| 英文摘要 |
Why monks of the Japanese Buddhism, as a tribe of the Mahayana Buddhism, can eat meat and get married, and why such changes occurred in the 1900s? After the Meiji government opened meat-eating diet to Buddhist monks in 1872, there were two factions in the Japanese religious sector: the liberals who came out in support and the traditionalists who expressed opposition, with the latter being dominant at the time. Yet after the 1900s, various denominations had lifted the ban of meat-eating from their religious restrictions. By historical reviews, this paper aims to illustrate such transformation undergone by various tribes of Buddhist monks, and further demonstrates such dismal change as a response to the rising and flourishing nationalism in Japan, as well as a survival strategy in response to the popularizing impression about “useless monk” in modernizing Japan. Since the late of Tokugawa Shogunate era, due to the rise of Shintoism in Meiji period, the social status of Buddhist monks had become more and more inferior, and their connection to the core political camp had turned weaker and weaker, too. The Buddhist sector could no longer maintain their stable financial resource through the “Denka system”, and even has to surrender a large amount of land and property to the government. In other words, the Buddhist sector could not maintain their superiority in respect of economy, politics and social status as in the pre-Meiji era. At first, the Buddhist sector tried to stress their religious abstinence and rationalize their rules and regulations to differ themselves from common people. After 20 years or so, it was found that this strategy did not have much effect. They had turned to an alternative solution from the theory of “entering the society”. Complemented by the social atmosphere of nationalism at the time, the theory of “Buddhism to guard the nation” arose, seeking justification from a new Buddhist doctrine by “civilized” carnivorous diet with meat-eating as a symbol of civilization and national policy. Consequently, meat-eating has been legitimated as a part of civilization and nationalism in Japan. |
