Monastery Economy

In the world of today, religion, the hot issue has received increasing attention, before, we always studied religion from doctrinal, cultural and historical viewpoints, but seldom researched and analyzed it from economic angle. This dissertation takes the monastery economy of Buddhism, Taoism, Islamism, Christianity and Catholicism in China as an object of study. On the base of the historical study and realistic analyses, it is aim to explain that the phenomenon of the monastery economy is the necessity of the social and historical development in China, is an important component of feudal society's economy in ancient China, and is an inevitable result of religious free policy in contemporary China.The introduction deals with raising questions and the significance of choosing this research topic. It expounds the scope of the study and the methods of writing.Part I is the knowledge of the monastery and the monastery economy. It sets forth the emergence, the definition and the types of the monastery that is the material carrier of religion. It introduces that the monastery is an inevitable result of the spread of religion in China. It analyzes the definition and economic functions of the monastery economy that is the material base of the existence and the spread of religion. It also analyzes the formation and features of the monastery economy. At the same time, it sums up main types of the property's management.Part II discusses historical studies of Chinese monastery economy. Taking history as the starting point, it gives a detailed study on Chinese monastery economy during the history and explains that the monastery economy is an inevitable result of the feudal patriarchal clan system in China. At that time, since the religious power had to obey the state power, so the existence of the monastery economy was aim to satisfy the needs of ruling class and gave service to them. Therefore, it was controlled and made use of by ruling class as a tool. As a result, the monastery economy of a certain religion that was paid more attention developed very well, whereas the monastery economy declined. The focal point of this part is to research the feudal character of Buddhist and Taoist monastery economy in Chinese Han areas in the history, to analyze how the monastery economy became the important component of the feudal patriarchal economy and the reason of the emergence of the landlord economy of Buddhist monasteries.Part III is a realistic study of Chinese monastery economy. It comprehensively analyzes the situation and features of the five great religions since the founding of New China. It fully explains that the existence of the contemporary monastery economy in China is the result of proper implementation of the religious free policy. It proves that all contemporary religions in China can be guided by the principle of "self-supporting, self-spreading and autonomy", and also can maintain independence, keep the initiative and achieve self-reliance. Meanwhile, they can cast off the support of foreign religious forces. This part emphasizes on the analysisand proving of the particular position and functions of the monastery that is an economic phenomenon in Tibetan areas.Part IV discusses the relationship between the monastery economy and other economies. It generally analyzes the monastery economy's relationships to the ethnic economy, the national economy and the economic globalization. This part explains that the monastery economy cannot exist alone and it must have connections with the nation, the society and the world. It emphasizes that the monastery economy is a significant component of the ethnic economy, for it promotes the development of the regional economy and public welfare. In the end, it stresses that the monastery economy is inevitably influenced by modernization and secularization because of the economic globalization. Only by strengthening the ability of religious self-supporting, we can guard against foreign religious forces that attempt to infiltrate into our religions through economic inf...