Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1967. / Also available in print.

This project explores the evolution of medieval Chinese Buddhist perspectives on dreams through a series of in-depth comparisons between the oneiric narratives preserved in Huijiao's (慧皎) "Biographies of Eminent Monks" (Gaoseng zhuan 高僧傳 [GSZ]) and Daoxuan's (道宣) "Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks" (Xu gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳 [XGSZ]), drawing inspiration from contemporary Sinological and Buddhist Studies scholarship, as well as anthropological and psychological perspectives on dreaming. In addition to using these comparisons to address questions related to the diachronic transformation of Chinese Buddhist thought and practice from the early sixth to mid-seventh centuries, I also posit (and provide evidence for) the hypothesis that dreams (and the stories told about them) represent a potent conceptual metaphor for the “betwixt and between” experience of liminality: a hypothesis that I hope inspires discussion and debate in the broader oneirological community. I approach these topics through four interrelated case studies. Chapter One uses dream narratives to investigate the various modes of oneiric practice ascribed to Chinese monks (and laypeople) in GSZ and XGSZ, focusing on three specific subtopics (dream telling, dream interpretation, and dream incubation) to evaluate the differences between the episodes preserved in both collections. Chapter Two examines the differing ways that Huijiao and Daoxuan engaged with both Chinese and (Indian) Buddhist oneiric conception tropes when describing the birth and early lives of exemplary monks. Chapter Three posits that Huijiao and Daoxuan made distinctive (and historically-situated) use of oneiric narratives to help situate China within the imagined geographies of contemporary Chinese Buddhists. Finally, Chapter Four explores the distinctive ways that oneiric narratives were used in GSZ and XGSZ to negotiate the interactions between exemplary Buddhists and indigenous Chinese religious practices, practitioners and deities. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis, a comparison of the concepts of buddha-nature and dao-nature in the medieval period (from the 5th to the 10th centuries) of China, presents a historical investigation of the formation of the idea that insentient things are able to possess buddha-nature in medieval Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism, the concept of buddha-nature was originally defined as a potential possessed by sentient beings that enabled them to achieve buddhahood. From the 6th century, the concept was reinterpreted within the Chinese Buddhist tradition so that insentient things were also able to possess buddha-nature. Recent scholarship has pointed out that the idea of insentient things having buddha-nature is a combination of Buddhist and Daoist ideas based on the concept of the all-pervading Dao found in the Zhuangzi 莊子. In this sense, buddha-nature seems to be interpreted as equivalent with the Dao of Daoism. My project suggests that the reinterpretation of buddha-nature in association with the insentient realm should be elucidated in a more nuanced way than the idea of all-pervasiveness of the Dao. A historical, doctrinal investigation of the intellectual formation of the concept of buddha-nature in Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism demonstrates a new interpretation of buddha-nature in the context of insentient things having buddha-nature. Further, through a historical investigation of intellectual exchange between Buddhism and Daoism, some evidence provided in this project illustrates that the idea of insentient things having dao-nature in Daoism was not inherited from Buddhism, but drawn from Daoist tradition. This new perspective is different from that of some contemporary scholars who have claimed that the idea of insentient things having dao-nature was borrowed from Chinese Buddhism. A chronological investigation of the discussion of nature in Chinese thought demonstrates that the idea of insentient things having buddha-nature incorporates earlier Daoist traditions found in Arcane Study. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Yongming Yanshou has been defined in previous scholarship as a "Chan Master," though I contend this designation does little to clarify the type of Buddhism he professed. In this thesis I argue that Yanshou viewed the Chan tradition as a movement completely integrated with the scriptural-based Chinese Buddhist traditions of his day, and Chan lineage, a primary feature around which the Song Chan tradition would base themselves, was only of peripheral concern. Instead, Yanshou took the Chan teachings and the scriptural traditions present in the mid-tenth century and organized them all under the "axiom of the one-mind" (yixin zong). This axiom formed the ontological foundation on which all of Yanshou's Buddhist theory and concepts are based, and through an investigation centering around the concept of li ("principle") in the extant writings of both Yanshou and Zongmi, I argue that Yanshou equated the one-mind (yixin) with li in a way that Zongmi never did, and li for Yanshou became synonymous with the axiom of the one-mind as Yanshou's ontic basis. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

本文旨在通過對北京龍泉寺的個案研究，結合其他佛教團體的情況，分析中國佛教在移動互聯網時代下的轉變和特點，討論此時國家政策、科學技術、社會環境、文化發展等多方面的互動，探究中國佛教的適應性及未來的發展趨勢。 本文希望：一、在時間縱向上，清楚地敘述北京龍泉寺在21世紀的發展歷程，將工程建設、僧團培養、居士發展、組織架構、學修內容、弘法模式、受眾群體等方面的變化分條縷析。二、綜合國家政策、科技發展、社會環境、經濟條件、人才資源、自身理念等方面，分析龍泉寺快速發展、技術跟進、受關注度不斷提升的原因，討論其獨特性和普遍性。三、從歷史學、社會學和宗教學理論出發，探究龍泉寺發展歷程對於佛教教理、教團建設、弘法活動等的影響，及對未來中國佛教和世界佛教可能帶來的改變。 / This research investigates how temples adapt to the modern society when the mobile Internet becomes prevalent in China. The case studies of Beijing Longquan Monastery, along with explorations of other modern Chinese Buddhist organizations will be carried out to answer this research question. The research will cover the changes of work-division structure, Buddhism teaching and spreading activity, Sangha and volunteer recruit and training, new tool and technique application, and other changes. Subsequently, the research will discuss the Chinese economic, political, social and cultural environments that surround the Buddhist temples and organizations, searching connections and reasons to these changes of Chinese temples when encounter the new era.

The Tuoba's success in the making of the Northern Wei as a conquest dynasty in fifth century northern China will be argued in this thesis as a result of their ability to cross between the traditions and practices of the Chinese sphere and those of the Eurasian steppe, through the construction of a "dual presence" in the Pingcheng period (398-494 CE). A negotiation of material culture in this formative phase of state-building allowed for new notions of kingship, dynastic identity, and representations of daily life to be (re)created. This was manifested separately through the application of mountain-side stone sculptures, tomb repertoires, as well as the conception of Pingcheng as a capital city. The material cultural expressions explored in this thesis reflect significant changes in the socio-cultural atmosphere at this point in history. In effect, these ritual, funerary, and commemorative discourses wove together to create new notions of "Chineseness" in fifth century northern China. In the following discussion, we will come to recognize the Tuoba’s maintenance of a "dual presence", not only as "Son of Heaven" to the conquered subjects, but also carrying over practices that befit a Khagan in the Central Asian tradition, as an act of ingenuity.