CSL1026 2018年2月4日(Sun)下午14:00至17:00 探訪青山禪寺

Buddhism and Vegetarian Diet

We had a taste of the vegetarian ready-to-cook dishes of meat in Qingshan Temple several days ago. A student asked a question: “Why do people eat imitated foods such as steamed pork and imitated abalones with similar tastes of meat products since they are vegetarians?”

Actually, Buddhists ate both meat and vegetable products, and vegetarian diet has been firstly promoted by Emperor Liangwu (502-549) since the Northern and Southern Dynasties. According to the legend, Emperor Liangwu was deeply moved by “Merciful Bodhisattva is not hardhearted enough to eat meat of animals” in “Lankavatara Sutra” and desired to be a vegetarian. As a great dharma and the emperor, he promoted “vegetarian diet”, giving rise to great influences on the whole Buddhism group. The movement was promoted so successfully that various types of Buddhists accepted his idea, giving rise to the feature of Chinese Buddhism, i.e., vegetarian diet

Origin of Vegetarian Diet

As for most people, Buddhism is closely related to vegetarian diet [1]. The so called “ascetics” mean people of “vegetarian diet”, which is unquestionable. However, not all Buddhists are vegetarians. The Buddhists of Tibetan Buddhism, Southern Buddhism around Southeast Asia and Japanese Buddhism eat meat products, and only Buddhists of Chinese Buddhism (as well as Taiwan Buddhism directly introduced from the mainland of China) have to be vegetarians.

In fact, the overall vegetarian diet (no liquor and meat) of Buddhists of Chinese Buddhism started 500 years after Buddhism was introduced into China, which was actually directed by Emperor Liangwu (502-549) of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the key figure of the epoch-making event in Buddhist history. 

Eating everything they were provided before noon everyday and having a rest under trees was the life style of the Buddhist group when the Buddha was alive. The Buddhists in Thailand and Sri Lanka eat everything they are provided but not vegetarian diet only. All the Buddhists all over the world eat both meat and vegetable products except for Chinese ones (regions of Chinese Buddhism). All the Buddhists all over the world eat meat products of animals which are not killed in front of them or by them, which is stipulated in the commandments of Buddhism except for Chinese Buddhists.

Imitated meat products appeared by two reasons historically: firstly, imitated meat products are adopted by upper class to coordinate the conflicts between national sacrifice and vegetarian diet just as paper people are adopted to coordinate those between burying people alive with the dead and ethics and morality. Emperor Liangwu was the most famous figure in the history. As a religious Chinese Buddhism believer, he observed and advocated the idea of mercy of the Mahayana Buddhism and replaced animal sacrifice with imitated meat produced by flour, which was a social progress.

Shall we recover the ancient tradition of burying people alive with the dead if it is regarded not necessary to replace the animal sacrifice with imitated meat? Actually, sacrifice has a much longer history than paper people. Although traces of tyrannical burying people alive with the dead can be found in the imitated meat sacrifice and the burying of paper people, it is much more civilized anyhow. Such traces are maintained to offer sacrifice, memorize and keep the traditions as well as reduce the obstacles from stubborn people. 

The second reason for the origin of the imitated meat products is involved in ordinary people of the lower class, because it is very luxurious for them to eat meat products. In order to meet their appetites, they replace meat with imitated meat products. For example, the protein meat is produced by peanuts or soybean protein with processes such as heating, squeezing and puffing. Protein meat is still food meeting demands on meat products in some poor regions at present.

The third reason for origin of imitated meat products has been formed so far, which is the best choice for transitional period of quasi-vegetarians. They are not hardhearted enough to meet their appetites by killing animals due to their belief, but they cannot give up eating meat products; therefore, they adopt imitated meat products as the transition method for vegetarian diet.

At present, imitated meat products can be produced the same as those meat products on both tastes and forms due to increased number of vegetarians and enlarged market demand. Actually, such imitated meat products are different from those developed with the previous two reasons, and most of them are products of deep processing. For example, the imitated meat products produced by mushrooms are added with varied food additives such as sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, sulfur dioxide, potassium metabisulfite, lactic acid, agar, gelatin and carrageenan. Vegetarians eat imitated meat products because of their belief as well as their demands on meat products. They eat imitated meat products due to their belief; however, they are harmed by imitated meat products with large amount of additives.

I have no objection to imitated meat products, which shall be confirmed because they can meet appetites of vegetarians in a good and convenient way under the premise of giving rise to no harm to animals. However, the original attentions of imitated meat products are lost if people give rise to harm to their body health due to eating of imitated meat products or confusing them with real meat products.