La nouvelle édition du Printemps du CEIB aura lieu cette année entre le 9 et le 19 mai 2023, à la maison de la recherche et au Pôle Langues et Civilisations (PLC) de l’Inalco. Elle sera l’occasion d’entendre plusieurs chercheurs, Marcus Bingenheimer (Temple University), Gareth Fisher (Syracuse University), Chi Shuai (Nankai University), et Xuan Fang (Renmin University of China), au fil de plusieurs conférences et d’un workshop.
La première partie du programme est divisée en quatre événements distincts qui se tiendront sur deux jours, les 9 et 10 mai 2023. Ils sont organisés avec le soutien de la Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, et l’inscription se fait en complétant un formulaire, disponible à la fin de ce post.
La conférence d’ouverture, donnée par Marcus Bingenheimer, aura lieu le 9 mai 2023 entre 9h30 et 10h45 dans l’auditorium Georges Dumézil de l’Inalco. Intitulée « On the Use of Formal Network Analysis for the Study of Chinese Buddhism« , il s’agit de la première conférence du cycle “Mapping Networks of Modern Chinese Buddhism: Emerging Patterns and Centralities 圖繪近現代漢傳佛教網絡：多模式與多中心的興起” organisé par le CEIB grâce au soutien de la Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation.
Abstract: Can historical network analysis contribute to our understanding of Chinese Buddhism? The talk will describe some of the methods and data currently available for the application of formal network analysis. « Formal network analysis » in this context denotes the analysis and visualization of clearly defined, computable network data. After an introduction to network analysis as a method, and the available datasets, the lecture will describe its application with the help of three case studies. First, we will look at a network region spanning the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. The « Dao’an-Huiyuan-Kumarajiva Triangle » is a stable reference point, which, from a network perspective, emerges as the actual fountainhead of Chinese Buddhism. It will be argued that this formation was the immediate cause for the firm establishment of Mahayana as the dominant form of Buddhism in China. Second, a closer look at the network region modeling the late 16th early 17 century reveals two distinct stages in the late Ming Buddhist revival. Following the Wanli revival brought about by a group of erudite, well-connected monks, the network perspective asserts the centrality of Miyun Yuanwu (1567-1642) and his students who came to dominate 17th century East Asian Buddhism. It can be argued that the Buddhism of Miyun’s lineage differed considerably from the syncretic, inclusive Buddhist discourse of the « great monks » of the Wanli era. Third, the use of different centrality measures on an earlier version of the data reveals different sets of « central » actors in the history of Chinese Buddhism.
Le seconde conférence sera donnée dans le même lieu par Gareth Fisher, le 9 mai 2023 de 11h à 12h30. Intitulée « Studying the Buddha Abroad: Overseas Chinese Students and Buddhist Networks in the United States« , elle fait partie du même cycle de conférences que la précédente, et porte de plus la mention « Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series on Buddhism« . Pan Junliang (Université Paris Cité) assurera le rôle de discutant.
Le compte-rendu (en anglais) de la conférence de Gareth Fisher se trouve sur le carnet Hypothèses du CEIB.
Abstract: The number of mainland Chinese of traditional college age that are studying overseas in undergraduate programs has increased significantly over the last decade. Moreover, in spite of new restrictions from Trump administration policies and the COVID pandemic, the United States remains the favored destination for many of these students. Existing scholarship has explored how American-based Chinese Christian groups often attempt to convert these overseas students. However, my research suggests that they are also recruited by transnational Buddhist groups, mostly coming from Taiwan. While Buddhists suffer less stigma in China than Christians, Buddhist teachings and practices are still largely invisible to many urban Chinese, who live in a highly secularized environment. As a result, overseas Chinese students may experience Chinese forms of Buddhism for the very first time in the United States. Buddhism becomes attractive to these students by offering culture-specific psychological support, a fellowship of Mandarin-speaking people their own age, and an opportunity to explore aspects of their own culture to which they were ignorant. This paper explores these phenomena by focusing on three Chinese youth who joined meditation centers in Atlanta and Houston operated by the Taiwanese Buddhist organization Chung Tai Shan during their undergraduate years. It will examine how the organization transformed the students’ lives in the United States and influenced them to spread Chung Tai teachings back to mainland China following their graduation. The paper will conclude by exploring the potential for returning overseas students to diversify the Buddhist landscape in mainland China.
Le troisième événement organisé dans le cadre de ce Printemps du CEIB est l’atelier « Using the Historical Social Network of Chinese Buddhism in Gephi » dirigé par Marcus Bingenheimer. Il se tiendra le 9 mai 2023 de 14h à 17h30, et introduira de manière générale l’outil d’analyse de réseaux qu’est Gephi, avant de tester son utilisation dans le cadre de recherches sur le bouddhisme chinois.
Abstract: The first half of the workshop will introduce Gephi (gephi.org), which is a popular open source network analysis tool widely used in the Digital Humanities. In the second half of the workshop we will explore the Historical Network of Chinese Buddhism with the help of Gephi. The data for the Historical Network of Chinese Buddhism, which is available online, contains more than 18K people that appear in Chinese Buddhist sources and their relationships, spanning the time from c.150 to c.1900 CE. With it it is now possible to visualize and analyze social relationships in Chinese Buddhism from the ego-network level of an individual, to larger dynamics across generations. After the workshop attendees will know how to find their way around Gephi and use the Historical Network of Chinese Buddhism for their research. They will be able to identify persons in the network, understand how to trace connections back to primary sources, visualize ego-networks, and enrich the dataset with their own data.
Le dernier de ces quatre événements est une conférence, qui aura lieu en ligne le 10 mai 2023, de 14h à 16h. Intitulée « Double Secularization: Toward a Theory of Space, Discourse, and Sociality in Contemporary Chinese Buddhism« , elle sera donnée par Gareth Fisher.
Abstract: This presentation explores recent stages in the historical evolution of the Chinese experiment in secularization that began with campaigns to turn temples into schools in the late nineteenth century and continues up to the present day. It does so through an ethnographic examination of Buddhist religious space in urban China over the last ten years. It argues that practices from Chinese Buddhism are confined to discrete and largely invisible corners of urban space through a process of double secularization: On the one hand, in a process of external secularization, the state confines Buddhist religious practices to public Religious Activity Sites while private practitioners shield additional practice spaces from the watchful eye of the state and the public. On the other hand, in a process of internal secularization, within the spaces of Religious Activity Sites, monastic leaders confine practices that they most closely associate with the miraculous and magical to those corners of temple space that are furthest from the public eye. They do so to persuade both the state and the public that Buddhism is modern and compatible with secular social norms. In this way, paradoxically, they attempt to erase the line between Buddhism and the outside secular world by sharpening it within temple space. External and internal secularization have both spatial and discursive dimensions. This presentation will explore this dynamic of double secularization in three temple sites: a well-known Chan temple in Hebei province, a small temple in Jiangsu province focused on meditation practice and charity work, and a locally popular Buddha Hall complex in Jilin province devoted to Pure Land Buddhist practices. The presentation’s conclusion will consider how the COVID-19 pandemic has presented both challenges and reinforcements to the double secularization process.
Présentation des intervenants [en anglais]
Marcus Bingenheimer is Associate Professor of Religion at Temple University. He taught Buddhism and Digital Humanities in Taiwan, and held visiting positions at Dongguk University (Seoul), Nagoya University, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok), the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris), Thammasat University (Bangkok), and the National University of Singapore. Since 2001, he has supervised numerous projects concerning the digitization of Buddhist culture. His main research interests are Buddhist history and historiography, early sutra literature, and how to apply computational approaches to research in the Humanities. He has written and edited a handful of books and some sixty articles.
Gareth Fisher received his PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from the University of Virginia in 2006. He is currently Associate Professor of Religion and Anthropology at Syracuse University. His research concerns the revival of Buddhism in 21 st century China, focusing on two main projects. The first of these explores how laid-off workers in China’s capital Beijing during the early 2000s converted to Buddhism to gain new moral purpose in urban Chinese society following its abrupt economic transition from a planned socialist to a market-based economy. The second focuses on how urban-based lay practitioners and monastics construct new temples throughout mainland China as places to enact their moral visions for social reform. It explores how this new temple construction aims at creatively redrawing the lines between religion and secularity in China today. He is the recipient of two Fulbright fellowships as well as research fellowships at Yale University and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.
Pan Junliang received his PhD in Religious Science from École Pratique des Hautes Études in 2013. He is currently an associate professor of history at the Université Paris Cité. His research focuses on Chinese popular religion, Daoism and Religions of overseas Chinese. His recent publications include Wenzhou daojiao shi 溫州道教史 (2022) and “Le médiumnisme wenzhou en contexte diasporique : continuité et adaptation” (2023)
Informations pratiques
Dates : Les 9 et 10 mai 2023
Lieu : Inalco, Auditorium Georges Dumézil, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris
Organisation : Amandine Péronnet, Antoine Cid
La deuxième partie du Printemps du CEIB est composée de deux conférences, la première donnée par Chi Shuai (Nankai University) le 11 mai de 18h30 à 19h30 au PLC rue des Grands Moulins, et la seconde donnée par Xuan Fang (Renmin University of China) le 19 mai de 15h à 16h30 dans le salon Borel de la maison de la recherche, rue de Lille. Toutes les informations relatives à ces deux conférences figurent dans les articles dédiés.
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