Journal of Global Buddhism 2023 - Vol.24 -（2） - Symposium: Lived Karma

Sep 11, 2026

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This preliminary research note examines cluster concepts of collective karma in Chinese canonical sources under the symposium theme “Lived Karma.” It aims to draw scholarly attention to an underexplored field and to invite further contributions. Building on Walters’ call for revising Western views of karma as purely individual, the note outlines key cluster terms related to sociokarma and surveys limited prior scholarship addressing social dimensions of karma in medieval China.

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New Philosophical Inquiries Opened up by Walters’ Sociokarma

Symposium: Lived Karma

Collective-Karma-Cluster-Concepts in Chinese Canonical Sources: A Note

Journal of Global Buddhism 2023, Vol.24 (2): 88–94 DOI: 10.26034/lu.jgb.2023.3821 [www.globalbuddhism.org](www.globalbuddhism.org) [ISSN: 1527-6457](ISSN: 1527-6457) ([online](online)) © The author(s) Symposium: Lived Karma Collective-Karma-Cluster-Concepts in Chinese Canonical Sources: A Note Jessica Zu 􀁋 University of Southern California, Dornsife This is a preliminary research note on the cluster concepts of collective karma in Chinese Canonical sources. The goal is to draw scholarly attention to this vast, understudied area of research and to invite more scholars to join this collective effort. Keywords: karma; sociokarma; Chinese canonical Buddhism TWenty years ago, Jonathan S. Walters, in his seminal essay “Communal Karma and Karmic Community in Theravāda Buddhist History,” called on scholars to revise the entrenched Western scholarly understanding of karma as a purely individual affair. After an extensive survey of both Pāli sources and secondary literature on this issue, he coined the term “sociokarma” and sketched out a sevenfold typology of the social dimensions of karma (Walters 2003) . Since then, quite a few exciting works were published on sociokarma, especially concerning Pāli Buddhist literature. Nevertheless, much more work is needed to explore related issues in Buddhist literature in other languages, noncanonical literature, and non-Buddhist traditions. As the first step, a symposium,“Lived Karma: Situating Interbeing in Society,” was held in October 2022 .1 This note is a very preliminary and incomplete survey of Chinese canonical sources on issues related to sociokarma. The cluster concepts explored here are as follows: gongye 共業, gongzuoye 共作業, gongzuoyinyuan 共作因緣, tongye 同業, tongzuoye 同作業, qunye 群業, qunzuoye 群作業, and qizuoye 齊作業. Interested readers can find their generic English translations in the glossary at the end of this essay. This limited list represents a tiny fraction of a much more extensive, unstudied constellation of karma-related concepts in canonical sources, not to mention the wealth of adjacent concepts in vernacular sources. Thus far, scholars of Chinese Buddhism have not heeded Walters’s call to study sociokarma in any systematic manner. To the best of my knowledge, other than a few essays and books that touched upon this issue in passing, only two significant works have discussed in depth the social dimension of karma in medieval China. The first is Bokenkamp’s monograph Ancestors and Anxiety, which analyzed a Buddho-Daoist debate on whether both karmic merits and karmic retribution could be transferred among family members (2007) . The second is Kieschnick’s (2022) monograph Buddhist Historiography in China, which maps out diverse ways in which the concept of individual karma was integrated into historiographical writing about the rise and fall of a leader or a dynasty. Given the current state of affairs, this note aims to call attention to this vast underexplored area and to call on more scholars to conduct related research to bring more clarity on this issue. 1 Jessica Zu,“Lived Karma: Situating Interbeing in Society Held at Dartmouth College,” [https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/lived-kar](https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/lived-kar)[ma-situating-interbeing-in-society-conference-held-at-dartmouth-college/](ma-situating-interbeing-in-society-conference-held-at-dartmouth-college/), [accessed January 2020](accessed January 2020) . This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4 .0 International License. [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) ZU | 89 New Philosophical Inquiries Opened up by Walters’ Sociokarma As has been summarized in the “Introduction,” Walter’s seven-fold sociokarma marks an initial call to broaden earlier myopic focus on the aspects of Buddhist karmic theories that conform to Western individualist worldviews. Heeding this call, the current essay further point

FAQs

What is the main focus of this research note under “Lived Karma”?,

It focuses on cluster concepts of collective karma in Chinese canonical sources and relates them to sociokarma as a social dimension of karma.

Which earlier scholarly call does the note build on?

It builds on Jonathan S. Walters’ call to revise the entrenched Western understanding of karma as purely individual, using the concept “sociokarma” and a sevenfold typology.

What are the cluster concepts discussed in the note?

The note discusses terms such as gongye, gongzuoye, gongzuoyinyuan, tongye, tongzuoye, qunye, qunzuoye, and qizuoye as Chinese canonical cluster concepts related to collective karma.

Sep 11, 2026

Uploaded by Patrick