Foxue yuan 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'^[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 explicitly 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.

Erik Hammerstrom

(Incomplete) List of Buddhist Seminaries associated with Tàixū:^[4]

• 武昌佛學院 1922 - intermittent, ended in 1934, briefly moved to Shanghai in 1937 (70)
• 藏文學院 1924 - 1925 (50)^[5]
• 閩南佛學院 1927 - 1939 (80) (previously called 景賢學佛社)
• 柏林教理院 1930 - 1931
• 漢藏教理院 1931 - 1949 (60-100)
• 武林佛學院 1946 - 1948 (30)

Other Important Seminaries^[6]

• 祇洹精舍 1908 - 1910 (12 monks and 12 laymen)^[7]
• 上海華嚴大學 1912 - 1916 (60 total graduates)
• 觀宗研究社 (later 弘法學院) 1918 - 1939 (200)
• 法界學院 1919 - 1934 (40)
• 漢口華嚴大學 1920 - 1923
• 安徽僧學校 1922 - 1924 (20)^[8]
• 景賢學佛社 1924 - 1927, when this was renamed the 閩南佛學院
• 清涼學院 1924 - 1931 (20 students)^[9]
• 弘慈佛學院 1924 - 1934^[10]
• 竹林佛學院 1928 - 1937
• 興善寺佛學院 1932 - ??^[11]
• 焦山佛學院 1934 - 1937, 1940 - 1948 (~300 total students)
• 大乘佛教弘化院 ca.1941 - ?? (100 students in the first class)^[12]
• 中國佛學院 1956 - 1966; ?? - present

Notes

1. ↑ This is Welch's literal translation of "Fóxué yuàn".
2. ↑ Welch, 107
3. ↑ Welch, 285-287
4. ↑ Unless otherwise liited, all information comes from Welch (p. 286). The numbers in parentheses are Welch's estimates of typical enrollment, which he admits are very rough.
5. ↑ The enrollment here is from Welch (p. 198-199), but he is incorrect regarding the dates. He says it ran for two years, but all other sources agree it closed in 1925.
6. ↑ Unless otherwise lsited, all information comes from Welch (p. 286).
7. ↑ Welch, 9.
8. ↑ Welch refers to this as the 安徽佛學校 or 迎江佛學院. Welch, 285.
9. ↑ Yú, 2.1658a. (From the entry for Yīngcí 應慈)
10. ↑ Welch, 286.
11. ↑ Yú Língbō reports that this seminary was started in 1932 (p. 1.338c.), but Welch says it only ran from 1922 to 1923. Welch (p. 286).
12. ↑ Yú (Pp. 1.780b-783b; entry for Hú Zǐhù 胡子笏)

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 jìndài 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. Taipei: Dongchu, 1974 Pp. 2.896.
• Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968.
• Yú Língbō 于凌波, ed. Xiàndài Fójiào rénwù cídiǎn 現代佛教人物辭典 (A Dictionary of Modern Buddhist Persons), 2 vols. Taipei: Foguang, 2004.