Abstract
Previous research on Tang-Song Buddhist funerary temples (gongde fensi 功德墳寺) has focused on the dates of their appearance and their economic facets. In contrast, this paper adopts the perspectives of religious history, political history, and the history of thought to explore the ways in which these sacred sites shaped both Chinese ancestor worship and the development of Buddhism in China. In terms of the history of Chinese religions, Buddhist funerary temples were closely linked to the growth of mortuary rituals, especially penitential rites (chanhui yishi 懺悔儀式) that first appeared during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period but flourished during the Tang-Song era. Politically, such temples offered emperors an opportunity to reward loyal officials by granting them the privilege of constructing sacred sites at which to worship their ancestors. However, while numerous Chinese temples functioned as public spaces, Buddhist funerary temples represented a form of private space reserved mainly for official families. Buddhist funerary temples also influenced representations of the Chinese cult of the dead. On the one hand, they constituted key sites for state-recognized ancestor worship. And, on the other hand, mortuary rituals performed at these temples were almost exclusively Buddhist, which allowed this originally foreign religion to enter the mainstream of Chinese ancestral worship.
Keywords
Tang-Song Buddhism, funerary temples, penitential rites, ancestor worship
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