Stranger things: supranormal events in modern Chinese Buddhist autobiography
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
- Venue
- Senate House, SOAS
- Room
- SALT
- Event type
- Seminar
About this event
A world in which spirits stand guard, animals gravitate toward sages, and the Earth itself expresses its opinion is par for the course in both Indic and Chinese texts.
It is the backdrop of the earliest biographies of the Buddha– a mahāpuruṣa, or 'superman' – and countless later accounts of eminent Buddhist monks and Daoist adepts in China. In the modern era, with the rise of secular discourses, the ubiquity of autobiographical writing, and the prominence of scientific inquiry and experimentation, we might anticipate that such otherworldly accounts would become less common or be reinterpreted.
But this is not the case. This talk focuses on the autobiographical writings of the eminent 20th century Chan master Laiguo Miaoshu (1881–1953), who, in addition to his voluminous teachings on meditation and monastic life, left a robust record of his encounters with the spirit world.
Attending the event
This event is free, open to the public, and held both in person and online. Registration is not required to attend in person. Please register via the link at the top of the page to attend online.
Sponsor and organiser
This lecture is part of the Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series, kindly sponsored by the Tzu Chi Foundation.
About the speakers
Benjamin Brose is Professor of Buddhist and Chinese Studies in the department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. His most recent monograph is Embodying Xuanzang: The Postmortem Travels of a Buddhist Pilgrim (2023). He is also the editor of Buddhist Masters of Modern China: The Lives and Legacies of Eight Eminent Teachers (2025) and the co-editor of Inner Worlds: Individuals and Interiority in Chinese Religious Life (2025).
Discussant
Gregory Adam Scott is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Culture and History at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on print culture and mass media among Buddhists in China between the 1860s and 1960s, and he is a co-founder of the Chinese Religious Text Authority. His 2020 monograph, Building the Buddhist Revival: Reconstructing Monasteries in Modern China, explored how and why Chinese Buddhist sacred sites were destroyed and reconstructed, and how these reconstructions reshaped Buddhist thought and practice.
