École Française d'Extrême-Orient Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie
École Française d'Extrême-Orient Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie
École Française d'Extrême-Orient Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Buddhism, Daoism, and Chinese Religion
The articles published in this volume represent some of the best recent work
on a vast subject: the interaction between Buddhism and Daoism and the conse-
quences of those connections for understanding Chinese religion. Early versions of
these essays were presented at a conference held at Princeton University in October,
20I0, through the sponsorship of the David A. Gardner '69 Magic Project (Council
on the Humanities of Princeton University) and the Ecole française d'Extrême-
Orient. As organizers of the conference, we were conscious of the antiquity of the
conceptual challenges raised by the confrontation of Buddhism and Daoism, and
our assessment of the state of research influenced our design of the conference.
Now, as guest editors of Cahiers d'Extrême-Asiey we think it fitting to provide here
a brief orientation to the articles that follow, outlining our understanding of the
field. Our discussion focuses on the relationship between Buddhism and Daoism,
the question of sources, and recent areas of research.
The emergence of "Chinese religion" in the post-classical age occurred in the context
of China's encounter with Indian civilization. Viewed from China, the indigenous
religion proved remarkably receptive to the imprint of Buddhism, introduced via
the commercial routes linking China with Central Asia and India, notwithstanding
the deep roots of Daoism in the thought system and practices of Chinese antiquity
and the fact that the Buddhist ideal of a celibate samgha was fundamentally at odds
with the Confucian kinship system and ancestor cult. Indeed, the foreign religion
met with near universal success in China - especially in regard to its vision of life
after death, its teaching on morality, its practice of iconic representation, mortu-
ary ritual, even monastic life and institutions. That attraction has lasted - or been
reborn - despite periodic polemics and incidents of persecution, throughout the
formative period of Chinese religion and into the present.
It is probably no coincidence that two of the most formative periods in the history
of Daoism were also periods of strong interaction with Buddhism: the constitution
in the fifth century of the Lingbao scriptural corpus, marking the massive entry
of Buddhist doctrines and rituals into the Daoist canon, and the arrival of Tantric
forms of Buddhism especially during the Tang dynasty (618-907) that transformed
Daoist liturgy, art, and practices under the Song (960-1279).
Stepping back from the Chinese perspective, the same Sino-Indian interaction
can be viewed from the vantage point of the spread of Buddhism across Asia. Wher-
ever Buddhism entered into contact with different civilizations, societies, thought
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
2 Stephen F. Teiser & Franciscus Verellen
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Buddhism, Daoism, and Chinese Religion 3
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
4 Stephen F. Teiser & Franciscus Verellen
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Buddhism , Daoism, and Chinese Religion 5
6. Figures from Kaiyuan shijiao lu, Zhisheng (669-740), T no. 2154, 55: 700c; Kristofer
Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, eds., The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang,
3 vols (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004), vol. 1, 2.
7. Erik Zürcher, "Perspectives in the Study of Chinese Buddhism," Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society (1982): 162.
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
6 Stephen F. Teiser & Francisais Verellen
8. In Daoist studies, for example, recent surveys of the field oriented toward scholars include
Livia Kohn, ed., Daoism Handbook , Handbuch der Orientalistik, sec. 4, vol. 14 (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
2000); Pregadio, The Routledge Encyclopedia of Taoism; Schipper and Verellen, eds., The Taoist
Canon . In Buddhist studies, recent advances in electronic databases for both primary and second-
ary sources are perhaps most important, including the various projects sponsored by the Chinese
Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA); the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism; Indian and
Buddhist Studies Treatise Database (INBUDS); and The SAT Daizõkyõ Text Database; as well
as the emerging entries for Buddhism in Oxford Bibliographies Online. Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie
and Journal of Chinese Religions also provide crucial and up-to-date surveys.
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Buddhism , Daoism, and Chinese Religion 7
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
8 Stephen F. Teiser & Francisais Verellen
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Buddhism , Daoism, and Chinese Religion 9
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
io Stephen F. Teiser & Francisais Verellen
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Buddhism, Daoism, and Chinese Religion i i
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
iz Stephen F. Teiser & Francisais Verellen
This content downloaded from 154.120.229.41 on Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:07 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms