But at a deeper level, what does Buddhism have to do with politics, empire, and elite culture, what do we call "civilization"? A few years ago, I had an interview with Bill Porter, a translator of Chinese Buddhist literature and best-selling author, about the relationship between Buddhism and civilization. His answer was interesting, he said that Buddhism is the enemy of civilization. What he meant was that civilizations throughout history were dominated by imperial politics, military force, and so on, while Buddhism focused on the spiritual problems of the individual, and the two were working in opposite directions. I didn't quite agree with him at the time, and now that I think about it, he makes sense. It is a good thing that Buddhism is far from politics and international strife. Buddhism is first and foremost the study of mental practice, and the history of Buddhism should first and foremost be a "spiritual history" of Buddhist beliefs, which has further negotiated with the politics, economy, and culture of secular society in the process of unfolding. This is actually a set of "idealistic" historical views that run through my book, that is, starting from the spiritual world of Buddhist characters, finding out the commonality of human spiritual life in this era from the changes in concepts and beliefs, and exploring the process of spiritual evolution through the embodiment of Buddhism in historical events, texts, and art. It's a process from idea to reality. Therefore, in my "Zen Enlightenment and Monk's Slander", the source of the revival of Buddhism in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties is that Zen figures have formed a consensus on concepts such as "authenticity" in the "text community" through reinterpretation of tradition, thus setting off a storm in the real world. Therefore, I have repeatedly stressed that building many temples is not a revival of Buddhism. Only the change of human concept is the real spiritual ascension, followed by the reflection of Buddhism in national and international politics, elite culture, and folk thought. Of course, in the process of research, it is necessary to make a meticulous interpretation of various historical materials and restore the evolution of human spiritual society from these appearances. In this respect, I was influenced by Hegel's philosophy and the French School of Annals, and it should be said that I adopted a "refined idealistic view of history."
Focusing on the pre-modern socio-political context I studied, the characteristics of Buddhism in the Middle Ages are also different from those of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The most important point, I think, is that at the level of Buddhism and political negotiations, Buddhism has gradually withdrawn from the political sphere of the empire, or the establishment of Taoist orthodoxy has continuously squeezed the political space of Buddhism. Buddhism, on the other hand, is more integrated into the traditions of local and regional societies. Therefore, the exchanges between Buddhism at various levels in this period did not appear as representatives of state power, but often negotiations between a certain regime and the Buddhist tradition of a certain region, and such negotiations between regions were often understood and even misinterpreted as negotiations between countries, and the east crossing of The Hidden Yuan Longqi to Japan was a good example, but there was no diplomatic relations between China and Japan, in fact, there was no so-called national Berberry tradition in China, and only in Fujian Fuqing local Huang Barberry Mountain Wanfu Temple was established. A system of transmission based on Zen Buddhism revived by Miyun Yuanwu (1567-1642, late Ming Linji monk). Such a local tradition spread to Japan, and further negotiations with Japanese Buddhism and the Tokugawa shogunate at that time took place. Therefore, when considering the relationship between Buddhism and the political level, we must pay attention to the characteristics of this region. In addition, from the perspective of East Asian politics, what was formed at that time was the confrontation and conflict between the formation of two East Asian empires, one was the establishment of the Qing Empire, and the other was the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, although at that time the Tokugawa shogunate did not have the ability to compete with the Qing Empire, but the political independence it demanded and the establishment of an East Asian political system centered on Japan can be clearly seen, and the role and status of Buddhism must be understood in this context.
"Hidden Yuan Self-Praise Top Portrait" Hidden Yuan Long Qi Zan Chuanxi Multi-planning Private Collection
From the questioning of the Zen method transmitted by Yinyuan Longqi to the "interception" of the Yellow Barberry Lineage by Bai Yin zen, can it be seen as a misreading of Yinyuan Longqi under the sectarian discourse system of Japan? It can be seen from the Dunhuang text that the chanting of the Buddha itself is actually an existing Zen "authenticity" in the Northern Zen Method, and it has become a trend since the beginning of Daoxin Zen. The Ming Dynasty's systematic convergence of Zen and Purity has actually created a kind of self-consistent authenticity within Han Buddhism, especially the Chanting Dharma Gate that converged with Huayan, Zen Buddhism, and Tiantai in the late Ming and Qing Dynasties did not actually cause sectarian disputes in the true sense. In the sectarian discourse after the Kamakura period in Japan, such a phenomenon may be regarded as an outlier, so has the arrival of the hidden element added new uncertainties to the already complex and sensitive Japanese sectarian disputes, resulting in the perspective of strict sectarian practice not being compatible with the already authentic Zen pure confluence?
Wu Jiang: There are two questions here, one is how to understand the concept of "authenticity", and the other is the role and status of the Pure Land Buddhist tradition in Chinese And Chinese Buddhism. The original English version of the concept of authenticity is oceanicity, which appears in the title of my monograph, which shows the importance of this concept to this book. It is not only a religious concept, but also a concept of the history of philosophy, the history of ideas, and anthropology, involving all aspects of human society. But its translation is very difficult, because the book is written in English, so the concepts are all English concepts, and for English terms such as audioticity, Chinese sometimes translated as authenticity, but it is not very applicable here, because it refers not only to a true or false question, it is related to the correspondence between reality and ideals and the original state of existence of things, so there is no direct counterpart in the Chinese. In the course of writing this book, I have also asked many experts how to translate, for example, when I visited the International Center for Japanese Cultural Studies in Japan, I once asked Mr. Fumishi Sugi, a scholar of the history of religion in Japan, who said that the word in Japanese means "hondang", that is, the meaning of "true" Chinese. Obviously this is not a Chinese word. The concept of "authenticity" that I am using here is clearly borrowed from Heidegger's existentialist philosophy, influenced by scholars such as Charles Taylor (Canadian philosopher), Lionel Trilling (American literary critic), and Charles Lindholm. In the translation of this article, the word "authentic" is not used in all places, but is translated as "true", "true" and so on according to the context. So the philosophical term "authenticity" actually expresses a corresponding relationship, rather than a substantive concept, which we should understand as a subjective concept and has a lot to do with man's subjective construct and imagination. In my book, I divide it into three aspects: political, cultural, and religious authenticity, so it is a concept that comes from the intercourse between the lord and the guest. Authentic existence is not a factual judgment, but a conceptual subjective existence, reflected in people's unity, consistency and purity of the origin, authenticity and values of things. So the transmission of the Buddha that you are referring to in Chinese Buddhism and Zen Buddhism is a real fact, and if it is regarded as the essence and source of a tradition, it is also endowed with authentic value. In the revival of Zen Buddhism in the seventeenth century, we can see some of the written ideals in the Zen writing tradition, such as the question and answer of the machine that follows fate, the strict lineage of transmission, and other manifestations of becoming "authentic". However, this revival of "authentic" Zen Buddhism retains a large number of elements of pure land chanting, which is considered by critics of the Yellow Barberry Sect in Japan to contradict the authentic spirit of Zen Buddhism.
The question of Zen-pure unity is not covered much in the book, but there is a very important issue that I have been thinking about recently: although I have some research on Zen Buddhism in the late Ming Dynasty, the situation of Pure Land Buddhism is still being studied hard. Professor Charles Jones, an American scholar of Chinese Buddhist history, recently published a new book on Pure Land Buddhism in the West, combing through many clues and viewing Pure Land as a kind of "Dharma". The Introduction of The Hidden Yuan Longqi to the Huang Barberry Sect in Japan retained a large number of elements of pure land belief and religious practice in the late Ming Dynasty. From the perspective of doctrine, there are not only pure lands, but also Huayan, Wisdom, and so on, and a large number of esoteric components have been absorbed in practice and rituals, especially yoga food, quasi-ti faith, etc. In other respects, there are the promotion of the Vinaya in Japan and the three altars of ordination. However, judging from Theodome Takaki's own thoughts and quotations, he is still mainly Zen Buddhism, so why did the practice of the Pure Land Sect have such a big impact on the Japanese people that they mistakenly believed that the teachings of The Hidden Yuan Longqi were a kind of pure and pure Zen method? I think this should be seen from the development of Han Buddhism in the Ming Dynasty. Buddhism, which has gone through the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties until the end of the Ming Dynasty, is basically a synthesis of various Buddhist traditions, and it is already quite diverse in terms of daily practice and rituals, so after the rise of the new Zen sect in the late Ming Dynasty, it must accept and accept this integrated tradition. Therefore, in Yin Yuan's view, there is nothing wrong with using the convenient method of reciting the Buddha in the Pure Land, and there is no conflict with his "authentic" Zen method. This fusion is not a problem in Chinese Buddhism, and it is only in Japan that it is seen as a contradiction between ideal and reality.
The Japanese response to Pure Land practice is more complicated, and it has also been influenced by the criticism of the Zen tradition of the Huang Barberry Sect since Bai Yin. In fact, the greatest attraction of Takaki Hidemoto to Japanese religious figures in the early days was his dedication to teaching the Dharma and the orthodox and authentic image established by his use of ji feng sticks. It is true that some people have noticed the characteristics of the Yellow Barberry Pure Land Recitation of the Buddha, but its use can be completely ignored, because many traditions of Japanese Buddhism are also integrated, and no tradition is de facto pure.
It was only when Yin Yuan was strongly opposed by The Myo Shin-ji Temple that his early practice of chanting Buddhism in the Pure Land was exaggerated, and after the evaluation of the White Hidden Zen Master, the later Japanese Buddhist circles thought that the Yellow Barberry Sect at that time was the Zen pure unity, in fact, this is an impression created by some Japanese people, and it goes back to the spread of the Early Yellow Barberry Sect in Japan. Of course, after the early "authentic" Zen method of the Huang Barberry Sect faded, this way of practicing chanting the Buddha was further amplified.
"Yellow Barberry Mountain" Hidden Yuan Longqi Pen Kyoto Manfuku-ji Temple Collection
As mentioned in your book, Yinyuan actually brought the text of the Sanfeng Hanyue Fazang (1573-1635, the late Ming Dynasty Linji Sect monk, founder of the Sanfeng Sect) to Japan and spread it. However, there happens to be a huge disagreement between the Han Yue Fa Zang and the Miyun Yuan enlightenment on the level of doctrinal authenticity, which has been studied in considerable depth in your previous monographs. A monk like Yin Yuan, who grew up in the background of the true reconstruction of the Zen Gate at the end of the Ming Dynasty, did the authentic dispute between Miyun and Sanfeng affect him? What was his attitude toward the Han Yue Fa-Tibetan doctrine? Did the Buddhist community in Japan recognize the controversy at the time?
Wu Jiang: Han Yue Fa Zang was an important figure in the Buddhist ideological circles of the late Ming Dynasty, and I made some overviews of the revival of the teachings of the entire late Ming Dynasty in "Zen Enlightenment and Monastic Slander", and if there is any innovative development in this regard, it is the contribution of Han Yue Fa Zang. He and his disciples who passed on the Fa followed Hongchu and Obscure Mountain Jiexian and other large temples in the Suhang region for a long time, and had a great influence. Not only is he a Zen master of the Si Fa himself, he has a deep understanding of the Zen tradition and the quotations of the Gong Dynasty, but he is also a comprehensive Zen master who also promotes the Vinaya, the Tantric Teachings, etc., and has left quite a lot of works, which have recently been discovered and are being published in various parts of Suzhou, and will not be repeated here. But from the Japanese side, they don't know much about the history and nature of the controversy. As for the "Hongjing Fa Yi" used by Huang Berberry and the writings of Han Yue Fa Zang, it is likely to be based on the two volumes of Han Yue Fa Zang and is an important document related to the transmission of the three altars of precepts. It is worth noting that Han Yue Fa Zang's "Hongjing Fa Yi" is the first systematic summary of the three altars of ordination initiated by Gu Xinruxin in the late Ming Dynasty, fifty years earlier than the "Transmission of The Precepts and Orthodox Fan" of the later Baohuashan lineage representative figure Jianyue Reading Body. As a disciple of Miyun Yuanwu and following him for a long time, Yinyuan Longqi was quite concerned about this controversy, but he was still low in rank and did not directly get involved in this controversy, nor did he mention Han Yue too much in his writings. But from a sectarian standpoint, he was clearly inclined to his teachers Miyun Yuanwu and Fei Yintong. Therefore, it is not certain that the Hanyue Fazang had a significant influence on Japanese Buddhism, but due to geographical relations, the influence of the Cao Dong Sect in Gushan, Fujian Province, was relatively large in Japan.
The Nichiren lineage may have been another distinctly "Yamato-centric" group during the Edo period. Did the Edo elite interact with the characters of the Nichiren Sect during the process of passing on the Dharma and the incorporation of China into the shogunate's honjin construction? Did Yin Yuan ever comment on the Nichiren Sect?
Wu Jiang: The interaction between Yōgen Takaki and the Buddhists of the Edo period was of course mainly Zen Buddhism, including the monks of the Linji sect, especially the Myoshin-ji sect and the Caodong sect. His dealings with other sects and people from all walks of life in Edo were an interesting subject. I had read through all the texts left by the Hidden Elements, mainly the contents of the twelve volumes collected in the Complete Works of the Hidden Elements. It can be seen from this that Yinyuan has a lot of exchanges with people from all walks of life in Japan. Because of the special status of Yin Yuan, many Japanese people come to see Yin Yuan, and Yin Yuan often leaves an impression of them in his poems, including cultivators, chess players, blind people, etc., among which there must be characters related to the Nichiren Sect. His evaluation of the Nichiren Sect is unknown, but the people of the Nichiren Sect must have heard and commented on the Hidden Element, and if they studied it further, they should find something. The "Yamato-centrism" was an important issue in the Edo period, which directly led to the rise of the Kokugaku movement and nativism, which was later represented by Honju Nobunaga. Prior to this, the representative figures of the same era as the Zen master Ofe Eimoto were Sei Motosei and Yamaga Suyuki, who had seen Yōgen in person, but did not take the true ideal represented by Yōgen as the self-righteous ideal, and took the Japanese native tradition as the best and Japan as the "China". But they weren't mainstream at the time. On the contrary, it is the ancient schools represented by Du'an Xuanguang and Hagi Shenglai who have a lot of good feelings about the Chinese culture brought by Yinyuan. I've covered all of this in chapter six of this book. All in all, Yōmoto came to Japan during the Edo period in the process of a deepening of the Japan-centered worldview, and the authentic ideals he represented were still based on Chinese centrism, so he and the Yellow Barberry tradition he established were challenged in Japan. It can also be seen from this that The Hidden Zen Master and the Yellow Barberry Sect represent not only a religious phenomenon, but also a deeper social, cultural, ideological and even international relations significance. These need to be paid continuous attention to and constantly studied.
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