Republic Of Buddhist Philanthropy Research

After introduced to China, Buddhism was fused and combined with Chinese culture, anddeveloped gradually from the prosperity to the flagging in two thousand years. Under thebackground of the severe social transformation in modern times, Buddhism was an essential partof Chinese traditional culture, but the decline of Buddhism itself and the fusion with westerncivilization made the Chinese Buddhism fall to life-and-death situation, which urged Buddhismto started thinking and reflecting on itself---how to restore the Buddhism image among people.Therefore as an important part of the Buddhism renaissance, Buddhist charity flourished atmovement of the modern Buddhism revival.The tradition of Buddhist charity developed with the development of Buddhism in China,Buddhism`s advocating creeds and benefiting the livelihood had been a significant group ofcharity in the ancient Chinese society, which played an important role in such aspects---socialrelief, giving away clothes and medicines, mercy and protecting the lives and advisingrenovation. Buddhist charity in the Republic of China was based on the inheritance of thetraditional Buddhist charity, absorbing the concept of some western philanthropy organizationmanagement and then developing gradually, which while had its inherent ideological motivation,namely the Buddhist view of compassion, retribution for sin, futian ideology, which under theenvironment of the republic of China had inheritance and development, eventually promoting thestandardization and institutionalization of the Buddhist charity.The period of the republic of China is the most turbulent times in modern Chinese societywhich saw the occurrence of disasters and the concepts of charity conflict between Chinese andwestern blends, and Buddhism`s seeking to revive, because of the direct threat of thephenomenon of temples property for education" and the need of social reality, actively promotedcharity activities and played an important role in social relief in the period of the republic ofChina.Buddhist charity in the republic of China was widespread, in which charity assembly was the most special Buddhist charity relief way, having religious characteristic while with lessprevious. Buddhist included a number of kinds of assemblies, of which the main ones aboutcharity were disaster reduction and praying assembly and releasing and protecting animals in theprocess of assembly. Frequent disasters happened in modern China, Buddhists sought thesolution from Buddhist philosophy, releasing disaster and forbidding killing the animals to peacethe country, which were the specific practices of Buddhist charity about the national salvation.Besides the charity assembly, Buddhist full charity was on a roll across China about disasterrelief, medical treatment, education charity and charity publicity, which had great contribution tostabilizing the social order.The all-round development of Buddhist charity in republic of China could hardly dowithout the operation of Buddhist organizations and lay Buddhist people group. During theperiod of the republic of China, the establishment of the Buddhist organizations was getting ridof the traditional Buddhism temple on new forms, which also became a main force of Buddhistcharity through the operation mode of the organization. The standardization and efficiency of theBuddhist charity were greatly improved and well received by society. Shortly Buddhist monkswere the main body of philanthropy, and during the period of the republic of China, layBuddhists were interested in all kinds of charity relief activities, Which were discussed as a partof lay Buddhists`taking part in social affairs, but lay Buddhists`mercy had more profoundsignificance.Buddhist charity development and the political situation changes are closely linked, in eachregime adopted different Buddhist policies, so the influence of Buddhist charity also has thevery big difference.The Anti-Japanese War is the significant events in modern Chinese history,during the period of which Chinese Buddhists also launched comprehensive Anti-Japanesepropaganda activities, and the field ambulance activities, but the dialogue and negotiationbetween Chinese and Japanese Buddhism failed to prevent the ambitions of Japanese. BetweenChina, Japan and southeastern Asia Buddhism maintained friendly exchanges in Buddhism, andChinese and foreign Buddhist exchanges and communication on philanthropy, opened thehorizon of Chinese Buddhist charity, especially after the victory of the war. Thinking Buddhist charity during the period of the republic of China, we can see thedifferences between Buddhist charity and modern charity like the Red Cross in China; it is alsodifferent from Christian charity career in China. At the same time Buddhist charity has someregional characteristics because of the unbalance of modern Buddhism economy in regional level.Buddhist sects decide the role of Buddhist charity, which should be paid attention in the study onBuddhist charity.In general, Buddhist charity has played a role in relief for aiding the disadvantaged,alleviating the pressure of society and stabling social order, and at the time caused a certainreaction at home and abroad during the period of the republic of China. Summing up theexperience and lessons of Buddhist charity of the republic of China, we can get a gooddevelopment in the contemporary Chinese Buddhist charity.