CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 65Indian and Buddhist StudiesFood, Nutrition, and Cultural PracticesChinese history and philosophy

Buddhist Vegetarianism in China

Kieschnick, John·2005·Of Tripod and Palate
DOI 10.1057/9781403979278_10
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Vegetarianism is perhaps the most important contribution Buddhism has made to Chinese cuisine. 1 Today, Buddhist monks and nuns in China are expected to maintain a vegetarian diet, and as far one can tell, in general they take the prohibition seriously, abstaining from all forms of meat, fish, and eggs. There is more flexibility for the Buddhist laity in China. They are not required to be lifelong vegetarians and, while many are, some choose to keep to a semi-vegetarian diet, or adopt a vegetarian diet for a limited period of time. From at least the thirteenth century, the demands of a vegetarian Buddhist community have spawned vegetarian restaurants in Chinese cities and inspired the creation of a distinctive vegetarian cuisine, complete with various sorts of imitation meats as well as strict avoidance of alcohol, garlic, and onions—all linked to the avoidance of meat in Buddhist vegetarianism. Vegetarianism has in recent decades become a focus of attention among lay Chinese Buddhists, and the number of Buddhist vegetarian restaurants both in China and abroad has grown steadily, supported by a sizeable industry that manufactures vegetarian products. Buddhist vegetarianism has exerted influence on other religious movements in China as well, encouraging millions of Chinese to adopt a vegetarian diet on the basis of religious beliefs. For the moment, Buddhism is closely associated with vegetarianism in China and is an important part of Buddhist identity—monks, nuns, and to a le…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1057/9781403979278_10

Cites

2 of 2 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Only persons involved in the actual killing are culpable, and categorically abstaining from meat is considered too extreme.

    “In other words, only the persons involved in the actual killing are culpable, and categorically abstaining from meat is considered too extreme.”

    From Partaking of Life: Buddhism, Meat-Eating, and Sacrificial Discourses of Gratitude in Contemporary Japan (2019) · cites this paper as Kieschnick 2005

  • Buddhist monastics in South and Southeast Asia and in Tibet have traditionally not been required to refrain from eating meat, though in Tibet some clerics have promoted vegetarianism in the contemporary period.

    “In accordance with these rules, Buddhist monastics in South and Southeast Asia and in Tibet have traditionally not been required to refrain from eating meat (though in Tibet some clerics have also promoted vegetarianism, particularly in the contemporary period)”

    From Partaking of Life: Buddhism, Meat-Eating, and Sacrificial Discourses of Gratitude in Contemporary Japan (2019) · cites this paper as Kieschnick 2005

  • Vegetarianism as orthodoxy among Chinese Buddhist monks and nuns was established only by the tenth century, several centuries after the introduction of Buddhism into China.

    “vegetarianism as orthodoxy among Chinese Buddhist monks and nuns was established only by the tenth century, several centuries after the introduction of Buddhism into China (Kieschnick 2005).”

    From Buddhist Vegetarian Restaurants and the Changing Meanings of Meat in Urban China (2017) · cites this paper as Kieschnick 2005

  • The association in China between copious meat-eating and immoral excess long predates the arrival of Buddhism and was an important factor behind the eventual adoption of vegetarianism among Chinese Buddhists.

    “the association in China between copious meat-eating and immoral excess long predates the arrival of Buddhism and was according to Kieschnick (2005) an important factor behind the eventual adoption of vegetarianism among Chinese Buddhists.”

    From Buddhist Vegetarian Restaurants and the Changing Meanings of Meat in Urban China (2017) · cites this paper as Kieschnick 2005

  • Although the link between Buddhism and vegetarianism was well established by the Tang era, protecting all living creatures and avoiding all animal products were not strong identity markers for the Chinese Buddhist community.

    “For instance, although the link between Buddhism and vegetarianism was well established by the Tang era, 77 protecting all living creatures and avoiding all animal products were not strong identity markers for the Chinese Buddhist community.”

    From Protecting Insects in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (2020) · cites this paper as Kieschnick 2005

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kieschnick, J.
Corresponding author
Kieschnick, John
ORCID
Kieschnick, John
Venue
Of Tripod and Palate
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Published
2005
Pages
186-212
DOI
10.1057/9781403979278_10
OpenAlex
W1488107988
Cited by
65
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 9 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
FWCI
16.99
Type
book chapter
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (unspecified)
Locations
  • Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks (publishedVersion)
  • Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food, Nutrition, and Cultural Practices
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Chinese history and philosophy
Keywords
Chinese cuisine, Buddhist monks and nuns, vegetarian restaurants, Buddhist identity, religious diet, Chinese Buddhism, religious movements

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review