Animals play crucial roles in Buddhist thought and practice. However,
many symbolically or culturally significant animals found in India,
where Buddhism originated, do not inhabit China, to which Buddhism
spread in the medieval period. In order to adapt Buddhist ideas and
imagery to the Chinese context, writers reinterpreted and modified the
meanings different creatures possessed. Medieval sources tell stories of
monks taming wild tigers, detail rituals for killing snakes, and even
address the question of whether a parrot could achieve enlightenment.
Huaiyu Chen examines how Buddhist ideas about animals changed and were
changed by medieval Chinese culture. He explores the entangled relations
among animals, religions, the state, and local communities, considering
both the multivalent meanings associated with animals and the daily
experience of living with the natural world. Chen illustrates how
Buddhism influenced Chinese knowledge and experience of animals as well
as how Chinese state ideology, Daoism, and local cultic practices
reshaped Buddhism. He shows how Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism
developed doctrines, rituals, discourses, and practices to manage power
relations between animals and humans.
Drawing on a wide range of sources, including traditional texts, stone
inscriptions, manuscripts, and visual culture, this interdisciplinary
book bridges history, religious studies, animal studies, and
environmental studies. In examining how Buddhist depictions of the
natural world and Chinese taxonomies of animals mutually enriched each
other, In the Land of Tigers and Snakes offers a new perspective on how
Buddhism took root in Chinese society.
