A Study On Master Yuan-ying’s Harmony Thoughts

Master Yuan-ying, as a patriotic and senior monk in the period of theRepublic of China, his many thoughts were characterized by harmony orchasing after harmony, which was interactively reflected by traditionalharmony ideas of Buddhism and Chinese eminent monks’ harmony essence.The studies on Yuan-ying’s thoughts by former scholars are almost level inappearance, so they are unable to reveal the harmony character of his ideas.But this dissertation has a whole description for Master Yuan-ying’s thoughts,analyzing both its connotation and denotation, which helps grasp his harmonythoughts more deeply. The above is the theoretical significance of this thesis.Besides, Master Yuan-ying’s harmony thoughts probably can deal with thesecularization disadvantages of nowadays humanistic Buddhism’s carrying onto a certain extent and help realize peace today, which is the main practicalimplications of the thesis.The thesis divides into four parts: The introduction tells the origin andpurpose of this study, the definition of some related concepts and so on; Thefirst chapter discusses the historical background and origin of MasterYuan-ying’s harmony thoughts, introducing the environment of his times andhis own growth experiences, to make clear how his harmony thoughtsgenerate; The second chapter explains Master Yuan-ying’s harmony thoughtsspirit, introducing from the external representations such as his conception ofpracticing both Zen and Pure Land Buddhism, aspiration of promoting bothConfucianism and Buddhism, pragmatic approach for Buddhism reform,loyalty to both country and Buddhism Association, then deep into the internalprinciples such as Mahayana Bodhisattva faith, self enlightenment and thesense that reputation must conform to substance; The third chapter probes intothe impacts and value of Master Yuan-ying’s harmony thoughts, not only therevitalization for Chinese language Buddhism and the cultivation for the public at his times, but also nowadays as the guideline for the practice ofhumanistic Buddhism and the benefit to social harmony and world peace. Thethesis mainly uses Documental Analysis Method and sociology of religionview, then comes to a basic conclusion that Master Yuan-ying’s thoughtscontain the spirits of harmony or chasing after harmony, and his harmonythoughts can help practice nowadays humanistic Buddhism and realize peacein the world today.The thesis has three points of innovation: Firstly, it reveals the harmonycharacter of Master Yuan-ying’s thoughts; Secondly, it discusses MasterYuan-ying’s harmony thoughts comprehensively and thoroughly, showing hisharmony thoughts systematically for the first time; Thirdly, it demonstratesthat Yuan-ying was a pragmatic Buddhist leader in the aspect of Buddhismreform, which strongly fights back some opinion that considers Yuan-ying asan incompetent and stubborn opponent of Buddhism reform at that time.