The Huayan University network : the teaching and practice of Avataṃsaka Buddhism in twentieth-century China / Erik J. Hammerstrom.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"In the early twentieth century, Chinese Buddhists sought to strengthen their tradition through publications, institution building, and initiatives aimed at raising the educational level of the monastic community. In The Huayan University Network, Erik J. Hammerstrom examines how Huayan Buddhism was imagined, taught, and practiced during this time of profound political and social change and, in so doing, recasts the history of twentieth-century Chinese Buddhism. Hammerstrom traces the influence of Huayan University, the first Buddhist monastic school founded after the fall of the imperial system in China. Although the university lasted only a few years, its graduates of went on to establish a number of Huayan-centered educational programs throughout China. While they did not create a new sectarian Huayan movement, they did form a network unified by a common educational heritage that persists to the present day. Drawing on an extensive range of Buddhist texts and periodicals, Hammerstrom shows that Huayan had a significant impact on Chinese Buddhist thought and practice and that the history of Huayan complicates narratives of twentieth-century Buddhist modernization and revival. Offering a wide range of insights into the teaching and practice of Huayan in Republican China, this book sheds new light on an essential but often overlooked element of the East Asian Buddhist tradition"-- Provided by publisher.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on September 17, 2020).

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- One. Huayan as a School of Chinese Buddhism -- Two. The Huayan Universities -- Three. Second-and Third-Generation Programs -- Four. The Huayan University Network After 1949 -- Five. Huayan Doctrine in Republican China -- Six. A Common Curriculum -- Conclusion -- List of Chinese Characters -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

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