Economic Activities Of The Temples In The South Of The Yangtze River In Qing Dynasty

Temples in the South of the Yangtze River in Qing Dynasty had various sources of income,among which,the income from land property was the most durable and reliable,and therefore the most important source of income.The sources of temple land included three types,which were the allocation from the government,the endowment by benefactors and the purchase of land by monks.The land from the three channels accounted for different ratios for different temples,as the temples were different in nature and scale.To lease was the primary method for operating temple land,as it could bring stable income for temples,and avoid the unfavorable factors such as the scattered distribution of land,the shortage of labor,monks’ lack of management skills,etc.Temple land’s rent then was primarily fixed and in goods,its amount was similar with civil land around.The temple land’s transaction was restricted by law.Without the agreement of donors or government,monks were not allowed to pawn or sale the temple land.And the donors couldn’t withdraw or resell the land already donated.Buddhist ceremony remuneration was a universal and regular income,which was also very important for temples,though inferior to temple land.Buddhism had two factions,Ying Yuan and Chan Men,their operating of Buddhist activities were clearly distinguished.The Ying Yuan monks lived by repentance activities.They always accepted the invitation of customers to provide small Buddhist rituals at customers’ home.But Chan Men monks placed more importance on abstinence and practice.They refused to deal with outside rituals.They insisted on hosting rituals within the temple,and such ceremonies were always in large scale.The Ying Yuan and Chan Men had different customers.Ying Yuan worked mainly for common people,while Chan Men primarily worked for political gentry and rich families.In addition to land and religious services,temples in the South of the Yangtze River also had some special income sources.For example,the Porcelain Tower Temple near the city of Nanjing built many shops for rent.Rental income was very comfortable.Both the Porcelain Tower Temple and the Jiaxing Shurangama Temple had a carving board of Tripitaka.They could provide printing Tripitaka service.The former lent the carving board to the print shop,and collected the rent from the buyers of Tripitaka.The latter printed Tripitaka by itself,and sold the work to the purchaser.Since the latter had a better version of Tripitaka,it was more popular in the market.These non agricultural income growths reflected the commercial trend of the temple economy in Qing Dynasty’s South of the Yangtze River district.As to the expenditures,the repair fees and construction of temples were the biggest items.In order to limit the quantity of temples,the government of the Qing dynasty forbade the building of new temples by private sector.Thus,only repairs of existing temples were allowed.There were two models to repair a temple,one was by government,and the other was by people.The famous temples in the South of the Yangtze River always got support from the government,whose repair fund mainly came from the government’s sundry taxes,the silver money used for keeping magistrates incorruptible as well as donations from salt merchants.The common temples were not considered important,thus could only rely on private strengths for repair.As the leader of the local affairs,the gentry and the local tyrants were in charge of the repair of local temples.They came first in contributing and helping the repair,and in the repair project,they played the role of management.For the shortage of the repair funds,both the scale and the progress of the repairs of temples managed by private sector went behind the temples supported by government.Temple land bore compulsory tax and labor,and the expenditure on this aspect was unavoidable.In the early Ming Dynasty,the land of each big temple in Nanjing came from the emperor’s reward.And compared with general temples,these big temples enjoyed tax-free privileges.In the late Ming Dynasty,the land tax of Nanjing’s big temples increased.At the same time,the land taxes of temples in other regions were gradually reduced.Thus the distance between them narrowed.In the Qing Dynasty,the temples’ land in the South of the Yangtze River generally enjoyed duty-free rights.But there were regional differences in free items:the temple land in Nanjing had no need to pay exorbitant tax,the temple land in Zhenjiang was exempted Yaoli Fee and Dimu Fee,the temple land in Suzhou didn’t have to pay Yaoli Fee and water conservancy project cost,the temple land in Hangzhou could pay silver instead of grain.Overall,the Qing Dynasty temple land enjoyed less duty-free amount,the difference between its tax burden and that of common land was little.Temple’s daily expenses could be divided into three categories,which were living expenses,religion expenses,and routine administrative expenses.They occupied different weight in different periods.Take the Porcelain Tower Temple for example,in the Ming Dynasty,the cost of living had the biggest share,the second was the religious spending,and the least was the routine cost.In the Qing Dynasty,the total expenditure of the Porcelain Tower Temple decreased,meanwhile the expenditure structure changed.Administrative cost had become a major expenditure.The second was still the religious spending.Living expense decreased to the least expenditure,because only the abbot and the executive monks were entitled to public support.The small family composed by the master and the disciple became an independent economic entity.These small families also allocated public expenditure.They were playing an increasingly important role in the economic life of the temple.The Porcelain Tower Temple was not an isolated case,other temples in the South of the Yangtze River also had similar phenomenon.This reflected the privatization trend of Qing Dynasty’s temple economy.