The Overseas Preaching Of Japanese Buddhism In Qingdao

It's typical for Japanese Buddhism to involve into the political and secular affairs, which can easily be seen from the doctrines of different sects of Japanese Buddhism. Among all the doctrines, the doctrines of the Pure Land Buddhism are perticularly typical. In the later aggression and expansion of Japan, in order to meet the needs of politics, the doctrines moralized people to be royal to their Mikado and even to sacrifice their lives for the holy war in the name of protection of Buddhist doctrines. In the war of aggression, there are plenty examples that Japanese religious leaders directly involed into politics and even guided the colonial aggression.Ever since 1876,with Japan's foreign expansion and military aggression, different sects of Japanese Buddhism, especially the Pureland Buddhism as a precurser, had successively began to preach in various areas of China.Being an important costal city and a bustling port, Qingdao therefore became an important preaching target for Japanese Buddhism.In March 1898, the Qing government signed an humiliating and unequial treaty----"Sino-German Lease Treaty of Tsingtao", from which on Qingdao was reduced to the colony of German and opened its development process as a modern city. In 1914 when World Warâ… broke out, Japan and German fought in Qingdao. Japan defeated German and took the power from it and began the ruling of Qingdao. During the perid of the military occupation of Qingdao, the Japanese religious force came to enter in Qingdao with a influx of a great mumber of Japanese nationals. Though in 1922 China resumed the sovereignty over the government, Japan still had a previlige in Qingdao. Various aspects of forces, Japanese national and its religious activities were still active in Qingdao. Japan took the second occupation of Qingdao in 1938 after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War and it didn't reture Qingdao back to China until 1945 when it was defeated by and surrendered to the Chinese government, from then on, the Japanese forces withdrew from Qingdao completely.There emerged a mumber of Buddhist groups and facilities in Qingdao, such as the Nishi Hongan-ji Qingdao Betsuin, the Hgashi Hongan-ji Qingdao Betsuin and the Myoshin-ji Betsuin. On one hand, they served for the nationals, and on the other hand, they were used to hold the memorial ceremonies for the soothing souls of deceased persons, which could inspire the alive and enhance the troop morale as well as offer spiritual supports for the aggressive war. Otani Kozui, the abbot of the Nishi Hongan-ji sub-sect of PureLand Buddhism, had been to Qingdao for several times and once had planned to settle down in Qingdao as his permanent residence. Overseas preaching in Qingdao of Japanese Buddhism had lasted 32 years, during which Otani Kozui and the Nishi Hongan-ji had a special relationship with Qingdao.During the second occupation of Qingdao, Japan adopted a series of measures and rules to consolidate their rule by which they rendered the people in occupied ares willing to be oedient and forced them to supply materials for their aggressive war. Besides the political and economic measures, they also enforced a series of religious policies to strengthen its rule in the North China. They set up institutions such as Buddhist Common Wish to further strengthen the control of the monks. They bolstered the morale of the troops and tried to control their spirits so that the soldiers were not afraid of death for the sake of the Great East Asia Co-prosperity.The activities of overseas preaching this paper discusses are typical examples of war-service that the Japanese government put religion into the war system. Based on the archives, old newspapers and magzines, prior studies, and through field survy,this paper examines the the relationship between the overseas preaching of Japanese Buddhism and Qingdao and tries to maka an objective evaluation on reasons why Japanese Buddhism didn't ultimately make a successful preaching in China.