A Review of The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture by John Kieschnick

In general, Kieschnick’s (2003) book attempts to bring new insights to Chinese material world; it overviews a vast array of sacred objects, ideas, symbols, monasteries, and ritual implements – vis-à-vis dynamic social behaviours of a new Buddhist environment aroused in the first century CE. The author’s main focus lies upon resolving a set of negotiations amongst the ideas, behaviours, and relationships in society; he emphasises such aspects as the manufacture and use of a plethora of sacred objects, the purpose of using sanctification ornaments, and the folk attitudes thereto. I will look into these central ideas in which they were permeated in the four chapters of the monograph. By all means, they highlight some points of strength and weakness to a wider extent in scholarship.

Rev Wadigala Samitharathana. 2025, “A Review of The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture by John Kieschnick”, 불교학리뷰, no.37, pp.93-99.