“Science” in Huayan Buddhism: The Apologetic Discourse of Zhong Maosen (b. 1973)

A contemporary Buddhist adherent, Zhong Maosen, uses modern physical theories—relativity, string theory, mass–energy equivalence, black hole and dark matter theories—to defend Huayan Buddhist texts, arguing that narratives in those texts anticipate these theories and even describe unrealized technologies. His approach is a creative reconstruction that blurs ontological and epistemological boundaries, recasting mystical narratives as prescientific insights to counter charges of being anti-scientific. Shaped by his identity as a former secular academic and ordained monk, this apologetic reconciles his own epistemic shift and fits within Buddhist modernism's engagement with scientific rationality. The case study fills a gap in scholarship on Huayan Buddhism's modern scientific reinterpretation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study addresses a lacuna in Buddhist modernism scholarship, which has extensively examined Buddhists’ employment of science as an instrument for Buddhist apologetics across Theravada, Yogacara, Zen and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, yet has largely neglected Huayan Buddhism. Taking an influential contemporary Buddhist adherent, Zhong Maosen (b. 1973), as a case study, it analyzes his deployment of modern physical theories—including relativity, string theory, mass–energy equivalence, black hole and dark matter theories—as an apologetic tool to defend Huayan texts. Zhong argues that some narratives in Huayan texts anticipate these physical theories and even depict unrealized technologies. Zhong’s interpretive strategy amounts to creative reconstruction rather than technical correspondence: he blurs ontological and epistemological boundaries between Huayan texts and physics, recasting the mystical narratives of Huayan texts as prescientific insights to defuse pejorative “anti-scientific” connotations. Shaped by his dual identity as a former secular academic and ordained monk, Zhong’s apologetics reconcile his own epistemic shift while situating itself within the historical trajectory of Buddhist modernism’s engagement with the epistemic authority of scientific rationality. This case study attempts to enrich understanding of how science functions as a medium for contemporary Buddhist apologetics and fills the research gap of the modern scientific reinterpretation of Huayan Buddhism.