Buddhist Organizations
Organizations
Apart from the sangha in various temples in which monks live a communal life, there are also social organizations for Buddhist followers. These include Buddhist associations at various levels and layman’s institutes.
Since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, the religious policy of the People’s Government has guaranteed complete freedom of religious belief for monks and lay followers across the land. In autumn 1952, famous personages of the Chinese Buddhist circles convened in Beijing and established a Preparatory Committee for the Establishment of the Chinese Buddhist Association. After about six month’s of preliminary work, the First National Buddhist Congress was held during the festival to celebrate the birthday of the Buddha in May (8th of the 4th lunar month) 1953, and the Chinese Buddhist Association was officially established. A total of 140 delegates attended the congress, and elected Dharmacarya (Master of the Law) Yuanying (1878-1953) president. When Yuanying died in autumn of that year, he was succeeded by Shes-rab-rhya-mtsho (1884-1968), a famed Tibetan Buddhist scholar. In 1980 Zhao Puchu (1907-2000) began to serve as president, and the present president is Ven. Yicheng.
The association has convened the National Buddhist Congress seven times so far, with the number of delegates to each congress increasing steadily. During its early days, the goal of the association was to “unite with all the Buddhists of the country under the leadership of the People’s Government to participate in the movement to love and to protect the motherland and world peace, assist the People’s Government in carrying out the policy of freedom of religious belief, and rally the efforts of Buddhists across the land to carry forward the fine traditions of Buddhism.” (Constitution of the Chinese Buddhist Association, Modern Buddhist Studies, Issue No. 6, 1953) The Constitution of the Chinese Buddhist Association has been revised according to the actual situation at various periods of time. For instance, the Constitution adopted at the Sixth National Congress added new tasks to the association’s original goal, saying, “The goal of this association is to assist the People’s Government in carrying out the policy of freedom of religious belief and safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the Buddhists; disseminate the doctrines of Buddhism, carry forward the fine traditions of Buddhism, step up the building of Buddhism itself, and develop Buddhist undertakings; unite Buddhists of various ethnic backgrounds to participate in economic development and promoting socialist culture and ethics, and contribute to the reform and opening up to the outside world, economic growth, the reunification of the motherland, and world peace.” (Revised version of the Constitution of the Chinese Buddhist Association, Fayin, Issue No. 12, 1993)
As the national organization representing Buddhists of all ethnic backgrounds across the land, the Chinese Buddhist Association has done a great deal of beneficial work at home and abroad over the last five decades. At home, it assists the government in carrying out its policy of freedom of religious belief and serves as a bridge between Buddhists and the government. Abroad, it carries out friendly cultural exchanges with Buddhists of foreign countries on behalf of the Chinese Buddhists. On both fronts the association has made outstanding contributions.
The association has also done much to promote Buddhism by repairing temples and monasteries, training monks, and publishing books and periodicals. Today, it is leading Buddhists across the land to join the other Chinese people in the development of the country.
Currently China has more than 13,000 Buddhist temples and about 200,000 Buddhist monks and nuns. Among them are 120,000 lamas and nuns, more than 1,700 living Buddhas, and 3,000 lamaseries, with nearly 10,000 Bhiksu and senior monks, and more than 1,600 temples of Pali Buddhism.
There are 34 Buddhist academies and schools of different levels, where nuns enjoy equal opportunities as monks to further their studies. The Buddhist Academy of China, established in 1956, is the highest institution of Buddhist learning in China. It is located in Fayuan Temple, one of the oldest temples in Beijing. The China Tibetan Language Academy of Buddhism was founded to train living Buddhas, eminent lamas and other senior Tibetan Buddhism personnel.
Local Buddhist associations have been established in various provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. There are also Buddhist associations in many counties as well. These local associations are not affiliated with the Chinese Buddhist Association, but they are connected in religious work. Leaders of local associations are almost without exception council members or standing council members of the Chinese Buddhist Association. And the local associations have basically the same goals and tasks as the national association.
In some large cities there are also layman’s associations that provide venues for lay Buddhists to hold meetings or meditation sessions at regular intervals. Leaders of such organizations are elected at layman’s congresses. These people meditate the sutras and chant incantations on a regular basis, but they also invite well-accomplished monks to preach for them. The thriving Buddhist activities among the lay followers are evidence that China’s policy of freedom of religious belief has been implemented down to the grass-roots level.
Undertakings
Buddhists are duty-bound to promote Buddhist undertakings. In order to disseminate the Buddhist creeds and carry forward the fine traditions of Buddhism, Buddhists in China have developed diverse forms of undertakings.
1. Establishing Buddhist Seminaries. In 1956, the Chinese Buddhist Association set up its first Buddhist Academy in Beijing. Situated in the Fayuan Temple, this institution of higher learning has over the last few decades cultivated a vast contingent of senior scholars in Buddhist studies. The principle of the academy is to “integrate self-cultivation with study, and to follow a monastic lifestyle.” That is to say, to cultivate oneself without learning new things can lead one astray, and to be immersed in studies without self-cultivation can turn a student into an armchair strategist. That is why the academy advocates the integration of self-cultivation and study. Monk students in the academy have prerogatives, and they live the same communal life as do monks in a large monastery. They devote two times for Prayer and spend the rest of the day chanting the name of Buddha or meditating, and are obliged to maintain the decorum and etiquette of a monk. The students are asked to foster a monastic lifestyle so that they can become role models in observing Buddhist discipline and set a good example in their conduct. If they are divorced from the regular monastic life and the sangha, it would be a great disservice to the dissemination of Buddhism.
Students study for a term of four years in the academy, which enrolls students once every two years. Only senior middle school graduates and those with the same level of education are eligible for enrollment. Outstanding undergraduates have the opportunity to apply for postgraduate courses. Buddhist studies comprise 70 percent of the curricula, while literature, history, philosophy, and foreign languages (English and Japanese) account for 30 percent. The Chinese Buddhist Academy has two branches – one on Xixia Mountain at Nanjing and the other on Lingyan Mountain at Suzhou.
There are 20 or so elementary and secondary seminaries in various provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in which thousands of monks and nuns receive training to become a staunch force in disseminating Buddhism and developing Buddhist undertakings.
2. Restoring Sutras Engraving Centers. These centers employ the traditional technology of engraving the texts of Buddhist scriptures on wood blocks so that printed copies can be obtained for circulation. Towards the end of the Qing Dynasty, a lay Buddhist by the name of Yang Renshan founded the Jinling Sutra Engraving Center at Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, and soon the center made a name for itself at home and abroad. Even the great man of letters Lu Xun donated money to it for the engraving of the Sutra of One Hundred Parables. After Yang died, his student, Ouyang Jian, took over. After a period of thriving business, the center gradually went downhill during the 1937-1945 War of Resistance against Japan. It was all but closed on the eve of liberation in 1949. In the early post-liberation years, with the support of the People’s Government, farsighted personages in the Chinese Buddhist circles restored the center, and shipped woodblocks engraved with texts of Buddhist scriptures from across the country to it, in an effort to preserve the heritage of Chinese Buddhism. In 1957, the sutra engraving center came under the direct leadership of the Chinese Buddhist Association. However, during the catastrophe of the ten-year “cultural revolution” of 1966-1976, the center fell prey to cultural vandalism. Its houses were put to other uses, and its engraved wood blocks were messed up and became piles of waste material. It was only after Premier Zhou Enlai intervened in the 1970s that things returned to normal. Today, the center is in possession of a hundred thousand wood blocks, and supplies Buddhist circles at home and abroad with close to 200 titles of scriptures. The value of this only Buddhist woodblock printing center in China speaks for itself.
3. Publishing periodicals to disseminate knowledge of Buddhism. After the founding of New China, some personages in the Buddhist circles began to put together a monthly journal to publicize cultural knowledge associated with Buddhism. With the approval of the People’s Government, the Modern Buddhist Studies journal was created in September 1950. When the Chinese Buddhist Association was established in 1953, it became the association’s mouthpiece. In 1964, after 15 years of circulation, Modern Buddhist Studies went out of operation. In 1981, the Chinese Buddhist Association launched another journal, Fayin (Voice of the Dharma). In recent years, the Chinese Buddhist Culture Research Institute affiliated with the Chinese Buddhist Association created the periodical Buddhist Culture. Today, more than 20 Buddhist periodicals are being published in China, which is undoubtedly a result of the policy of reform and opening up to the outside world.
4. Helping the distressed, succoring those in peril, and curing diseases to save lives. Buddhism lays stress on benevolence. Acting on the Buddha’s teachings of having mercy at one’s heart, the Chinese followers of Mahayana Buddhism are ready to come to the rescue of those in distress and trauma. Whenever a major natural calamity hits the country, they are always among the first to come to the relief of the victims by donating money and materials. In 1998, when the worst floods in 100 years struck some regions, Buddhists all over the country vied with one another to donate money and materials. The Chinese Buddhist Association alone donated one million yuan. The Charity Society of the Southern Putuo Monastery of Xiamen, Fujian Province, has been a staunch force in helping people in distress and danger; in 1998 alone, the society donated 4.5 million yuan and built ten “Project Hope” primary schools in disaster stricken areas. Some rich monasteries operate hospitals or clinics to treat low-income patients or those having financial difficulties for free or at a minimum rate. In 1997 alone, the Puji Hospital of the Putuo Mountain, Zhejiang Province, registered more than 200,000 yuan in exemptions and reductions of medical bills for poor patients. The fine work ethics and good services of the medical staff of this hospital are highly acclaimed by a grateful public.
