Yao & Gombrich/Chinese Buddhism, 1. Preamble

The authors explain their intentions in undertaking this project, which is to show how FGS is in the mainstream of Chinese Buddhism, while consciously also trying to bring that Buddhism up to date. The chapter summarizes previous work by the authors themselves as well as others who have published on this topic and provides a short history of the context in which Hsing Yun founded FGS. They introduce 2 features about Mahāyāna Buddhist teachings which are important to the study of FGS and which will be explored in later chapters -- its internal variety, and its attention to the dead, particularly one’s ancestors.