The Impact of Kai Yuan Monastery and the Great Matsu Temple in Tainan on the Sangha Lineage and Social Problems

• Main Authors: Mao, Shao-Chou, 毛紹周
• Other Authors: Lee, Shiau-Feng
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/22284822683431724078

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 台灣文化研究所 === 100 === As one of the earliest developed regions, Tainan used to be a political and economic center in Taiwan. Its prolonged history and social background, closely related to the religious belief in the region, has become the focus of study for a lot of scholars. The Great Matsu Temple and Kai Yuan Monastery in Tainan were the residence of Prince of Ningjing and Beiyuan Villa respectively, constructed during the Ming-Zheng era and lasted through Qing dynasty and the Japanese occupation era. They played an important role in shaping the politics and economy then. Cultural characteristics during those times were well reflected in the religious belief. This article will center on the abbots of the two temples, and try to trace and study, the origin of the sangha members from the two factions, the years that various abbots were in charge, interaction among the temples, the rich and the local merchants, and the relationship between the abbots and other Buddhist groups and so on. The aim is to evaluate the impact of the two temples on the sangha lineage, supplementing the missing part of Buddhism history in Taiwan. Another purpose is to re-construct the model how the Buddhist temples influence the local culture in order to understand how the preachers communicate with each other, and the impact on social incidents due to the mentality of the people at that time during the early stage of Taiwan history, and finally to explore the reasons behind the changes in the temple leadership and the changing powers, as well as to study ways to deal with fraudulent situations by the crooked.