Protecting the Country and Saving the Nation: The Adjustment of Doctrines in Chinese Buddhist Circles during the Period of the All-out Anti-Japanese War and Its Contemporary Significance

Abstract

The relationship between compassion and abstention from killing and resisting violent enemies is a moral issue that the Chinese Buddhist community had to confront directly during the period of the All-out War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. This article examines the ideological process by which the Buddhist community transformed the tradition of protecting the country into a mobilization for national salvation, from three aspects: the classical basis, the interpretation of eminent monks, and the debate on “killing thieves.” The idea of protecting the country in scriptures such as the “Golden Light Sutra” provides the theoretical foundation. Tai Xu established the salvation of the nation through the three branches of almsgiving, Yin Guang explained the protection of the country by reciting the Buddha’s name through cause and effect and collective karma, and Hong Yi connected the recitation of the Buddha’s name with the character “enlightenment,” completing the interpretation of the times from different approaches. The debate on the meaning of “killing the thief” resolves the moral tension between abstaining from killing and defending against the enemy. This adjustment established the modern tradition of loving both the country and the religion, promoted the worldly shift of Humanistic Buddhism, and also provided intellectual-historical resources for contemporary adherence to the Sinicization of religions in our country.