The History of Chinese Buddhist Culture

Author: Hong Xiuping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: The author approaches the history of Buddhist culture with a macro perspective and a spirit of challenge, demonstrating a unique line of thought. The book is rich in materials, substantial in content, well-organized, appropriately detailed, and presents novel viewpoints, showcasing insightful personal research, making it highly valuable academically. – Review published in Journal of World Religions, Issue 3, 1996.
The relationship among Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism serves as a guiding principle for the writing of The Journey and becomes a distinct marker that sets it apart from similar works, highlighting its unique characteristics. The Journey analyzes and interprets the relationship among the three teachings in each historical period, pointing out their features with well-supported arguments and clear reasoning. It offers significant reference value for understanding the role and influence of Chinese Buddhism within the context of the three teachings. Highly recommended. It is one of the better Buddhist studies books published in recent years. – Review published in Buddhist Studies, 1996 issue.
Chinese Buddhist culture is an integral part of Chinese culture, rich in content and diverse in form, encompassing nearly all aspects of Chinese society and culture, including politics, economy, philosophy, religion, ethics, literature, history, art, education, and folk customs. It has had and continues to have a profound and far-reaching impact on the development of the Chinese nation, as well as the shaping of its national psychology and spirit. This book takes the self-development of Chinese Buddhist culture as the vertical axis and its relationship with other cultural forms (especially Confucianism and Taoism) as the horizontal axis, systematically organizing and deeply exploring the rich connotations of Chinese Buddhist culture (including Han, Tibetan, and Southern traditions). From the perspective of the sinicization of Buddhism, it thoroughly examines and elaborates on the Indian origins, Chinese evolution, religious characteristics, ideological foundations, theoretical basis, cultural spirit, exchanges between Chinese and foreign Buddhist cultures, and the relationship between Buddhism and Chinese society and culture. It vividly recreates the journey of Chinese Buddhist culture from all angles, offering significant reference value for professional researchers and general readers interested in history and literature.