216 CHAPTER EIGHTofferings to spirits or ancestors, resorting to a geomancer to bring the yin and
yang forces in the environment back into balance, or seeking out a doctor to
deal with the physical causes of the disease. Thus a person who participates in
a Buddhist ritual is not necessarily a committed Buddhist; by the same token,
a committed Buddhist might find it advisable at times to hire the services of a
non-Buddhist ritual specialist. The Buddhist techniques for dealing with the
invisible forces acting on life, then, are simply one set of alternatives among
many that an individual may choose to follow on an ad hoc basis, much as
he/she might choose to take Western or Chinese medicine depending on the
nature of a particular disease. This ad hoc approach to religion in dealing with
mundane issues is especially noticeable in China because the traditional alter-
natives to Buddhism are also organized religions, but it is typical of the rela-
tionship between Buddhism and spirit cults throughout the Asian Buddhist
world (see Sections 9.5, 10.4, 11.5).
8.8 Modern Chinese Buddhism
When the Communists took control of the mainland in 1949, monks and
nuns were treated as social parasites. The new regime confiscated Buddhist
properties in 1951, depriving monastics of the livelihood they had previously
earned by providing services for the lay community. Young monastics were
returned to lay status. Older ones were put to work farming, weaving, run-
ning vegetarian restaurants, or teaching school. Ordination was discouraged,
and the Sangha became an institution of the aged.
In 1953 .the government established a Chinese Buddhist Association to
impose direct control over Buddhist institutions and their contacts with inter-
national Buddhist organizations. Famous and beautiful old temples were main-
tained at government expense, Buddhist art works were safeguarded, and sites
such as the Yiin-kang caves were designated national treasures. However, the
Cultural Revolution (1966-76) signaled an abrupt and destructive change in
policy. Rampaging Red Guards targeted Buddhist sites as remnants of the feu-
dalistic past that stood in the way of their new order. Many monks and nuns
fled China for Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Currently, however, the government is gradually easing its policies of reli~
gious repression. A turning point occurred in 1989, when a Buddhist delega-
tion from Taiwan undertook a tour of Buddhist sites with the official sanction
of the Communist regime. Temples and shrines ransacked during the Cultural
Revolution are being rebuilt, often with the help of outside sources in Tai-
wan, Hong Kong, North America, and Japan. Defrocked nuns and monks, n()
longer routinely denounced as "parasites," are being allowed to resume thei~
monastic lives. The motivations here are both spiritual and economic. Those
who persisted in their Buddhist faith despite official denunciations welcom~
an increasing sense of individual freedom. Government bureaucrats, howevei,;:
have an eye on the lucrative tourist trade.