“Bridging the gap: Chan and Tiantai Dharma lineages from Republican to post-Mao China”

Résumé En

More than twenty years separate the last ordinations ceremonies of the Maoist period in the late 1950s from the resumption of monastic ordinations in the early 1980s: how was this gap bridged? How did the Buddhist legacy of the Republican era (1912-1949) make the transition to contemporary times? The present essay investigates one particular kind of religious kinship connecting the monastic leaders of the first half of the twentieth century to the senior generation of monks and nuns who first engaged in the Buddhist reconstruction of post-Mao China: dharma lineages. I focus more specifically on private dharma transmissions accomplished by Chan master Xuyun 虛雲 (ca. 1864-1959) and Tiantai master Dixian 諦閑 (1858-1932). Selected biographical overviews are provided that exemplify common patterns of religious careers and aspirations of these two masters’ dharma heirs in post-Mao China, as well as the propagation of Chan and Tiantai dharma lineages to Hong Kong and the United States. These patterns allow me to analyze the social, political and religious effects of private dharma transmission, and to investigate the role that this particular kind of religious kinship has played in Buddhist reconstruction domestically and from abroad. My aim is to show that the highly structured nature of this system has consistently favored the preservation of the Buddhist tradition beyond the Maoist period, and that its longstanding authoritative stance has contributed to ensure a connection between religious legitimacy and political power.