Vernacular Modernism: Humanistic Buddhism from Below in Bade, Taiwan

Abstract:The study of Humanistic Buddhism in Taiwan has typically focused on its largest, most elite representatives. These institutions are a smaller and less representative section of Buddhism in Taiwan than they might appear, however. This paper will take a different angle: looking at Humanistic Buddhism not from above, but from below; not through multinational monastic-led organizations, but through a local working-class lay community; not as a discreet tradition, but as part of a broader religious market. My subject will be the Maitreya Lay Buddhist Lodge, where we find a "vernacular modernism" in which core ideas and orientations of Buddhist modernism are articulated within a broader religious field marked by enduring dynamics and tensions identified in studies of late imperial Chinese religion.摘要:一般來講，關於台灣人間佛教的研究著重於最大型、最精英的團體。不過這些團體在全面台灣佛教佔的比率沒有人想像的那麼大，其代表性也有限。本文以另外一個角度來看人間佛教：非從上而下而從下而上，非通過以僧團為領導人員的跨國機構而通過社區型工人階級的在家團體，非視為分離的傳統而視為宗教市場的一部分。本文主題為慈氏居士林。在那裡可以看到一個「通俗現代主義」。此是佛教現代主義核心觀念與方向在一個仍然以明清民間宗教動力與張力為特征的廣泛宗教場域得到表現。