Cross-Strait Relations
I analyze cross-strait relations (relations between China and Taiwan) through the use of Buddhism. Particularly, I look at how Taiwanese institutions (such as Fo Guang Shan (佛光山) or Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟基金會)) conduct business within Mainland China and how the Chinese government uses Buddhism to advance unification goals and religious tolerance.
Gang of Four Trial
The Gang of Four Trial was a 1980-1 trial in China against ten defendants in a repudiating of the Cultural Revolution. The trial is best known for being against the eponymous Gang of Four: Jiang Qing (江青), Zhang Chunqiao (張春橋), Yao Wenyuan (姚文元), and Wang Hongwen (王洪文). I find it to be really fascinating and wrote a 17 page paper about it for a class (maybe eventually I'll put it on here...). It's the moment that Mao's Cultural Revolution changed into Deng's Reform and Opening Up and should receive more attention by historians of contemporary China.
Kṣitigarbha
Kṣitigarbha (in Chinese, 地藏) is a bodhisattva primarily venerated in East Asia. His vow was primarily to not achieve Buddhahood until all the hell realms were empty. I find him to be a very interesting figure, but one that isn't studied too often given that he is less important in Buddhist cosmology and lay practice in comparison to his bodhisattva bretheren Mañjuśrī/文殊, Avalokiteśvara/觀音, and Maitreya/彌勒, or the buddhas Tārā/多羅 and Bhaiṣayjaguru/藥師佛. He is much more popular in Japan as Jizō, but with my focus on Han Chinese Buddhisms I look at his worship in Han Chinese areas.
- Kṣitigarbha - Wikipedia
- Sources I need to read:
- Jiang, Xiao. “Dizang and the Three Kings: Constructing Buddhist Hell by Imitating the Bureaucratic System in the Tang Dynasty.” Religions 13, no. 4 (2022): 317. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040317.
- Ng, Zhiru. The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva: Dizang in Medieval China. Studies in East Asian Buddhism 21. University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.
- Ouyang, Nan. Constructing the Divine Abode of Dizang Bodhisattva: Mount Jiuhua in Late Imperial China (14th–20th Century). Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2026 174. Brill, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004741980.
- Wu, Bin. “From the Underworld to the Pure Land: Contemporary Ksitigarbha (Dizang)-Related Rituals on Mount Jiuhua.” Dissertation, University of the West, 2016.
- Yü, Chün-fang, and Yao Chongxin. “Guanyin and Dizang: The Creation of a Chinese Buddhist Pantheon.” Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques 70, no. 3 (2016): 757–96. https://doi.org/10.1515/asia-2015-0031.
- Zong, Zhang. “Comment le bodhisattva Dizang est parvenu à gouverner les Dix Rois des Enfers.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 17, no. 1 (2008): 265–91. https://doi.org/10.3406/asie.2008.1279.
Maitreya Millenarianism
Maitreya millenarianism refers to a strand of belief that was popular in late imperial China where the bodhisattva Maitreya was believed to be arriving soon to save people from the turmoil of the times. This is exemplified in White Lotus Societies (白蓮社).
State-Saṅgha Relations
This is what I consider to be my main research question: how does Buddhism interact with the state? Although I call it state-saṅgha relations, I do pay some attention to lay practice as well. I primarily look at this in China with the Buddhist Association of China, but I want to also take a comparative lens at some point and look at other national saṅghas, particularly in Vietnam and Laos.