Shanghai foxue shuju 上海佛學書局

Revision as of 17:04, 4 September 2013

Shanghai Buddhist Books 上海佛學書局

Established 1929 in Shànghǎi 上海 Shut down in 1966, reopened in 1991 and presently operating

Notable Associates: Wáng Yìtíng 王一亭 (co-founder) Lǐ Jīngwěi 李經緯 (co-founder) Fàn Gǔnóng 范古農

Shanghai Buddhist Books 上海佛學書局 was the largest and most important publishing house in Republican China that was dedicated to producing Buddhist texts.

History

Founded by Wáng Yìtíng 王一亭 and Lǐ Jīngwěi 李經緯 in 1929 in Shànghǎi 上海 to publish Buddhist books. Fàn Gǔnóng 范古農 served as general editor from the beginning until at least 1937. Initially it was located in the Zháběi district 閘北區 on Bǎoshān road 寶山路 but it was later moved to the intersection of Jiāozhōu road 膠州路 and Yúyuán road 愚園路. The publisher had four departments: Circulation 流通部, Printing 出版部, Reproduction 翻印部, and Management 代辦部. By 1934 it had 8 branch offices and more than 100 resellers. Also in that year they began to publish woodblock editions of texts collected by Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會.

From 1935 they also produced a set of 5 phonograph records, and produced a second set of 6 in 1936. These contained recordings of Buddhist chants, including "In Praise of Amitabha 彌陀贊", "In Praise of Moral Discipline and Concentration 戒定贊", "The Dhāraṇī of Great Compassion 大悲咒", "The Three Refuges 三皈依", and "The Heart Sūtra 心經". From March of 1933 they broadcast chantings of Buddhist sutras on the Shanghai Yongsheng Broadcasting Station 上海永生電台, and in 1936 they established their own Buddhist radio station, called the Shanghai Huaguang Broadcasting Station 上海華光電台.^[1]

Shanghai Buddhist Books was a publicly traded company whose share price was fixed at 10 yuán 元. Wáng Yìtíng was the chair of the board of directors, which included Dí Chǔqīng 狄楚青, Dīng Fúbǎo 丁福保, Zhū Guǎngchéng 諸廣成, Zhū Shísēng 朱石僧, and Lǐ Jīngwěi 李經緯. In 1908 Dīng had founded the Medical Press 醫學書局, which had published many Buddhist texts in the 1920s as part of a Buddhist Series 佛學叢書.^[2] He also published a set of pocket-sized Buddhist sūtras 袖珍本佛經叢刊.

The press continued operation until 1966. In 1991 it was resurrected by the Shanghai Buddhist Association 上海佛教協會 at 418 Chángdé road 常德路, two blocks away from its old location.

Important Works Published

• 太虛叢書 The Collected Works of Tàixū
• 圓瑛法匯 Dharma Collection of Yuányīng
• 諦閑講錄 Recorded Lectures of Dìxián
• 佛學小叢書 The Short Collection of Buddhist Studies:
  • Lǐ Yuánjìng 李圓淨. 談空篇 Essays Discussing Emptiness, 1931.
  • Ono Genmyō 小野玄妙; Gāoguān 高觀, trans. 佛像概說 General Discourse on Buddhist Images, 1931. Translated from the Japanese.
  • Yìnguāng 印光. 在家學佛法要 Essential Dharma for Lay Buddhists, 1932.
  • Tàixū 太虛, Fúyuè 罘月, Xīnyě 莘野. 什麼是佛學 What is Buddhist Studies?, 1932.
  • Jiǎng Wéiqiáo 蔣維喬. 佛教淺測 A Survey of Buddhism, 1932.
  • Editorial Department of Shanghai Buddhist Books 佛學書局編輯部. 大乘宗要 Essentials of the Mahāyāna Schools, 1932.
  • Kāng Jìyáo 康寄遥. 破除迷信 Breaking Superstitions, 1933
  • Méi Guāngxī 梅光羲. 佛典略說 A Brief Treatise on Buddhist Scriptures, 1933.
  • Yù Juē 郁撅. 白尊者開示錄 Record of the Manifestations of the White Honored One(?), 1933. Reprint edition?
  • Tàixū 太虛, Zhīfēng 芝峰. 佛學在今後人世之意義 The Meaning of Buddhist Studies in the Human World to Come, 1933.
  • Dài Jìtáo 戴季陶. 佛教信徒報恩弘法要從尋常的十善道做起 Buddhists Spreading the Dharma and Repaying Kindness Must Proceed from the Ordinary Way of Ten Types of Wholesome Behavior, 1934.
  • 百喻經淺說
  • 釋尊傳, 1932
  • 觀音菩薩典要, 1925
  • 蓮宗九祖略傳
  • 佛典略說
  • 六波羅蜜法門
  • 唯識學
  • 淨業津梁
  • 念佛四十八法
  • 婦女學佛初步
  • 人何以要學佛
  • 佛法談天
  • 佛法說地
• 佛學半月刊 Buddhism Semi-Monthly
• 海潮音 The Sound of the Sea Tide

Gallery

Shanghai Buddhist Books

Publisher's mark used by Shanghai Buddhist Books

Notes

1. ↑ See pp. 97-129 in part 2 of Francesca Tarocco, The Cultural Practices of Modern Chinese Buddhism: Attuning the Dharma (New York: Routledge, 2007) for more on sound, recording and broadcasting in Modern Chinese Buddhism.
2. ↑ See 孟令兵, "略述上海佛學書局創始因緣"

References

• Gāo Zhènnóng 高振農. "Minguo nianjian de Shanghai foxue shuju." In Jinxiandai zhongguo fojiao lun 近現代中國佛教論 (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2002).
• 覺醒. "舊上海佛教文化發達史"
• 覺醒. "近代上海佛刊出版的地位與作用"
• 孟令兵. 老上海文化奇葩-上海佛學書局. 上海: 上海人民出版社, 2003.