Buddhism and Buddhists in China

by Lewis Hodous

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: China, Buddhism, Religion, History

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Lewis Hodous was an American Board missionary to China, educator, Sinologist and Buddhologist.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well excuse me! I thought this was a book about Buddhism in China. But no it wasn't. All the deadly dry early chapters, and the progression through the dates, politics and general Japanese interference were only leading up to a Buddhist lama writing a poem on the great glory of Jesus. The rest of the book is entirely on how much superior to all other religions is Christianity, an insurance policy for the life-to-come, the only religion authorised by God, and how all nations will come to recognise this, except perhaps the Japanese who think that Christianity is the vanguard of the unwonted Western culture.

I'm not a spiritual personal, I'm an existentialist, a humanist, so I have no axe to grind as far as any particular superstition is concerned, whether that be religions like Buddhism, Confuscianism, Daoism or Christianity, as in this book. I don't go on about my philosophy although I think its right and yours is wrong (the same as you think of mine). I am polite, in conversation I keep my thoughts on this to myself and think that you are perfectly entitled to your beliefs and that if you wanted converting to mine you could read up on it or ask questions, not have it pushed upon you. Especially when you didn't ask for it because the book was so misnamed. Still as one of my friends both of whose daughters are missionaries says, that is the point of Christianity to proseletize so that you and your children can be 'saved' and be part of the kingdom of heaven.

So bury me deep and I'll rot into the earth down there and grow again as grass and trees and probably worms that feed the birds and never know what I'm missing, but meanwhile please entitle your evangelical tracts properly and not try and sneak and trick your way into my mind.

And if any of my Fundamentalist, born-again friends are reading then what can I say except forgive me my trespasses as I forgive yours.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book was published in 1924 and is best seen as an historical document depicting two things: 1) The practice of Buddhism in China in the early 20th century and 2) an early attempt to understand Buddhism via the Christian perspective. Lewis Hodus loosely divides the book into three areas: 1)the origins of Chinese Buddhism 2)the practice and tenets of Buddhism and 3) What the Christian can learn from this. The author does an excellent if brief history of the evolution of Buddhism in China. He understands that Chinese Buddhism is very different from the Buddhist ideas originally coming from other parts of Asia and shows how Chinese Buddhism merged together with Taoism, Confucianism and the Chinese Earth religions (notably ancestral worship). Yet he falters on describing the practices and tenets. He fails to differentiate between those tenets that are truly Buddhist and those deriving from older Chinese traditions. This is still an outsider's look from a man who is struggling to incorporate the best of Buddhism with his own bias for Christianity. Those who want to understand the historical and early developing dialogue between Christians and Buddhists will find this to be an enlightening read. However, if you want to actually understand the basic beliefs of Buddhist as practiced today you should go elsewhere.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short book was written in 1924 by a Christian missionary.
The author Hodus (spelled wrong above) does a good job and covers much of the basic Buddhist tenets.
I expected a bias towards Christianity but he writes with respect and I think admiration for the Buddhist philosophy.
Some comparisons to Christianity in the last few chapters but not important.
Much better books are around than this to learn basic Buddhism.

[Jordan Wixom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but described from a Christian perspective which I did not anticipate

[Kai Forest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, but clearly biased and at times condescending

[Greg Collver · Rating 2 out of 5]

A simple and incomplete introduction to Buddhism and its history from a conservative Christian's perspective.

I started to read this book using Adobe Digital Editions and Library2Go (a popular elibrary system in Oregon). When I saw that the copyright was 1924, I quickly changed to the Gutenburg edition. As a result, I have two questions: “Should freely available public domain books be distributed as digitally protected books in a public elibrary?” and “Should public library systems be using proprietary DRM (Digital Rights Management) software (Adobe's Content Server and ADEPT)?”.

I prefer Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) solutions.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I downloaded this from librivox and listened to it while working out and knitting.

Excellent book on the history of Buddhism in China. It covered Buddhism vs Christianity, Buddhism in the lives of peasants, the future lives of Buddhism and Buddhism in the present day.