{"id":950,"date":"2021-10-24T22:57:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-24T22:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/?p=950"},"modified":"2021-10-24T22:57:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-24T22:57:29","slug":"looking-beyond-china-the-wider-consequences-of-taixus-anarchist-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/2021\/10\/looking-beyond-china-the-wider-consequences-of-taixus-anarchist-beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Beyond China: The Wider Consequences of Taixu’s Anarchist Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

In the first two chapters of his book Anarchy in the Purse Land, Justin Ritzinger conducts a thorough investigation into the teachings and philosophies of Taixu, a renowned twentieth century Buddhist thinker1<\/a><\/sup>. Primarily, he focuses on Taixu\u2019s early anarchist origins and explores how they influence his later work as a transnational Buddhist revivalist2<\/a><\/sup>. This blog post will briefly investigate the consequences of this contextual influence, along with others, for Taixu\u2019s work toward the transnationalisation of Buddhism, ultimately concluding that Taixu\u2019s Chinese cultural background in both anarchism and Chinese Buddhist thought is heavily influential in his later teachings outside of China.

Ritzinger\u2019s assessment of Taixu\u2019s anarchist influences conflicts with the generally accepted scholarship about the topic, which usually minimizes these origins as inconsequential in Taixu\u2019s later works. Ritzinger points out that Taixu\u2019s own autobiography, in accordance with this general consensus, implies that his early anarchist and revolutionary experiences were little more than \u201cyouthful indescretions,\u201d which Ritzinger works to refute in his chapters2<\/a><\/sup>. Anarchism, Ritzinger stipulates, largely contributes to Taixu\u2019s later Buddhist works, in which he condemns economic inequality and seeks to revolutionise with the ultimate hope of forming a utopian society2<\/a><\/sup>.

This portrayal of Taixu, as someone who was very much molded and guided by the context in which he developed his ideas, is crucial to consider as we understand the influence he had as a transnational Buddhist outside of China. Elise DeVido specifically explores Taixu\u2019s influence on the Buddhist revival in Vietnam3<\/a><\/sup>.

Leaders and followers of Confucianism and Buddhism have, over the course of several centuries \u2014 if not millennia \u2014 contributed substantially to cultural amalgamation and assimilation in East and Southeast Asia. Taixu\u2019s work as a transnational Buddhist demonstrates another example of this phenomenon, with DeVido arguing that the revival of Buddhism in Vietnam would not have occurred to the same extent without his crucial participation2<\/a><\/sup>. She refutes the idea that a general trend of \u201cChinese cultural influence\u201d in Vietnam allowed it to reflect developments in Chinese Buddhism, asserting instead that Taixu\u2019s reforms, writing, and visits to Vietnam were necessary for the revivalist movement to occur2<\/a><\/sup>.

The Chinese influence on Taixu\u2019s teachings in Vietnam was strong, as DeVido points out that the thinker \u201cexpected that China would become the leader of the Buddhist nations in Asia,\u201d and thus worked to proliferate Chinese Buddhist texts, reforms, and teachings throughout other countries2<\/a><\/sup>. Taixu\u2019s revivalist goals, notably influenced by his anarchist background, were profoundly impactful in Vietnam. One of Taixu\u2019s widely read writings there, \u201cHow to establish Buddhism for this world\u201d heavily stressed his utopian views, encouraging his audience to follow his teachings to \u201cmake this world into the Pure Land”2<\/a><\/sup>.

Taixu\u2019s movement and methodology was formulaic for modern Vietnam, as DeVido explains that many influential generations of monastics were engendered during Taixu\u2019s revival.

Ultimately, Taixu\u2019s widespread impact in transnational makes Ritzinger\u2019s conclusions about Taixu\u2019s prominent anarchist influences all the more interesting and consequential. The Vietnam example shows not only the significance of Taixu\u2019s role in the Buddhist revivalist movement that occurred there, but clearly reflects the anarchist ideological undertones that Ritzinger identifies in Taixu\u2019s teachings.<\/p>\r\n

  1. Ritzinger, Justin. Anarchy in the Purse Land: Reinventing the Cult of Maitreya in Modern Chinese Buddhism. (Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017), Ch. 1-2. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. Ibid. [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  3. DeVido, Elise. \u201cThe Influence of Chinese Master Taixu on Buddhism in Vietnam\u201d in Journal of Global Buddhism 10, (Directory of Open Access Journals, 2009), pp. 413-458. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In the first two chapters of his book Anarchy in the Purse Land, Justin Ritzinger conducts a thorough investigation into the teachings and philosophies of Taixu, a renowned twentieth century Buddhist thinker1. Primarily, he focuses on Taixu\u2019s early anarchist origins and explores how they influence his later work as a transnational Buddhist revivalist2. This blog … Continue reading “Looking Beyond China: The Wider Consequences of Taixu’s Anarchist Beginnings”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":994,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}