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Religions
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Monastic Lives and Buddhist Textual Traditions in China and Beyond
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Monastic Lives and Buddhist Textual Traditions in China and Beyond

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2025 | Viewed by 1725

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Limei Chi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, Tokyo 112-0003, Japan
Interests: East Asian Buddhism; Buddhist Canons in East Eurasia
Dr. Zhiyuan Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Institute of Ancient History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: medieval Chinese Buddhism; Buddhist literature; Buddho-Confucian syncretism
Prof. Dr. Dewei Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Liberal Arts, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
Interests: Chinese Buddhism; Chinese intellectual history; book history

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue explores new perspectives on Chinese Buddhism through a focus on textual traditions, monastic life, and regional connectivity across East Asia and Eastern Eurasia. As Chinese Buddhist texts circulated across broad networks—both within the Sinosphere and beyond—they underwent processes of adaptation, transformation, and reinterpretation. Similarly, the lives of Buddhist monastics in China were shaped by textual, institutional, and transregional forces that intersected in complex and locally distinctive ways.

The study of Chinese Buddhism today requires attention to be focused not only on canonical texts and major institutions but also on understudied sources and contexts. Recent scholarship has increasingly emphasized the value of philological, bibliographic, and historical approaches to illuminating the transmission of texts and ideas across time and space. Meanwhile, new materials—such as inscriptions, archival documents, manuscripts, and regional editions—have brought to light lesser-known aspects of Buddhist life, literature, and practice.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the multilayered nature of Chinese Buddhist traditions by encouraging contributions that engage closely with textual and historical sources while also attending to regional and transnational dynamics. We especially welcome studies that examine how Buddhist texts—both canonical and non-canonical—have been transmitted, transformed, and interpreted across diverse historical contexts, geographic regions, and textual media in East Asia and Eastern Eurasia. In addition, we invite contributions that shed light on the lived experiences of Buddhist communities through biography, ritual, and material culture—including genres such as biography, hagiography, and miracle tales.

Topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Monastic lives, including narrative accounts, religious practices, and institutional structures;
  • Buddhist textual traditions, with attention to philological, bibliographic, and historical approaches;
  • The transmission and transformation of Chinese-language Buddhist texts, both canonical and non-canonical;
  • Buddhist manuscript culture, including the study of Chinese and Japanese manuscript traditions;
  • Buddhist biography and hagiography, as sources for religious life and memory;
  • Buddhist miracle tales, and their role in local belief, transmission, and devotional practice.

We welcome original research articles and critical reviews from scholars working in all relevant fields. It is our hope that this Special Issue will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the dynamic interplay between Buddhist texts, practices, and communities across the historical and cultural landscapes of East Asia and Eastern Eurasia.

Prof. Dr. Limei Chi
Dr. Zhiyuan Chen
Prof. Dr. Dewei Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • monastic lives
  • Buddhist textual traditions
  • transmission and transformation of Buddhist texts
  • Buddhist manuscript culture
  • Buddhist biography and hagiography
  • Buddhist miracle tales

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 1859 KiB  
Article
Disenchantment and Preservation of Monastic Discipline: A Study of the Buddhist Monastic Robe Reform Debates in Republican China (1912–1949)
by Yanzhou Jiang
Religions 2025, 16(7), 920; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070920 - 16 Jul 2025
Viewed by 107
Abstract
The Republican era of China witnessed three primary positions regarding Buddhist monastic robe reform. Taixu advocated preserving canonical forms (法服) for ritual garments while adapting regular robes (常服) to contemporary needs; Dongchu proposed diminishing ritual distinctions by establishing a tripartite hierarchical system—virtue-monk robes [...] Read more.
The Republican era of China witnessed three primary positions regarding Buddhist monastic robe reform. Taixu advocated preserving canonical forms (法服) for ritual garments while adapting regular robes (常服) to contemporary needs; Dongchu proposed diminishing ritual distinctions by establishing a tripartite hierarchical system—virtue-monk robes (德僧服), duty-monk robes (職僧服), and scholar-monk robes (學僧服); and Lengjing endorsed the full secularization of monastic robes. As a reformist leader, Taixu pursued reforms grounded in both doctrinal authenticity and contextual responsiveness. His initial advocacy for robe modifications, however, rendered him a target for traditionalists like Cihang, who conflated his measured approach with the radicalism of Dongchu’s faction. Ultimately, the broader Buddhist reform collapsed, with robe controversies serving as a critical lens into its failure. The reasons for its failure include not only wartime disruption and inadequate governmental support, but also the structural disadvantages of the reformists compared to the traditionalists, which proved decisive. This was due to the fact that the traditionalists mostly controlled monastic economies, wielded institutional authority, and commanded discursive hegemony, reinforced by lay Buddhist alignment. These debates crystallize the core tension in Buddhist modernization—the dialectic between “disenchantment” and “preservation of monastic discipline”. This dynamic of negotiated adjustment offers a vital historical framework for navigating contemporary Buddhism’s engagement with modernity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monastic Lives and Buddhist Textual Traditions in China and Beyond)
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35 pages, 1039 KiB  
Article
Forging the Sacred: The Rise and Reimaging of Mount Jizu 雞足山 in Ming-Qing Buddhist Geography
by Dewei Zhang
Religions 2025, 16(7), 851; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070851 - 27 Jun 2025
Viewed by 674
Abstract
From the mid-Ming to early Qing dynasties, Mount Jizu 雞足山 in Yunnan achieved unexpected prominence within China’s Buddhist sacred landscape—an event of regional, national, and transnational significance. Employing an explicit comparative lens that juxtaposes Jizu with China’s core-region sacred sites like Mount Wutai [...] Read more.
From the mid-Ming to early Qing dynasties, Mount Jizu 雞足山 in Yunnan achieved unexpected prominence within China’s Buddhist sacred landscape—an event of regional, national, and transnational significance. Employing an explicit comparative lens that juxtaposes Jizu with China’s core-region sacred sites like Mount Wutai and Emei, this study investigates the timing, regional dynamics, institutional mechanisms, and causal drivers behind the rapid ascent. Rejecting teleological narratives, it traces the mountain’s trajectory through four developmental phases to address critical historiographical questions: how did a peripheral Yunnan site achieve national prominence within a remarkably compressed timeframe? By what mechanisms could its sacred authority be constructed to inspire pilgrimages even across vast distances? Which historical agents and processes orchestrated these transformations, and how did the mountain’s symbolic meaning shift dynamically over time? Departing from earlier scholarship that privileges regional and secular frameworks, this work not only rebalances the emphasis on religious dimensions but also expands the analytical scope beyond regional confines to situate Mount Jizu within national and transnational frameworks. Eventually, by analyzing the structural, institutional, and agential dynamics—spanning local, imperial, and transnational dimensions—this study reveals how the mountain’s sacralization emerged from the convergence of local agency, acculturative pressures, state-building imperatives, late-Ming Buddhist revival, literati networks, and the strategic mobilization of symbolic capital. It also reveals that Mount Jizu was not a static sacred site but a dynamic arena of contestation and negotiation, where competing claims to spiritual authority and cultural identity were perpetually redefined. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monastic Lives and Buddhist Textual Traditions in China and Beyond)
16 pages, 1555 KiB  
Article
The Distribution of Zhicao 芝草 by Buddhist Ways After the Fengshan Ritual in Mount Tai, 1008–1016
by Rui Yang
Religions 2025, 16(5), 634; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050634 - 16 May 2025
Viewed by 360
Abstract
Between 1008 and 1016, for several times Emperor Zhenzong (968–1022, r. 997–1022) distributed Zhicao (Ganoderma Lucidum), acquired during the Fengshan 封禪 rituals. These grand-scale activities from central to local levels were completely different from the previous management of auspicious omens and calamities. Zhicao [...] Read more.
Between 1008 and 1016, for several times Emperor Zhenzong (968–1022, r. 997–1022) distributed Zhicao (Ganoderma Lucidum), acquired during the Fengshan 封禪 rituals. These grand-scale activities from central to local levels were completely different from the previous management of auspicious omens and calamities. Zhicao, serving as an auspicious symbol in the Confucian system of auspicious omens and calamities, underwent an elevation in status through its integration with the concept of longevity in Daoism. It began to play important roles in the political propaganda of Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1276) dynasties. On the one hand, the distribution was influenced by the political initiatives of Emperor Gaozong (628–683, r. 649–683) after his Fengshan ceremony, with the reason lying in the subtle influence of the Buddhist concept of sacred relics. By integrating the political propaganda of Three Teachings, Emperor Zhenzong reinforced the regime’s legitimacy and enhanced the personal authority of the monarch. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monastic Lives and Buddhist Textual Traditions in China and Beyond)
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