A Radical Buddhism for Modern Confucians

Tzu Chi in Socio-Historical Perspective

Authors

  • Richard Gombrich Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies
  • Yu-Shuang Yao Fo Guang University, Taiwan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v30i2.237

Keywords:

Tzu Chi, Humanistic Buddhism, karma, orthopraxy, lay Buddhism, gender, auhtority, Confucianism, pragmatism

Abstract

The new Taiwanese religious movement Tzu Chi raises interesting issues for the study of religions. First, as a Chinese form of Buddhism, it embodies an attempt to reconcile or even merge the cultures and mindsets of two utterly different civilizations, the Indian and the Chinese. Secondly, it casts doubt on the presupposition that a sect, as against a church, demands of its members exclusive allegiance. Thirdly, it shows that an emphasis on orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy may be modern as well as archaic. Fourthly, it also suggests that the view that secularization is tantamount to a narrowing of the domain of religion cannot be taken for granted. In the case of Tzu Chi there is probably some overlap between the last three issues, in that they show that generalizations about sects formulated by western sociologists have taken Christian sects as their model and may not be universally applicable.

References

Bechert, Heinz. 1966. Buddhismus, Staat und Gesellschaft, vol.1. Frankfurt am Main & Berlin: Institut fur Asienkunde in Hamburg.

Cho, Francisca. 2012. ‘Buddhism and Science: Translating and Re-translating Culture’. In Buddhism in the Modern World, edited by David L. McMahan, 273–288. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

DeVido, Elise Anne. 2010. Taiwan’s Buddhist Nuns. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Fan, Lizhu and James D. Whitehead. 2011. ‘Spirituality in a Modern Chinese Metropolis’. In Chinese Religious Life, edited by David A. Palmer, Glenn Shive, and Philip L. Wickeri, 13–29. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acp rof:oso/9780199731398.003.0002

Gombrich, Richard. 2006. Theravada Buddhism: a Social History from ancient Benares to modern Colombo, 2nd ed. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

———. 2009. What the Buddha Thought. London and Oakville: Equinox.

Huang, Chien-Yu Julia. 2009. Charisma and Compassion: Cheng Yen and the Buddhist Tzu Chi Movement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Madsen, Richard. 2007. Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Development and Political Renaissance in Taiwan. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press. http://dx.doi. org/10.1525/california/9780520252271.001.0001

O’Neill, Mark. 2010. Tzu Chi: Serving with Compassion. Singapore: John Wiley.

Shih Cheng Yen. 1996. Still Thoughts, vol.1, trans. Lin Chia-hui, 2nd ed.. Taipei: Tzu Chi Cultural Publishing Co.

Williams, Paul. 2000. Buddhist Thought. London and New York: Routledge.

Wilson, Bryan and Karel Dobbelaere. 1994. A Time to Chant: the Soka Gakkai Buddhists in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Yao, Yu-Shuang. 2012. Taiwan’s Tzu Chi as Engaged Buddhism: Origins, Organization, Appeal and Social Impact. Leiden and Boston: Global Oriental/Brill. http://dx.doi. org/10.1163/9789004231320

Downloads

Published

2014-01-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Gombrich, R., & Yao, Y.-S. (2014). A Radical Buddhism for Modern Confucians: Tzu Chi in Socio-Historical Perspective. Buddhist Studies Review, 30(2), 237–259. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v30i2.237