Studies On The Research Of Buddhism History In Modern China (1900-1949)

China has a long history of study of Buddhism history. However, contemporarily most influential research in this regard did not begin until the first half of the twentieth century. The first-class scholars at that time, including Liang Qichao, Hu Shi, Tang Yongtong, Chen Yingque, Cheng Yuan etc. all participated in research work of Buddhism history; and with more experts and monks such as Lu Cheng, Jiang Weiqiao, Huang Chanhua, Li Yizhuo, Miao Zhou, Fa Zun followed up, the whole picture stretched out in a constant panorama with more professional theories and more inter-disciplinary methods added in. For instance, western theories of Positivism, linguistics, bibliographical methods were then combined1 together with the methods of textual research of the Qing Dynasty and significant breakthroughs were made in many specific areas. Thus a clearer picture could be presented before us, with streamlined history beginning from the embarking of Buddhism in mainland China till the early Republic-of-China-reign. In the mean time, the experts examined the rise and fall of the development of Buddhism in China, looked deep into the inner relationship between Buddhism and the society, politics and culture at that time, made efforts to decipher many cryptic predicaments in the Buddhism history, and probed into the always ambiguous history of both Zen and Tibet Buddhism. Modern historical science of Buddhism sheds light from sideways on the approaches and characteristics of the modernization of historical science ana Buddhist learning in China. It is also a good start-point to view the Chinese modern historiography as well as the academic history. However, it is still a gap on the map of history. No forerunner has explored it yet.The thesis mainly targets the 1900-1949 period historical Science of Buddhism, working into the background of the revitalizing and development of study of Buddhism from the perspectives of both historiography and academic history, specifying academic minds of symbolic Buddhism historians through analyzing and integrating different cases so as to help us know better the influence of their values over research of Buddhism history and even the entire modern academic field, meanwhile, valuing objectively their contributions to the research work concerned. Hence, we could see from an integrated perspective how Chinese modern historicalScience of Buddhism has mattered in general history, dynastic history, special subject history, sectarian history, regional history of Buddhism; t and we could also see the main features of modern historical Science of Buddhism in China; and a fuller and clearer picture of it. By centering around the scholars, this essay illustrates the topic in several sections of different research groups, each, of which specifies the representative authors and their avant-garde theories. Besides the introduction and conclusion, the essay consists of eight chapters in all.In the introduction, firstly, the author tries to define the Buddhism historical Science and give a brief outline of it. Secondly, she gives an account of the ultimate purpose and value of this topic. Then, reviews and analyzes the related researches both home and abroad. The last part is devoted to the brief illustration of the approach, the basic logic and the structure of the essay.The first chapter goes to the social and cultural background of the revitalizing of modern Buddhism historical Science in China. It was stimulated by the emerging Buddhism ideology as well as by the cultural dispute stirred up since "the May Four Movement" . In the meanwhile, Japanese scholars' efforts of studying Buddhism also benefit the study of its Chinese counterpart.The second chapter illustrates the contribution of Liang Qichao to the general history of Buddhism. Liang is the founder of modern Buddhism historical Science in China. In the early 1920s, he applied modern academic tools to his work and finished with a series of essays that signaled the first step Chinese scholars had made in this regard. He, outlined the Buddhism history of China,...