The Renewal of Buddhism in China - (The Sheng Yen Chinese Buddhist Studies) by Chün-Fang Yü (Paperback)

About the Book

First published in 1981, Chün-fang Yü's The Renewal of Buddhism in China challenged the conventional view that Buddhism had reached its height under the Tang dynasty (618-907) and steadily declined afterward. This fortieth anniversary edition features an updated introduction by the author speaking to the ongoing relevance of this classic work.

Book Synopsis

First published in 1981, The Renewal of Buddhism in China broke new ground in the study of Chinese Buddhism. An interdisciplinary study of a Buddhist master and reformer in late Ming China, it challenged the conventional view that Buddhism had reached its height under the Tang dynasty (618-907) and steadily declined afterward.

Chün-fang Yü details how in sixteenth-century China, Buddhism entered a period of revitalization due in large part to a cohort of innovative monks who sought to transcend sectarian rivalries and doctrinal specialization. She examines the life, work, and teaching of one of the most important of these monks, Zhuhong (1535-1615), a charismatic teacher of lay Buddhists and a successful reformer of monastic Buddhism. Zhuhong's contributions demonstrate that the late Ming was one of the most creative periods in Chinese intellectual and religious history. Weaving together diverse sources--scriptures, dynastic history, Buddhist chronicles, monks' biographies, letters, ritual manuals, legal codes, and literature--Yü grounds Buddhism in the reality of Ming society, highlighting distinctive lay Buddhist practices to provide a vivid portrait of lived religion.

Since the book was published four decades ago, many have written on the diversity of Buddhist beliefs and practices in the centuries before and after Zhuhong's time, yet The Renewal of Buddhism in China remains a crucial touchstone for all scholarship on post-Tang Buddhism. This fortieth anniversary edition features updated transliteration, a foreword by Daniel B. Stevenson, and an updated introduction by the author speaking to the ongoing relevance of this classic work.

Review Quotes

Forty years after its publication, Chün-fang Yü's book on Chinese monk Zhuhong, presented here with a new introduction, has stood the test of time and become a classic in the field. Its lucid style, balanced coverage, and reasoned analysis not only serve a broad audience but also provide a model for studying any religious figure whose life and thought are as complicated and profound as Zhuhong's.--Jiang Wu, coeditor of Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia: The Formation and Transformation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon

In demonstrating how domesticity assumed central place in the theology and practice of monk Zhuhong's syncretic Buddhism, Chün-fang Yü has shifted the ground of historical analysis once and for all. Although the word "gender" did not appear in these pages because it had yet to appear in common language, this germinal book is a classic in the history of women and gender of China.--Dorothy Ko, author of Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China

Without a doubt, this new edition of The Renewal of Buddhism in China is much needed. In 1981, the original book set a new standard in the field, and there still remains no single monograph on the figure of Zhuhong aside from this one. Chün-fang Yü's work is still groundbreaking after forty years.--Stephen F. Teiser, coeditor of Readings of the Platform Sūtra

The Renewal of Buddhism in China changed my understanding of Chinese Buddhism when it was first published forty years ago. It revealed, as it still does, that Buddhism is not just an idea but a social movement that has been shaped by real people working in the real world. A classic that is still a classic.--Timothy Brook, author of Great State: China and the World

About the Author

Chün-fang Yü is Sheng Yen Professor Emerita of Chinese Buddhism in the Departments of Religion and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. She is the author or editor of a number of books, including Kuan-yin, the Chinese Transformation of Avalokitesvara (Columbia, 2001), Passing the Light: The Incense Light Community and Buddhist Nuns in Contemporary Taiwan (2013), and Chinese Buddhism: A Thematic History (2020). She is the former editor of the Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies at Columbia University Press.