Subject: 和尚 héshàng monk

Culture: Chinese Buddhist

Setting: late Ming empire, China 16-17thc

Event Photos

* Tong 1991 p79-80

"[T]hanks to imperial largess, the Ming government gave monks their daily bread. At least during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong (1488-1505), an annual stipend of 6 shi of rice (approximately 0.3 metric tons) was given to each ordained Buddhist monk or Taoist priest. In the early Ming, there was a quota of 20 stipened monks and priests per county, 30 for each zhou, and 40 for each prefecture. The total number, then, should amount to only 37,090, since there were only 147 prefectures, 277 zhou, and 1,145 counties. By the time of Emperor Yingzong (1436--49), the number of ordained monks and priests far exceeded the prescribed quotas. In 1466 alone 132,200 were ordained, as were 113,300 in 1476 and another 224,500 in 1486.

"Although many may have chosen monastic life out of religious commitment, there are indications that a substantial number sought ordination for worldly reasons. A considerable number immediately sold their ordination papers for a price. Many others indulged in sins that flesh is heir to. Most monks in Shanxi, for instance, abstained from neither meat nor wine, and those in Beijing led such scandalous lives that in 1469 the authorities banned women from visiting temples in the imperial capital. A decree of 1474 restricting the number of ordinations concluded: 'Monks who are ascetic and closely follow monastic rites are fewer than one in a hundred.'"

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Field Notes