Item number: M420

Year: AD 1913

Material: Bronze

Size: 34.6 x 34.6 x 2.5 mm

Weight: 18.5 g

Provenance: Stacks Bowers 2025

This is a commemorative badge issued in AD 1913 (the second year of the Republic of China) for admission to the “2940th Anniversary Commemoration of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s Appearance in the World,” an event organised under the leadership of the Chinese Buddhist General Association (Zhonghua Fojiao Zonghui) and presented to distinguished figures from the political and commercial elite.

The obverse depicts, at its centre, the Buddha Śākyamuni seated cross-legged in meditation upon a lotus pedestal. The torso is bare, a nimbus encircles the head, the left hand forms the dhyāna-mudrā, and the right hand the bhūmisparśa-mudrā; on the chest hangs a left-facing swastika. Encircling the image, read from right to left, is the inscription “Commemoration of the 2940th Anniversary of the Buddha Śākyamuni.” The rim is bordered with a beaded circle and ring.

The reverse bears at its centre a pair of crossed flags. The flag on the right is the Five-coloured Flag of the then Government of the Republic of China, consisting of five horizontal stripes—red, yellow, blue, white and black—derived from the traditional Chinese five directional colours and, in this configuration, symbolising the republican union of the Han, Manchu, Mongol, Hui and Tibetan peoples. The left flag, bearing a left-facing red swastika on a blue field, likely represented the Chinese Buddhist General Association or, more broadly, the Buddhist community. The two flags are tied together by a cord, with tassels hanging from the poles. The inscriptions “Commemorative Badge” appear above and below the flags; these are separated from the outer legends by a fine ring. Encircling the edge are the inscriptions “13 May, the second year of the Republic of China” and “Presented and made by the Association,” the two lines being divided at either side by a hollow five-pointed star. The rim is similarly bordered with a beaded circle and ring.

The “2940th Anniversary Commemoration of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s Appearance in the World” commenced on the first day of the fourth month of the second year of the Republic. The Chinese Buddhist General Association—established only shortly beforehand—organised the commemorative event in response to the tensions between North and South and as a means to pray for the deceased and the martyrs of the 1911 Revolution. The main ceremonies were held from the sixth to the eighth day of the month, and participants bearing the “golden commemorative badge” were permitted unrestricted access to the venue; this badge is very likely one such token. Other activities—such as the display of images and sacred objects, floral and fruit offerings, the hanging of decorative plaques, the establishment of a Water-and-Land ritual arena, and various liturgical ceremonies including scripture lectures, doctrinal exposition and recitation of the precepts—probably continued, as suggested by the inscriptions, into the fifth month.

From the late Qing period onwards, the promotion of Western-style education and the reforms associated with the Self-Strengthening Movement led officials such as Zhang Zhidong repeatedly to emphasise the urgent need to establish modern schools and to propose employing temple and shrine properties as sources of educational funding. Although these proposals did not explicitly mandate wholesale appropriation of temple estates, they nevertheless furnished local officials and gentry with a political rationale for the secular use of religious space. After the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform, the Qing court initiated the New Policies and promulgated provincial educational regulations, strengthening local educational bureaux and modern schools and providing institutional grounds for “appropriating temple property to promote education.” Across the empire, temple lands, buildings and associated facilities were systematically taken over under the banners of public benefit, school construction and educational modernisation. Certain local officials, gentry and educational committees further exploited this framework to expand their own authority, effectively rendering temples resources that could be requisitioned, reassigned or occupied at any time.

Following the 1911 Revolution, temple estates continued to be viewed by local governments and military authorities as “public resources available for mobilisation”: partly to meet the fiscal demands of modern education and local administration, and partly owing to military expenditure and the imperatives of maintaining order. In the fiscally unstable environment of the Beiyang era, temple property became a convenient target of both administrative and military appropriation. Public opinion was likewise not uniformly sympathetic to the Buddhist establishment; some urban intellectuals and advocates of the New Culture criticised the accumulation and mismanagement of temple wealth and contended that monks did not meet the expectations of “modern citizens.” Local communities, moreover, had long harboured resentment towards the tax-exempt status and concentration of temple lands, and many among the populace and local gentry regarded appropriations for schooling as acts of public good. Dissenting voices also existed within Buddhism itself: reform-minded monks condemned the dominance of ritual services, the laxity of monastic discipline and the backwardness of monastic education, arguing that without proactive reform Buddhism would be overtaken by the times; conservative elements, however, doubted the reformers’ proposals and feared that such reforms would erode established interests or disrupt traditional monastic life.

It was in this context that, in AD 1913, the Buddhist community established the Chinese Buddhist General Association in Shanghai, seeking to employ the organisational form of a modern voluntary association to coordinate Buddhist affairs, defend monastic property, negotiate with the government and promote reforms to the monastic system. During the Association’s formation, the respected abbot of Tiantong Monastery in Ningbo, Master Jing’an (the “Eight-fingered Brahmin”), embodied the core values of monastic purity; the abbot of Fayuan Monastery in Beijing, Master Daojie, who served as Director of the Association’s Executive Department, played a leading role in the defence of Buddhism and its public engagement; and Master Wenxi, abbot of Tianning Monastery in Yangzhou and a representative of reformist ideals, promoted the rectification of monastic discipline and the institutionalisation of monastic education in an effort to reshape the sangha’s administration along modern organisational lines. Yet the Association soon revealed the structural tensions it faced: the gulf between reformist and conservative factions proved difficult to bridge; lay intellectuals, though critical of monastic conditions, were unable fully to participate; the fragmented military and political landscape of the Beiyang regime rendered the unification of monastic regulation unattainable; and wider public opinion did not unequivocally support the movement to protect temple property. In AD 1915, the Beiyang Government promulgated the Regulations for the Administration of Temples, effectively abolishing the Chinese Buddhist General Association—nominally as part of administrative modernisation but in practice imposing further constraints upon religious freedom.

物件編號: M420

年代: 公元 1913 年

材質: 青銅

尺寸: 34.6 x 34.6 x 2.5 mm

重量: 18.5 g

來源: SBP錢幣拍賣 2025

這是一枚民國二年(公元1913年)，中華佛教總會牽頭舉辦的「釋迦文佛二千九百四十年紀念大會」，所發予政商名流，以作為入場憑據的紀念徽章。

徽章正面中央為釋迦文佛，於蓮花上的跏趺坐像，佛像袒胸露腹，腦後有光冕，左手結定印，右手結觸地印，胸前懸有左旋的「卍」字，上方環列「釋迦文佛二千九百四十年紀念大會」，由右往左順讀。章緣有珠圈及環。

背面中央為交叉的雙旗，右側為當時中華民國政府的國旗五色旗，旗面按順序為紅、黃、藍、白、黑的五色橫條。取自中國傳統五方色，五色同時亦代表漢、滿、蒙、回、藏五族共和；左側可能代表了中華佛教總會，或代指佛教共同體，為藍底旗面上置一左旋的紅色「卍」字。雙旗以繩相繫，纓穗掛於旗桿上。上下兩側分別為「紀念徽章」。以細環相隔，外側環列「中華民國二年五月十三號」，下方環列「本會贈製」，兩行銘文於兩側各以一空心的五角星分隔。章緣有珠圈及環。

「釋迦文佛二千九百四十年紀念大會」始辦於民國二年四月初一，初創未幾的中華佛教總會，為彌合南北衝突、及為辛亥革命以來的亡者與烈士祈福，以釋迦牟尼佛誕二千九百四十年為名，舉辦紀念大會。主要開會於初六至初八，與會者持「金色紀念徽章」可通行於會場，大約便是本徽章。其餘活動如佛像與法寶陳設、供花供果、懸掛彩牌、設立水陸道場、舉行法會、講經、說法、誦戒等等儀式可能如紀念徽章所銘直至五月。

清末以降，隨著洋務運動與新式教育的推行，官員如張之洞等人在奏議中屢次強調辦理學堂的急迫性，並提出以寺產、祠產作為教育經費來源的構想，雖未直接要求全面接收寺廟，但已提供地方官紳挪用宗教空間的政治論述。戊戌維新失敗後，清廷推動新政與各省學務章程，強化地方學務機構與學堂建設，使得「廟產興學」在制度上有了依據，各地遂以公益、建校、教育現代化為理由，系統性地接管寺院田產、廟宇與附屬建築；部分地方官紳、士紳及學務委員會甚至藉此擴張勢力，使寺院成為可隨時被徵用、撥借或佔用的公共資產。革命之後，對地方政府與軍政力量而言，寺產仍被視為「可動用的公共資源」：一方面是新式教育與地方行政的財政需求，另一方面則是軍費與治安治理的現實考量；在缺乏穩定財源的北洋政治環境下，寺產易成行政與軍政挪用的便利選項。社會輿論亦非單向支持佛教——部分城市知識分子與新文化力量批評寺院財富累積且管理混亂，認為僧侶未能符合「近代國民」標準；地方民眾亦有長期以來對寺院免稅地位與土地集中現象的不滿，廟產興學曾獲不少民眾與士紳認為是「公益之舉」。同時，佛教內部也並非沒有異議者：改革派僧侶批評寺院經懺化、戒律不振與教育落後，認為若不主動改革，佛教勢將被時代淘汰；保守派則對改革存疑，擔憂改革削弱傳統利益結構或傷害寺院既有生活模式。

因此，佛教界遂於民國二年(公元1913年)在上海成立「中華佛教總會」，希望以現代社團形式統整佛教界、代表寺院利益、與政府交涉並推動僧制改革。在總會的形成過程中，具有道德聲望的寧波天童寺住持釋敬安(八指頭陀)象徵佛教清規傳統的核心價值；北京法源寺住持，中華佛教總會機關部長釋道階則積極參與護法運動與公共議題，是佛教公共參與的代表者；而具有改革理念的揚州天寧寺住持釋文希則推動僧紀整飭與教育制度化，試圖以現代組織邏輯調整僧團運作。然而，總會的內部運作很快暴露其所處的社會矛盾：改革派與守舊派分歧難以調和，居士知識界對僧團現況不滿卻未能完全介入組織；地方軍政勢力的多頭政治使統一僧制成為不可能任務；而社會輿論對佛教的態度亦不完全支持護寺運動。民國四年(公元1915年)北洋政府公布《管理寺廟條例》，撤銷中華佛教總會，雖部分出於行政現代化考量，實際卻壓迫宗教的自由。