Ritual, Ceremony, and Everyday Life in Chinese Buddhist Monasteries

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of Chinese Buddhist rituals and their pivotal role in shaping both Chinese Buddhism and broader Chinese culture. This book offers a comprehensive exploration of Chinese Buddhist rituals and their pivotal role in shaping both Chinese Buddhism and broader Chinese culture. Translated from the revised and enlarged Chinese edition of Zhongguo hanchuan fojiao liyi by Shengkai (Commercial Press, 2020), it addresses a significant gap in current scholarship: the underrepresentation of ritual practices in the study of Chinese Buddhism’s development. While previous research has largely focused on doctrinal, philosophical, and ethical dimensions, this volume emphasizes ritual as a dynamic site of cultural interaction. It argues that the encounter between Indian and Chinese civilizations during Buddhism’s transmission to China was not merely theoretical but deeply embodied in ritual forms. These ceremonies served as a medium through which foreign religious ideas were localized, negotiated, and ultimately integrated into Chinese society. Despite the abundance of surviving ritual texts, the book highlights the difficulty of reconstructing how these rituals were performed in practice. It calls attention to the need for a more nuanced understanding of ritual as lived experience, not just textual tradition. By foregrounding ritual, this book contributes to a richer, more holistic view of Chinese Buddhism and its cultural legacy.