Buddhism Under Mao

Although he admits it was "more difficult to write" than the other two volumes in his trilogy on twentieth century Chinese Buddhism, Holmes Welch has brought to Buddhism Under Mao the same meticulous scholarship, the same attention to detail and lucidity of style that characterized The Practice of Chinese Buddhism 1900-1950 and The Buddhist Revival in China. But he has failed to bring to it the same sympathy and understanding. This was perhaps inevitable, and it is with mixed reactions that one welcomes the book. In 386 pages of text, almost two hundred pages of notes, and eight appendices, Mr. Welch tells what he calls the "dreary tale" of Buddhism in China since 1949—dreary, not because it is dull to read (it is just the opposite), but because it is essentially a dirge, lamenting the slow demise of Buddhism— from the dispossession of the monastic landholdings and the consequent "decimation of the Sangha," through the control and "restriction" of religious activities and the use of Buddhism in foreign policy, to its "disappearance" at the onset of the Cultural Revolution. (Although it should be pointed out that Mr. Welch does protect himself by allowing for the possible reappareance of Buddhism, which has indeed now occurred.) Throughout, Mr. Welch is biased, as he tells us, against the liquidation of Chinese Buddhism; and this bias, he explains, is occasionally expressed in "indignant asides." One may wonder whether this justifies his inclusion, among the many fine and rare photographs of monks and monasteries, a picture of young people pulling handcarts in Hangchow "lest [we] forget that in China not everybody has a car" (cf. fig. 35.i). Still, behind most of the biases, there is a basic truth: Buddhism has not thrived "under Mao," even though some of those who are enamored both with Chinese Buddhism as it used to be and with China as it is today might not want to have this fact rubbed in. The main trouble with the book does not lie in its representation of the facts. This is a JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES