Author affiliation: National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. Special Focus: Buddhists and the Making of Modern Chinese Societies
關鍵詞
engaged Buddhism; Tzu Chi or Ciji; Taiwan; medical care; sacralization
摘要
Tzu Chi (Ciji), a lay Buddhist charitable movement under monastic leadership, stands out among the new and large-scale Buddhist organizations in Taiwan, for its continuous focus on medical care. Presently it runs an island-wide medical network in Taiwan, the largest bone marrow databank in Asia. How and why is medical care important to Tzu Chi? What makes Tzu Chi’s medical charity Buddhist? This paper focuses on the core of medical concerns in the Tzu Chi movement and the impact Tzu Chi’s mission has on medical practice in Taiwan. I will give a brief history of Tzu Chi’s medical charity, to show how it unfolds into an engaged Buddhism and the sacrilization of its medical practice. I will argue that the process of bestowing sacramental meanings on the scientific is a Buddhist comment on modern medical practice—a sacralization of medical science.
目次
Introduction 72 From Sacrifice, to Suffering, to the Scientific 74 1. Her mother’s illness and bodily sacrifice 75 2. Father’s death and the pursuit of Buddhist priesthood 75 3. “The pool of blood”: death from miscarriage and resolution to relieve suffering 75 4. Heart disease and the resolution to build a hospital 76 From Suffering, to the Scientific, and to Sanctification 77 1. “The Little Kasaya” in the Hospital: Narrating Hospital Volunteers 77 2. Bodily Donations 80 Organ Transplants 80 Bone Marrow Donation and Transplants 82 Cadaver Donations for Medical Education 83 Conclusion: Secularization of Buddhism and Sacralization of Medical Science 88 Acknowledgements 88 References 88
