Reconstructing the History of the Canton Buddhist Temple Haichuang between the 1680s and 1840s in the Context of Chinese-Western Contacts: An Investigation of the Three Major Haichuang Collections in Europe

Abstract

From the late 17th to the mid-19th centuries, Haichuang 海幢 Buddhist Temple was better known to Westerners than any other similar establishment in Canton (Guangzhou). That familiarity stemmed from the temple’s regular use as a venue for Chinese-Western contacts. In addition to its historic legacy and status as a tourist spot and venue for observing “exotic” religious rituals, the temple also printed and distributed Buddhist texts, and was hence a convenient starting point for foreigners wishing to learn about Chinese Buddhism. The author of this paper believes that only a comprehensive investigation exploring the temple’s interrelated roles in religion, literature, recreation and diplomacy can properly highlight its pivotal significance in Chinese-Western relations and reveal the full picture of how those relations developed. The “Haichuang works” printed and circulated during the period provide invaluable information on the temple inhabitants who contributed to the development of the multiple roles and functions the temple played, as well as their views on Buddhist philosophy and the temple’s history. The paper begins with an account of the three major Haichuang Collections deposited at the Bavarian State Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France and SOAS Library, followed by an attempt to reconstruct the largely unknown history of the temple by analyzing the historical sources collected from these collections, to analyse the Haichuang strategy of promoting Buddhist knowledge through the printing and circulation of Buddhist works, before concluding with an exploration of the temple’s importance in the history of Chinese-Western contacts.