How much does bigotry drive the idea of a "Northern School"?

Let's ask Google Scholar, by date!

1913, "Northern Buddhism"

Buddhism is geographically divided into two schools, Southern, the older and eunpler, and the Northern, the later and more developed faith. The former, based mainly on the Pali texts,1 is known as Hinayana (small vehicle), or the inferior doctrine; while the latter, based on the various Sanskrit texts, is known as Mahayana (large vehicle) or superior doctrine.

‘ The Southern School has its adherents in Ceylon. Burma, Simu, Axum, etc.; while the Northern School is found in Nepal, China, Japan, Tibet, etc.

This is from Religion of the Samurai, A Study of Zen Philosophy in Japan and China, by Nukariya, a Buddhist professor in a Tokyo college, in 1913.

That's a whole mouth full of religious and racial bigotry, right there.

Waley, 1922, Zen Buddhism in Relation to Art

I shall not refer again to the Northern School of Zen. One wonders whether the founders of religions are forced by fate to watch the posthumous development of their creeds. If so, theirs must be the very blackest pit of hell.
Let us return to the Southern School, always regarded as the true repository of the Zen tradition.

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Welcome! ewk comment: It looks like "Northern" has multiple connotations, but it also looks like "Northern School of Zen" was clearly designated as a separate religion in Chinese records. One wonders where the historical record of 1900's Western academia will take us next! Will "Northern School" be reimagined as a legitimate part of Zen by Japanese Buddhist scholars desperate to reimagine Japanese Buddhism also as a legitimate part of Zen? Stay tuned!

Submitted July 28, 2022 at 05:36AM by ewk https://ift.tt/VvebYk0