On The Space-time Characteristics Of The Evolution Of Buddhist Religion In Shanghai And The Yangtze River Delta During The Late Qing Dynasty And The Era Of The Republic Of China

Most of current historical researches on the Buddhistactivities in neoteric Shanghai are often found to be too general descriptions of the development of the Buddhist religion, which leaves much to be expected in the exploitation of documents as well as in the researching methods. In this thesis, on the geographic point of view, the author is intended to collect information chiefly from the Buddhist publications in the neoteric times and from other relevant documents, so as to carry out a thorough investigation into the evolution of Buddhist religion in neoteric Shanghai and in the neoteric Yangtze River Delta. The method of itemization is adopted in this thesis to clarify the description and facilitate the comparison, and the three selected items are respectively temple-market sites, Buddhist publications and Buddhist schools. This thesis attempts to offer a detailed account of their space-time evolution, and further on to find out the space-time characteristics of the evolution of Buddhist religion in neoteric Shanghai and in the Yangtze River Delta.