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== Buddhist Seminaries: Fóxué yuàn 佛學院 == | == Buddhist Seminaries: Fóxué yuàn 佛學院 == | ||
| - | According to [[Welch]], the term "Fóxué yuàn" was invented (or at least pioneered) by Tàixū [[太虛]] with the naming of the Wuchang Buddhist Seminary [[武昌佛學院]], which opened in [[1922]]. Welch states, "Many of the innovations he (Tàixū) made there proved popular, and by 1945 almost all seminaries in China had become 'institutes for Buddhist studies' in name, if not in substance. To varying degrees they adopted what Tàixū had adopted from lay schools and abroad."<ref>Welch, 107</ref> | + | According to [[Welch]], the term "Fóxué yuàn" was invented (or at least pioneered) by Tàixū [[太虛]] with the naming of the Wuchang Buddhist Seminary [[武昌佛學院]], which opened in [[1922]]. Welch states, "Many of the innovations he (Tàixū) made there proved popular, and by [[1945]] almost all seminaries in China had become 'institutes for Buddhist studies'<ref>This is Welch's translation for "Fóxué yuàn".</ref> in name, if not in substance. To varying degrees they adopted what Tàixū had adopted from lay schools and abroad."<ref>Welch, 107</ref> |
| - | In addition to those schools identified as "Fóxué yuàn", there were a large number of Buddhist schools founded in China during the first half of the 20th century that catered to monastic and mixed lay/monastic student bodies. Welch lists 72 | + | In addition to those schools identified as "Fóxué yuàn", there were a large number of Buddhist schools founded in China during the first half of the 20th century that catered to monastic and mixed lay/monastic student bodies. Welch lists 72 such seminaries in operation between [[1912]] and 1950.<ref>Welch, 285-287</ref> He estimates, very tentatively, that somewhere on the order of 7,500 Buddhist seminarians graduated in China during those years. Although this estimation is based on incomplete data, it demonstrates that thousands of monks and nuns received their education at Buddhist Seminaries. |
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According to Welch, the term "Fóxué yuàn" was invented (or at least pioneered) by Tàixū 太虛 with the naming of the Wuchang Buddhist Seminary 武昌佛學院, which opened in 1922. Welch states, "Many of the innovations he (Tàixū) made there proved popular, and by 1945 almost all seminaries in China had become 'institutes for Buddhist studies'[1] in name, if not in substance. To varying degrees they adopted what Tàixū had adopted from lay schools and abroad."[2]
In addition to those schools identified as "Fóxué yuàn", there were a large number of Buddhist schools founded in China during the first half of the 20th century that catered to monastic and mixed lay/monastic student bodies. Welch lists 72 such seminaries in operation between 1912 and 1950.[3] He estimates, very tentatively, that somewhere on the order of 7,500 Buddhist seminarians graduated in China during those years. Although this estimation is based on incomplete data, it demonstrates that thousands of monks and nuns received their education at Buddhist Seminaries.
(Incomplete) List of Buddhist Seminaries associated with Tàixū
Other Important Seminaries
Notes
References:
Pittman, Donald. Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism: Taixu’s Reforms. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001), 99.
Shì Dōngchū 釋東初. Zhōngguó fójiào jìndàii shǐ 中國佛教近代史 (A History of Early Contemporary Chinese Buddhism), in Dōngchū lǎorén quánjí 東初老人全集 (Complete Collection of Old Man Dongchu), vols. 1-2. (Taibei: Dongchu, 1974), 2:896.
Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968.