JING'AN Si, a Buddhist temple on Nanjing Lu with a history of nearly 2,000 years, has sued Heng Yuan Xiang, a textile company, for involving the temple in its commercial promotion events, according to the Southern Weekend.

　　Jing'an Si started to receive phone calls from all over the country, questioning the temple for participating in commercial events, as people who bought sweaters from Heng Yuan Xiang received gilded rams together with "Kai Guang" (Light Opening) certificates from the Jing'an Si.

　　Kai Guang is a religious ritual of Buddhism, when monks of a high spiritual character say prayers and endow goods with auspicious power. According to the Abbot of the temple, Hui Ming, the temple held two "Kai Guang" ceremonies for 32,000 gilded rams in August and September last year. The temple also issued one certificate for them and charged 2,000 yuan (US242) according to regulations.

　　Waves of discontent

　　According to Hui Ming, Heng Yuan Xiang claimed that these "light-opened" rams were gifts for clients and the monks agreed to the ceremony only because they believed at that time there was no commercial motive involved.

　　But the 32,000 rams have resulted in an unexpectedly high-level of negative influence for the Jing'an Si from home and abroad. Disciples from Southeast Asia also called, and accused the Jing'an Si of commercial advertisement. They even said disciples would donate for the temple's reconstruction as long as they gave back the advertisement fee to Heng Yuan Xiang and cleared up the issue.

　　Jing'an Si decided to solve the problem through legal means, as advised by religious and business administration sectors.

　　Lawyer Hu Jiongming and Zhou Zheng reached the conclusion that Heng Yuan Xiang and its subsidiary companies copied and re-made "Kai Guang" certificates and rams in large numbers. Millions of certificates and gilded rams were given out with sales. A subsidiary company even sold "Kai Guang" certificates and gilded rams separately.

　　Part of business

　　Heng Yuan Xiang, founded in 1927, has been long been a brand-name in China's sweater and wool product trade. "2002 was the year of the ram, which was also the logo of our company," said a staff member who preferred to remain anonymous. Heng Yuan Xiang never swerved from the commercial orientation of the "Kai Guang" project. "Jing'an Si knew that too," he said. Heng Yuan Xiang kept video and picture records of the ceremony as evidence.

　　As to the alleged un-authorized copying and remaking of "Kai Guang" certificates, the staff member said that there was oral authorization for this, as the temple could only issue one certificate.

　　The ram project was a great success and attracted wide attention nationwide. An article published in the Heilongjiang Daily said people had bought sweaters just to get a "Kai Guang" ram.

　　Jing'an Si held negotiations with Heng Yuan Xiang on March 7 this year, when the latter said they had stopped using "Kai Guang" certificates and would try their best to destroy the remaining goods and clear up the aftermath.

　　But with the help of disciples all over China, lawyers found many notarized evidences indicating Heng Yuan Xiang hadn't in fact stopped giving out certificates and gilded rams with their sales. One disciple bought 60 gift-packed "Kai Guang Rams" for 28 yuan (US3.39) each from a subsidiary company of Heng Yuan Xiang.

　　A certificate was included in each pack. Also, lawyers found on the website of the China Sports Lottery that Heng Yuan Xiang "Kai Guang" rams, priced at 56 yuan (US6.77), were being used as prizes for certain lottery items.

　　Act of sacrilege

　　"This is the first time we have met with such an incident. Religious belief was meant originally to purify people's minds, but Heng Yuan Xiang treated it as a commercial operation and took advantage of it. I can't accept this," said Abbot Hui Ming. He thought the original intention of "Kai Guang" had been distorted.

　　Jing'an Si brought the case to Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, accusing Heng Yuan Xiang and two subsidiary companies of infringing upon the name and reputation of the Jing'an Si.

　　The temple asked for a formal apology in national newspapers, 500,000 yuan (US60,459) in compensation for reputation damage and five million yuan (US604,594) in compensation for economic losses from the three companies.

　　No certificate

　　Lawyer Hu Jiongming estimated the number of gilded rams and Kai Guang certificates Heng Yuan Xiang had produced at 5 million, of which 90 per cent had not passed through the Kai Guang ritual. The 5 million yuan demanded was not too much considering it amounted to only one yuan for each sweater, he suggested.

　　Hu went on to say Heng Yuan Xiang had made three different copies of the Kai Guang certificate besides copying the original one. The sale of gilded rams with re-made certificates was an infringe upon the Jing'an Si's name and reputation and against national and local regulations about religious practice.

　　Heng Yuan Xiang argued the company sold at most 1 million sweaters in total and "Kai Guang" rams only accounted for a small proportion of the rams given out. "Some people didn't want the rams to be 'light-opened'," said the anonymous staff member.

　　"They look the same but didn't have the certificate." The staff member believed the cause of the problem was erratic communication between Heng Yuan Xiang and the temple, as well as between different levels of temple monks. "We have respect for religion," he said.

　　The case aroused a fierce reaction among Buddhist temples. Zhi Ming, a monk in Hangzhou said it was right for the Jing'an Si to protect itself through legal means.

　　The temple has to "struggle for its name and profit" at this time, as without doing so, the truth couldn't be made clear and people would have a deeper misunderstanding. The event not only polluted the serenity of the ancient temple, it was also against Buddhist doctrines and affected the reputation of Buddhism, he maintained.

　　Zhi Ming went on to say that as a monk, one follows predestined arrangements and doesn't necessarily expect to win such cases. The most important thing was to let the public know the truth.

　　Buddhist temples have emphasized the avoidance of commercial factors in their religious practices. For example, Lingyin Si in Hangzhou, had a regulation against providing light-opening rituals for merchandise, except for those sold in the temple itself.