Taixu

During the revolutionary period in which China moved from imperial rule to republicanism, many new political leaders deprecated all religion as superstition and urged the government to confiscate religious property for new secular use. While many traditionalist religious leaders simply sought to counter such moves, some, such as Taixu (b. 1890–d. 1947), were more progressive. Agreeing that Buddhism in China had fallen behind the times, Taixu worked and wrote to help Buddhists create new organizations and bring their teachings and practices more into line with the needs of the modern world. Perhaps more than anything else, he is known as the founder of a form of Buddhism called “Buddhism for Human Life” (rensheng fojiao) and “Buddhism for the Human Realm” (renjian fojiao), terms often rendered into English both as “Engaged Buddhism” and “Humanistic Buddhism.” Only recently have scholars begun to acknowledge that Taixu kept much of the Buddhist tradition intact even as he tried to reorient it toward engagement with contemporary social and political problems. However, his successors (such as Sheng Yen and Thich Nhat Hanh) have moved even further away from premodern concepts and “escapist” goals in order to focus Buddhist attention on this-worldly issues such as environmental degradation, women’s issues, and human rights. Because of the increased recent attention to the more traditional elements of Taixu’s Buddhist belief and practice, those who use the items in the following article for research should pay attention to the date of the material. Studies published prior to 1990 will invariably present Taixu strictly as a modernizer and declare wrongly that he opposed such things as ritualism and Pure Land devotions, and place him in opposition to another Buddhist faction labeled “traditionalist” or “conservative.” More recent studies will note his own devotion to Maitreya and aspiration for rebirth in that future buddha’s abode, his rich ritual life, and his friendly relations with many of those deemed “conservative.” To date, not many studies on Taixu have appeared, and so the following bibliography is not extensive.