A Study On The Monastic Economy And Management In Nanbu County,Sichuan During The Qing Dynasty

In Nanbu County,Sichuan Province,the development of Buddhism experienced the trough of warfare at the end of the Ming Dynasty,and then redeveloped with the return of population and economic recovery in Nanbu County during the Qing Dynasty.The official administration of Buddhism was certainly intended to centralize and strengthen power,and to enable Buddhism to better participate in social affairs and perform social functions to a certain extent.From the archives of the Nanbu County ofice,the sources of temple property in Nanbu County in the Qing Dynasty were mainly from three sources,including donations from benefactors,support from the government and the monks’ own labor.In Nanbu County,since agriculture and salt industry accounted for an absolute proportion of the secular economy,the operation of the monastery economy was mainly based on these two fields.In order to operate the monastic property,it was inevitable that the property would be transferred among monks and between monks and laymen,thus the issue of property rights of the monastic property also became very important.Unlike the precepts of early Buddhism,in the Qing Dynasty,a large number of monks owned private property in Nanbu County,which shows that the monastic economy was also influenced by the secular economy under the private sector commodity economy.The outflow of monastic property is also a major way to reflect the economic situation of monasteries.From the archives of government of the Nanbu County,the monasteries in Nanbu County during the Qing Dynasty had two main types of monastic outflows:daily expenses and special expenses.Daily expenditure is the normal expenditure to maintain the survival of monks and the faith activities of the monastery,which is the necessary expenditure of the monastery.However,in Nanbu County in the Qing Dynasty,monasteries also had a large amount of expenses outside the budget.Both from the inside,some monks deliberately corrupted the monastic property;and from the outside,local gangsters maliciously invaded the monastic property.There is also the "monastic property for education" policy implemented by the government to force the monastery to pay part of the monastic property based on the regime.These special expenses greatly damaged the economic basis of the existence of the monasteries,which was a manifestation of the declining Buddhism in Nanbu County in the late Qing Dynasty and also accelerated the decay of Buddhism in Nanbu County.