Very few lay people were exclusively Buddhist- that is, felt a commitment to Buddhism over against China's other religions" (Welch 1976, p.164).

Moreover, Buddhism in China was largely an individual affair. The monastaries were not held together any type of hierarchy. "In China the largest unit was the monastery and the highest office was the abbotship. This meant that there was no mechanism for maintaining standards" (Welch 1976, p.175). As a result, there was a tremendous amount of variation in how people practiced Buddhism and the standards found in temples and monasteries. "Generally speaking, the small hereditary temples were unable to maintain as high standards as the large, rich public monasteries. Yet the latter too periodically fell into decay because of the malfunction of the merit system of electing abbots" (Welch 1976, p. 165). This contributed to a cyclical pattern of decay and renewal, particularly in famous monasteries, with monks...
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