Buddhism Revamped for Socialism: The Monastic Economy on Mount Jiuhua from 1949 to 1966

Abstract

This article explores rarely accessed local archives to reveal the fate of a renowned area of Buddhist activity—Mount Jiuhua—from 1949 to 1966 and the impact of the Chinese Communist Party regime’s economic and religious policies on the region’s religious communities. Specifically, it examines how the authorities attempted to utilize all the tangible and intangible resources of the Buddhist communities on Mount Jiuhua—including human capital, land, buildings, religious instruments made of metal, and cultural and historical status—to consolidate their grip on power and stimulate the area’s economic development. While the local cadres encouraged young clerics to disrobe, forced others to engage in physical labor, confiscated monastic landholdings, and expropriated metal instruments, they also dispensed relief to elderly and disabled clerics and funded the renovation of key monasteries. In the face of this unprecedented interference, the clerics made full use of the mountain’s reputation to argue with the authorities and renegotiate the boundaries of legitimate religious activities.