Integrating Faith and Profit: The Religio-Commercial Network Spanning China and Japan, 1100-1270

Abstract

By reinterpreting a set of correspondence between Chinese and Japanese monks, this article gives a “thick description” of a lumber transaction between a prestigious monastery in Hangzhou, China, and a newly established monastery in Hakata, Japan. Examining the network connecting the two monasteries shows that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Hakata-based Chinese merchants sought patronage and connections from powerful religious establishments in both China and Japan, whose political patronage conferred economic privileges. The quest for gaining trade profits, spreading Buddhist teachings, and enhancing political authority drove all the parties together and formed a religio-commercial network linking China and Japan.