Abstract

The case of Runzhou shows how Buddhist culture took on a literati inflection within Tang-dynasty Jiangnan. Runzhou, where north–south routes converged with a dense waterway network, served as a major center of mobility and cultural exchange. Since the Wei and Jin periods, the region had also been shaped by aristocratic lineages whose traditions of literary learning and self-cultivation remained influential into the Tang. Drawing on biographical, epigraphic, and literary sources, this article argues that the literati inflection of Runzhou Buddhist culture was not limited to the social origins or literary accomplishments of individual monks and nuns. It also shaped the ways in which monastic identity was remembered, Buddhist space was perceived, and cultivation was interpreted. Mountain dwelling placed Buddhist cultivation in sustained relation with the natural world and brought it close to literati traditions of withdrawal without making the two identical. In Ox-head Chan (Niutou zong 牛頭宗), the Middle Way remained grounded in the Madhyamaka tradition, while in Runzhou it found practical expression in everyday conduct that stood close to literati modes of self-cultivation. This literati inflection did not dissolve Buddhist practice into literati culture; rather, it helped give Runzhou Buddhism its particular local form.

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