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The cultural and religious landscape in early-modern China was marked by debate between Confucian purists and Buddhist syncretists, and disputes over Chan (Jp.: Zen) meditative and Pure Land devotional beliefs and practices. This presentation looks at the Pure Land thought of Peng Shaosheng (1740-1796), a Confucian literatus turned Buddhist layman, and a leading voice in the promotion of religious syncretism, who nonetheless promoted Buddhism over Confucianism. An exploration of Peng's use of narrative accounts of ideal behaviors of past and contemporary Buddhist laywomen, in particular, reveals a redefinition of the Pure Land in Confucian moral terms and the advocacy of social values and behaviors consistent with those advanced by Confucian moralists. However, according to Peng, Buddhism's concern with the afterlife, ignored by Confucians, makes the former superior to the latter. This presentation thus ends by revealing how Peng Shaosheng incorporated 'world saving' actions into traditional 'other-worldly' Buddhist values by emphasizing the indispensability of faith, the power of vows, and practice in one's attainment of rebirth in the Pure Land.

Hongyu Wu is completing a dissertation called 'Leading the Good Life: Biographical Narratives of and Instructions for Lay Buddhist Women in the High Qing Period (1683-1839).'She is author of 'Shannuren zhuan he Qingdai Jushi Fojiao' ('The Biographies of Good Women' and Lay Buddhism in the Qing Dynasty), in Bai nian fojiao (2008).