Danao Jinshan 大鬧金山

Revision as of 05:29, 28 June 2009

The Invasion of Jinshan: Dànào Jīnshān 大鬧金山

In January of 1912, Rénshān 仁山 went to Nanjing to petition the government to change Jīnshān Monastery 金山寺 into a modern monastic school 僧學堂. In Nánjīng 南京, he met with Tàixū 太虛, who had come to Nánjing to work on setting up an Association for the Advancement of Buddhism 佛教協進會. Tàixū was working out of Pílú Temple 毘盧寺.

Rénshān and Tàixū joined forces and went to Jīnshān together. There, they stayed at Guānyīn Pavilion 觀音閣 (located on Jīnshān 金山), where Rénshān had taken tonsure. A conference was held at the principal monastery on Jīnshan, Jiāngtián Temple 江天寺, and the two announced to an audience of two to three-hundred monks and four hundred lay people that they planned to use the Monastery's resources to run the new school. This met with fierce opposition from the officers of the monastery, including the abbot, Qīngshú 青权 and the guest prefect, Shuāngtíng 霜亭. The reformers won, and the next day they began going over the monastery's accounts and drawing up plans for the new school.

The officers did not back down, and in mid-February they led a group of workmen in storming the new School's headquarters. Rénshān and others were injured. Ultimately, although the former officers were sentenced to prison terms after Rénshān appealed to the authorities, the school did not materialize. Tàixū's reputation a reformer was, in large part, made by this incident. The results of which were not good for him. Somewhat disgraced, he retreated from the public scene for a number of years after this.

The title of this affair alludes to the 52nd chapter of the Journey to the West, which is titled: 悟空大鬧金山兜洞　如來暗示主人公

References:

• Pittman, Donald. Towards a Modern Chinese Buddhism: Taixu's Reforms. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 74-77.
• Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968.
• 维基百科 释太虚