Awakening Modern Householders

Abstract Although books intended for novice readers had long been part of Chinese Buddhist print culture, in the early twentieth century a new genre, books for beginners, became a popular part of the mass produced Buddhist literature of the era. In this article I argue that these books, designed to draw readers in to the complex world of Buddhist ideas and practices, should not be overlooked as they represent carefully distilled and crafted presentations of what the authors saw as essential in a modern Buddhism intended for educated, lay householders. What they choose to include as essential to Buddhism, as well as what they omit, reflects how Chinese Buddhists participated in popular currents of reform, anti-superstition, and the valorization of scientific knowledge. They reveal that reformist Buddhist authors were eager to dispel what they saw as popular misconceptions about Buddhism, redirecting the focus of lay engagement toward ideas and texts, and away from devotion to supernatural deities. This helped to lay the groundwork for the “humanistic” Buddhism that would become the mainstream in Sinophone Buddhism in the latter part of the century.