ABSTRACT
The formation of the nation-state and the discourse of "religion" ensured the centrality of "nationalism" and "internationalism" to the transformation of Buddhism in republican China. "Orthodoxy" and "heterodoxy" were replaced by "religion" and "superstition", categories distinguished not by morality but rationality. The laity took on a new sense of identity and a new prominence within the religion. While this fell well short of the kind of generalized rejection of clerical authority often said to be a feature of religious modernization, the laity did occasionally encroach on traditional monastic prerogatives. While major monastic figures tended to draw primarily or at least partially on establishment sources of power and charisma, a few prominent lay figures made their name almost entirely as upstarts. A "this-worldly" soteriology is often said to be a defining feature of modern religiosity. Moreover, concerns for "this world" and for "other worlds" were closely connected.
