Protecting Chan Through Regulations: The Storehouse Regulations of Gaomin Monastery and the Institutional Construction of Sacredness in Republican China

During the Republican period, many Chinese public monasteries relied on paid liturgical services 應酬經懺 (yingchou jingchan) for financial survival. Gaomin Monastery 高旻寺, under Chan Master Laiguo 來果妙樹, permanently refused such services, forgoing a readily available source of income. This article examines the institutional logic that sustained this refusal through a close reading of the Storehouse Regulations 庫房規約 (Kufang Guiyue), a monastic administrative document. Drawing on Berger’s theory of plausibility structures and his concepts of institutionalization, legitimation, and internalization, it develops five related dimensions of analysis: social foundations, institutional support, boundary maintenance, the reconstruction of meaning, and ritual practice. The article argues that stringent institutional administration provided the foundation for sustaining Gaomin Monastery’s sacred meaning system and that, under conditions of pluralism, such institutional rigor could help preserve the boundaries and integrity of sacredness. It offers insights into theories of religious strictness and the relationship between the sacred and external meanings in lived religion from an East Asian Chan perspective.