This volume seeks to chart and elucidate the diverse relationships between the religious and secular spheres in regions of Asia that were significantly influenced – sometimes even dominated – by Buddhist discourses, ideas, and institutions. These regions include South Asia (India, Sri Lanka), East and Southeast Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam), Inner Asia (Buryatia, Mongolia, Tibet), and the Himalayan region (Bhutan). These regions were connected by communicative networks long before the global modern age. They constituted an intricately entangled discursive sphere, shaped by the cross-regional spread of concepts and ideas from Buddhism and, in East Asia, Confucianism. The volume sheds light on the prehistory and development of culturally specific forms of secularity, and related concepts, in Asia. It comprises a wide range of texts spanning approximately 2000 years; in many cases this is the first time that they have been presented in English. The texts here are not merely reproduced, but are also introduced and contextualized. Through these materials, the volume highlights the fact that distinctions akin to those between the ‘religious’ and the ‘secular’ were already prevalent in premodern Asia, laying the groundwork for the various forms of secularity which took shape in the modern period.

lgrsnf/3 Buddhist Asia.pdf

Saur, K. G., Verlag. ein Imprint der Walter de Gruyter GmbH

düsseldorf university press. in Walter de Gruyter GmbH

de Gruyter, Walter, GmbH

Germany, Germany

Contents
Instructions for Use
About the Editors
Secularity in South Asia, East Asia, Inner Asia and the Himalayan Region: Introduction
South Asia
Buddhist India & Sri Lanka
1 The Dīgha Nikāya: The Discourse of Ambattha (ca. 5th–1st Century BCE)
2 The Dīgha Nikāya: The Discourse of the Lion’s Roar of a Wheel-Turning Monarch (ca. 5th–1st Century BCE)
3 King Kassapa V: Anurādhapura Slab Inscription (919 CE)
4 Jayabāhu Dharmakīrti: Compendium of the Buddhist Lineages (14th or 15th Century)
5 Anāgatavaṃsa (Deśanā): The Chronicle of the Future (date uncertain, before 14th Century)
6 Anāgatavaṃsa (Deśanā): Exposition of the Chronicle of the Future (ca. 14th Century)
7 The Dīgha Nikāya: The Discourse of the Lion’s Roar of a Wheel-Turning Monarch (ca. 5th–1st Century BCE)
8 D. C. Wijewardena: The Revolt in the Temple (1953)
East Asia
China
9 Mozi: Defending the Belief in the Existence of Gods and Spirits (ca. 5th Century BCE)
10 Xunzi: Rational Interpretation of Nature and the Rejection of the Belief in Spirits (ca. 3rd Century BCE)
11 The Controversy Over the Relationship Between Buddhism and the State in the Fourth Century (4th Century)
12 The Sacred and the Secular in a Medieval Chinese Buddhist Scripture – The Sūtra on the Analogy of the Physician (ca. 1000 CE)
13 Han Yu: Critique of Buddhism (819 CE)
14 Religion in the Law Codes of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1552)
15 Li Fu: The Shortcomings of Teachings Dealing with Transcendent Matters (1740)
16 Peng Guangyu: Confucianism is Not a Religion (1893)
17 Kang Youwei: Proposal to Establish Confucianism as the State Religion (1898)
18 Chen Duxiu: On the Question of a Confucian State Religion (1917)
19 Mao Zedong: Overthrowing Religious Authority (1927)
20 The Chinese Communist Party’s View on Religion (1982)
Vietnam
21 Lê Quý Đôn: Categorised Discourse from the Palace Library (1773)
Korea
22 Ch’oe Han’gi: Rectification of the Teachings and Doctrines of the World According to Heaven and Man (1833)
Japan
23 Jōkei: The Kōfukuji Petition (1205)
24 Ji’en: Notes on Foolish Views (ca. 1220)
25 Clergy of the Enryakuji: Statement by the Great Assembly [of Monks] of the Enryakuji – Notes on Stopping the [Movement of the] Single-Minded and Exclusive Practice [of Buddha- Recollection] (1224)
26 Nichiren: On the Four Stages of Faith and the Five Stages of Practice (1277)
27 Nichiren: On the Receiving of the Three Great Secret Laws (1281)
28 Zonkaku: On Destroying the False and Revealing the Correct (1344)
29 Musō Soseki: Dialogues in a Dream (1344)
30 Anonymous: Tale of the Heike (ca. 1371)
31 Rennyo: Letters of Saint Rennyo (1474/75/76)
32 Luís Fróis: Of the Conversion of Dōsan (1585)
33 Anonymous: Decree on Banishing Christian Missionaries (1587)
34 Ishin Sūden: Statement on the Expulsion of the Missionaries (1614)
35 Shingyō: Mountains, Seas and Villages (1825)
36 Shimaji Mokurai: The Source of Religion (1872)
37 Fukuda Gidō: Discussing the Primacy of the Ruler’s Law in the True School [of Pure Land Buddhism] (1877)
38 Hakoya Tokuryō: On the Doctrine of Buddha Dharma and Ruler’s Law Being Like Wheels and Wings (1887)
39 Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō: A New Theory of Religion (Shin-shūkyō ron新宗教論, 1896)
40 The Treatment of ‘Religion’ in the Constitutions of Japan (1889, 1947) and Proposed Revisions to Articles 20 and 89 of the Postwar Constitution by the Liberal Democratic Party (2012)
41 The Liberal Democratic Party’s Constitutional Reform Promotion Department: Questions and Answers to the Draft Proposal for Revisions to the Constitution of Japan (2013)
42 Supreme Commander of Allied Powers (SCAP): The Shinto Directive 15 December 1945
43 Yoshihiko Ashizu: The Shinto Directive and Constitution from the Standpoint of a Shintoist (1960)
44 Shinshū Ōtani-ha: Resolution Against the ‘Revision’ of the Fundamental Law of Education (2004) and Comment by the Shinshū Ōtani-ha President on the ‘Revision of the Organ Transplant Law’ (2009)
Inner Asia and the Himalayas
Tibet
45 The Fifth Dalai Lama: The Pearl Rosary: Advice on Combining the Two Traditions (undated, ca. 1645)
46 Doring Tenzin Penjor: The Biography of Doring Paṇḍita (ca. 1806)
47 Gendun Chopel: Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler (1940/1941)
Bhutan
48 Zhapdrung Ngawang Namgyel: Sixteen I’s (ca. first half 17th Century)
49 Bhutanese Legal Code from 1729
Mongolia
50 Qutuγtai Sečen Qung Tayiji, comp.: The White History of the Ten Meritorious Doctrines (16th Century)
51 Zava Damdin Lubsangdamdin: Annotations that Clarify the Meaning of Some of the Holy Emperors’ Secret Prophecies (1924)
Buryatia
52 Wangdan Yum čüng: History of the Qori Buryats (1875)
List of Figures
Global Secularity. A Sourcebook

2025-04-10