Practicing Scripture
Subtitle: A Lay Buddhist Movement in Late Imperial China
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 312
ISBN-13: 9780824839277
Subjects: Buddhism, china
Description: "Practicing Scripture is an original and detailed history of one of the most successful religious movements of late imperial China, the Non-Action Teachings, or Wuweijiao, from its beginnings in the late sixteenth century in the prefectures of southern Zhejiang to the middle of the twentieth century, when communist repression dealt it a crippling blow. Uncovering important data on its beliefs and practices, Barend ter Haar paints a wholly new picture of the group, which, despite its Daoist-sounding name, was a deeply devout lay Buddhist movement whose adherents rejected the worship of statues and ancestors while venerating the writings of Patriarch Luo (fl. early sixteenth century), a soldier-turned-lay Buddhist"--