Das dharma schützen, das Reich schützen, sich selbst schützen? Militärisch tätige buddhistische Mönche in China in den Dynastien Song und Ming

Although recently scholars raised doubts about the absolute peacefulness of Buddhist monks in such countries as Śri Lanka, Tibet or Japan, there still is only very little known about militarily engaged monks in China, especially premodern China. The present article deals with the question, under whi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
Main Author: Broy, Nikolas 1980- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:German
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Published: Diagonal-Verlag 2012
In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:Although recently scholars raised doubts about the absolute peacefulness of Buddhist monks in such countries as Śri Lanka, Tibet or Japan, there still is only very little known about militarily engaged monks in China, especially premodern China. The present article deals with the question, under which circumstances and to what extent Buddhist monks in imperial China participated in military campaigns to put down local uprisings, banditry and attacks from enemies outside the country. Besides some scarce remarks on the ambivalent nature of Buddhist discourses on violence and the military, and a brief introduction to the phenomenon of martial monks in Korea, Japan and medieval China the main focus of this historical study are the Song (960-1279) und Ming (1368-1644) dynasties. Special significance is given to the Buddhist centres of Wutai and Shaolin, since these two managed to develop a somewhat institutionalized form of monastic military violence which are their own martial arts traditions. It will be shown that from time to time monks from these two well known monasteries as well as from other cloisters were in fact engaged in actual military violence. It will be argued that two reasons for the relatively frequent occurrence of this phenomenon in the Song and Ming dynasties may be the governmental inability to solve violent conflicts of concern to the monks by itself, as well as the many political and economic rewards donated to »heroic monks« by the government and the local authorities.
ISSN:2194-508X
Contains:In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/zfr.2007.15.2.199