Buddhist Monasteries between Charity and Profit: Taking the Issue of Water Supply of Lin'an (Hangzhou) during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) as an Example

Abstract

The study addresses the role that Buddhist monasteries played as institutions of charity on the one hand and as economic organizations on the other in the interplay with the local elite and the administration, using the water supply activities of monasteries that agglomerated in Lin'an (Hangzhou) and around the West Lake as examples. From local gazetteers it becomes apparent that monastic water supply activities were enabled by the monasteries' proximity to the springs found in the hills and to the water infrastructure that served the lake as the city's freshwater reservoir. The aim of the study is to elucidate how monasteries offered freshwater from their springs to travelers and city residents, especially in times of drought, and accommodated elite members. The study will show in particular how monks made their expert knowledge in hydrological engineering available to infrastructure projects of Hangzhou's local administrators. Besides being charity-minded, monasteries were also profit-orientated as they were well-versed in fund-raising and received generous bestowments and donations, mostly exempt from taxation. What is more, they attempted to encroach on the West Lake for the cultivation of water plants, thus, however, impairing the city's freshwater supply from the reservoir that local administrators tried so hard to preserve.