• Walter POHL – Andre GINGRICH (Eds.)

medieval worlds • no. 6 • 2017

Religious Exemption in Pre-Modern Eurasia, C. 300-1300 CE

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MEDIEVAL WORLDS provides a new forum for interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Specifically it encourages and links comparative research between different regions and fields and promotes methodological innovation in transdisciplinary studies. Focusing on the Middle Ages (c. 400-1500 CE, but can be extended whenever thematically fruitful or appropriate), MEDIEVAL WORLDS takes a global approach to studying history in a comparative setting.
MEDIEVAL WORLDS is open to regular submissions on comparative topics, but also offers the possibility to propose or advertise subjects that lend themselves to comparison. With a view to connecting people working on related topics in different academic environments, we publish calls for matching articles and for contributions on particular issues.


Table of Contents

Religious Exemption in Pre-Modern Eurasia, c. 300 – 1300 CE: Introduction
Charles West

Treasures in Heaven: Defining the Eurasian Old Regime?
R. I. Moore

Envisioning a No-Man’s Land: Hermitage as a Site of Exemption in Ancient and Early Medieval Indian Literature
Kanad Sinha

Evolving Relationship between the Buddhist Monastic Order and the Imperial States of Medieval China
Mario Poceski

The Normative Character of Monastic Exemption in the Early Medieval Latin West
Kriston R. Rennie

Clerical Exemption in Canon Law from Gratian to the Decretals
Anne J. Duggan

Nothing to Declare: Status, Power and Religious Aspiration in the Policies of Taxation in Ancient India
Ulrich Pagel

Exemption Not Granted: The Confrontation between Buddhism and the Chinese State in Late Antiquity and the ‘First Great Divergence’ Between China and Western Eurasia
Antonello Palumbo

The Political Significance of Gifts of Power in the Khmer and Mercian Kingdoms 793-926
Dominic Goodall and Andrew Wareham

Conversion, Exemption, and Manipulation: Social Benefits and Conversion to Islam in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Uriel Simonsohn

Religious Exemption, Justice, and Territories around the Year 1000: The Forgeries of Worms
Thomas Kohl

The Exemption that Proves the Rule: Autonomy and Authority between Alcuin, Theodulf and Charlemagne (802)
Rutger Kramer

From Symbiosis to Separate Spheres? England, 1163
Judith A. Green

Religious Exemption and Global History before 1300 – Closing Comments
Julia McClure

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medieval worlds • no. 6 • 2017

ISSN 2412-3196
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ISBN 978-3-7001-8243-6
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Evolving Relationship between the Buddhist Monastic Order and the Imperial States of Medieval China

    Mario Poceski

medieval worlds • no. 6 • 2017, pp. 40-60, 2017/12/01

Religious Exemption in Pre-Modern Eurasia, C. 300-1300 CE

doi: 10.1553/medievalworlds_no6_2017s40


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doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no6_2017s40


Abstract

The article explores central aspects of the relationship between the Buddhist monastic order and the various imperial states that ruled China during the medieval period (roughly between the third and the tenth centuries CE). It focuses especially on the points of tension created by the monastic order’s efforts to establish a sense of autonomy and receive special economic, political, or social exemptions on one hand, and the royal imperium’s assertion of absolute authority over all subjects on the other hand. While the monastic order’s efforts to safeguard its independence and ward off the encroachment of a totalitarian state was largely a losing proposition, in a protracted process that involved complex socio-political negotiations and shifting religious realignments, the Buddhist clergy was able to secure important exemptions from the Chinese rulers’ demands. Most notably, these included exemptions from certain forms of taxation, military conscription, and forced labour, which helped secure the economic foundations of monastic life and enhance the prominent place of Buddhism in Chinese society. To illustrate these issues, the article explores some of the key debates that pitted prominent Buddhist monastics such as Huiyuan (334-416) against key segments of the Chinese socio-political elites, many of whom were influenced by a Confucian ideology that was often inimical to monastic institutions.

Keywords: medieval China; Buddhism; Huiyuan; monastic order