Buddhism Books

Book SynopsisGandhara, with its wide variety of architectural remains and sculptures, has for many decades perplexed students of South and Central Asia. Kurt Behrendt in this volume for the first time and convincingly offers a description of the development of 2nd century B.C.E. to 8th century C.E. Buddhist sacred centers in ancient Gandhara, today northwest Pakistan. Regional variations in architecture and sculpture in the Peshawar basin, Swat, and Taxila are discussed. At last a chronological framework is given for the architecture and the sculpture of Gandhara, but also light is being shed on how relic structures were utilized through time, as devotional imagery became increasingly significant to Buddhist religious practice. With an important comparative overview of architectural remains, it is indispensable for all those interested in the development of the early Buddhist tradition of south and central Asia and the roots of Buddhism elsewhere in Asia.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first comprehensive sociological study of a new Chinese Buddhist movement, known as Tzu Chi (otherwise, the Buddhist Compassion Merit Society). Based in Taiwan, it was founded in 1966 and is still led by a female Buddhist master – Master Cheng Yen. Its members are laity and its main focus is medical charity and education of the wealthy in an ethical way of life.Trade Review"Anyone who teaches, writes, or has a tendency to generalize about NRMs should read this book...One of the many interesting arguments that Yao makes in her book is that Tzu Chi’s concentration on benefiting society as a whole and educating its members in ethical beliefs can be seen as 'bringing the practice of Eastern religion in line with that of Western Christianity, and thus as more suitable, and appealing, in a ‘modern’ era where ‘folk superstitions’ based on an unreasoning conformism are felt to be backward'." Roger B.Beck, Nova Religio 18.1, August 2014

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Book SynopsisIn no region of the world Buddhism can be seen as a unified doctrinal system. It rather consists of a multitude of different ideas, practices and behaviours. Geographical, social, political, economic, philosophical, religious, and also linguistic factors all played their role in its development and spread, but this role was different from region to region. Based on up-to-date research, this book aims at unraveling the complex factors that shaped the presence of particular forms of Buddhism in the regions to the north and the east of India. The result is a fascinating view on the mechanisms that allowed or hampered the presence of (certain aspects of) Buddhism in regions such as Central Asia, China, Tibet, Mongolia, or Korea. Originally published in hardcover.

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Book SynopsisBuddhism is often portrayed as a universalising religion that transcends the local and directs attention toward a transcendent dharma. Yet, wherever Buddhism spreads, it also sparks local identity discourses that, directly or indirectly, root the dharma in native soil and history, and, in doing so, frame ‘the local’ in Buddhist discourse. Occasionally, notably in Japanese Shinto and Tibetan Bön, this localising variety of ‘framing of discourse’—here tentatively termed ‘nativism’—leads to the establishment of independent traditions that break free from Buddhism; yet, in other contexts, localising trends remain firmly embedded within Buddhism. In Challenging Paradigms: Buddhism and Nativism Teeuwen and Blezer offer a comparative study of localising responses to Buddhism in different Buddhist environments in Japan, Korea, Tibet, India and Bali.

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Book SynopsisTibet, Nepal, Mongolia… This vast area has experienced significant changes following political and socio-cultural upheavals: the Chinese occupation of Tibet since the 1950s; the opening of Nepal to the world in 1951 and the influx of large numbers of Tibetan refugees into its territory; the end of the communist era and the transition to a market economy in Mongolia, and more generally the confrontation with modernity and globalisation. Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World examines the changes rituals have undergone and offers the reader the result of recent research based on both fieldwork and textual studies by researchers who have worked in these countries. Contributors include Hildegard Diemberger, Fabienne Jagou, Thierry Dodin, Fernanda Pirie, Nicola Schneider, Mireille Helffer, Alexander von Rospatt, Marie-Dominique Even, Robert Barnett, Katia BuffetrilleTrade Review'The whole volume is a cornucopia of careful and original research. These results are highly topical and timely. The difficulty of research on the topics presented in the book is marked by the fact that most of the papers touch upon an unfolding process. (...) The reviewed book thus must be taken as a pioneering event. I am convinced that it will become an essential reference work for future, similarly-oriented studies. In my opinion, the inclusion of the articles dealing with Newar Buddhists in Nepal and with the contemporary state of Buddhism in Mongolia is a valuable enrichment of the book. These studies will inspire discussion within a broader perspective, very relevant for Tibetologists.' Daniel Berounský, Mongolo-Tibetica Pragensia ’12: Linguistics, Ethnolinguistics, Religion and Culture, 5/2 (2012) 'In summary, this book offers the reader a wealth of new information by scholars who are at the forefront of their respective fields. It is well produced, on good quality paper, is solidly bound, and sits well with the other volumes in this series. Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library has firmly established itself as a pacesetter in the field and this volume enhances that status even further.' David Templeman, Monash University, Australia, Himalaya, XXXII (2012) '...each of its ten essays serves as an informed call for future research and offers an enriched vocabulary with which to proceed.(...) This volume will prove a valuable ethnographic resource for scholars of anthropology, religion, and modern political and social history in Nepal, India, Bhutan, Mongolia, and China.(...) One of this book's major insights is that while the modern period has been marked by particularly abrupt sociopolitical shifts,the same factors of technological innovation, resource access, political change, and human migration have influenced the life of religious traditions in all eras of history. By illuminating modern moments of ritual change, or perceived ritual change, these scholars offer us a vocabulary with which to discern transformations in ritual structure or function in other eras and contexts. Thus, scholars researching the distant past as well as those who focus on the modern period will benefit from the methodological contributions this volume makes and the questions for future inquiry toward which it beckons.' Christina Kilby (University of Virginia), Asian Highlands Perspectives

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Book SynopsisMyanmar-Burma has one of the largest concentrations of Buddhist nuns and monks in the world today. In Renunciation and Empowerment of Buddhist Nuns in Myanmar-Burma, Kawanami traces the nun's scholarly lineage in modern Myanmar history and examines their contemporary religious position in Myanmar’s social and political contexts. Although their religious status may appear ambiguous from a textual viewpoint, it is argued that their large presence is a clear indication as to the important functions Buddhist nuns perform in the monastic community. Sagaing Hill where the main research was conducted, occupies an important educational centre for Myanmar nuns in consolidating their scholarly lineage and spreading the network of dhamma teachers. The book examines transactions that take place in their everyday lives and reveals the essence of their religious lives that make Buddhist nuns an essential bridge between sangha and society.

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Book SynopsisIn The Buddhist Goddess Marishiten, David A. Hall provides an in-depth exploration of the Buddhist cult of the warrior goddess Mārīcī; its evolution in India, China, and Japan; its texts and their audience; its rituals; and, finally, its efficacy as experienced by the Japanese warrior class—the bushi or samurai. In examining the psychological effects of these rituals on the Japanese warrior this volume moves beyond a narrowly focused examination of a religious cult. David A. Hall convincingly explains how these rituals aimed at preparing the warrior for combat and acted as an antidote for the toxicity of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when the warrior returned from the battlefield.

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Book SynopsisBuddhism in China gathers together for the first time the most central and influential papers of the great scholar of Chinese Buddhism, Erik Zürcher, presenting the results of his career-long profound studies following on the 1959 publication of his landmark The Buddhist Conquest of China. The translation and language of Buddhist scriptures in China, Buddhist interactions with Daoist traditions, the activities of Buddhists below elite social levels, continued interactions with Central Asia and lands to the west, and typological comparisons with Christianity are only some of the themes explored here. Presenting some of the most important studies on Buddhism in China, especially in the earlier periods, ever published, it will thus be of interest to a wide variety of readers.

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Book SynopsisBuddhism in China gathers together for the first time the most central and influential papers of the great scholar of Chinese Buddhism, Erik Zürcher, presenting the results of his career-long profound studies following on the 1959 publication of his landmark The Buddhist Conquest of China. The translation and language of Buddhist scriptures in China, Buddhist interactions with Daoist traditions, the activities of Buddhists below elite social levels, continued interactions with Central Asia and lands to the west, and typological comparisons with Christianity are only some of the themes explored here. Presenting some of the most important studies on Buddhism in China, especially in the earlier periods, ever published, it will thus be of interest to a wide variety of readers.

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Book SynopsisIn From Outcasts to Emperors, David Quinter illuminates the Shingon Ritsu movement founded by the charismatic monk Eison (1201–90) at Saidaiji in Nara, Japan. The book’s focus on Eison and his disciples’ involvement in the cult of Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva reveals their innovative synthesis of Shingon esotericism, Buddhist discipline (Ritsu; Sk. vinaya), icon and temple construction, and social welfare activities as the cult embraced a spectrum of supporters, from outcasts to warrior and imperial rulers. In so doing, the book redresses typical portrayals of “Kamakura Buddhism” that cast Eison and other Nara Buddhist leaders merely as conservative reformers, rather than creative innovators, amid the dynamic religious and social changes of medieval Japan.Trade Review'...Quinter reveals a fuller and more complex picture, which makes the contemporary perpetuation of esoteric Buddhism’s monastic institutions and popular pilgrimages more plausible. The text’s appendix of annotated translations for an extensive collection of relevant documents is a notable contribution. Even more commendable is Quinter’s emplacement of these primary sources into narratives of lived religion, which makes the study much more relevant and readable.' Greg Wilkinson, Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Review, 42/3 (2016) 'There is much to praise in this carefully documented and judiciously argued volume, and some of the topics it considers will doubtless lead to further research. (...) From Outcasts to Emperors is a major contribution to the study of Kamakura Buddhism and the heretofore little-studied Saidaiji order. It belongs in every serious collection of books on Japanese Buddhism.' Paul B. Watt, Waseda University, Monumenta Nipponica 71:2 (2016) “The author has clearly thought carefully about the impact this volume will make to the field. The concern he expresses that the Shingon Ritsu order has “slipped through the historiographical cracks” (p. 5) is well addressed, making skillful and appropriate use of existing Japanese scholarship. Quinter also clearly intends to contribute to our understanding of the once-ignored Kamakura period innovations within Nara, Shingon, and Tendai Buddhism. He is successful in these aims, but it is its accessible and profoundly scholarly treatment of primary sources that makes this work an outstanding contribution to its field. (…) This work is a necessary addition to any library on premodern Japan. For specialists, it will be required reading for many years to come, but I hope that it will gain a wide readership outside of its immediate field. The author has done much to make his work accessible to an interdisciplinary readership, and the topic is a very rich one in that regard. (…) I recommend this volume unreservedly.” Jon Morris, Komazawa Women’s University, H-Japan (April, 2018)

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Book SynopsisNomads on Pilgrimage: Mongols on Wutaishan (China), 1800-1940 is a social history of the Mongols’ pilgrimages to Wutaishan in late imperial and Republican times. In this period of economic crisis and rise of nationalism and anticlericalism in Mongolia and China, this great Buddhist mountain of China became a unique place of intercultural exchanges, mutual borrowings, and competition between different ethnic groups. Based on a variety of written and visual sources, including a rich corpus of more than 340 Mongolian stone inscriptions, it documents why and how Wutaishan became one of the holiest sites for Mongols, who eventually reshaped its physical and spiritual landscape by their rites and strategies of appropriation.Trade Review'Charleux’s book is an erudite and prodigiously detailed study of pilgrimages to Wutaishan—a Buddhist sacred mountain in China’s Shanxi province—made by Mongols during the later Qing and early Chinese republican periods (...) a wonderfully detailed and meticulously work of scholarship, likely to have a significant interdisciplinary appeal.' Joseph Bristley, University College London, Inner Asia, 18 (2016) ‘The monograph is a real novelty. It is based on original textual sources and secondary literature in several languages as well as on results of Charleux’s fieldword (…) As a multidisciplinary work, it will be welcomed by researchers of different backgrounds who employ diverse methodologies: historians, ethnographers, cultural anthropologists, philologists and Buddhologists (…) it is necessary to stress the richness of data included in this book, as well as Charleux’s interesting and often provocative analysis and conclusions, which may instigate further discussion on the role of Mongolian pilgrims in Wutaishan, as well as on their impact on the Qing empire. The Tibetan and Mongolian nomads who created a ‘little Tibet’ in central China are disappearing from the world. The book is a must for Mongolists but it will supply an abundance of material too for world historians, cultural anthropologists and specialists of religions and arts as well as for Asia lovers.’ Agata Bareja-Starzynska, University of Warsaw, forthcoming in Nomadic Peoples

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Book SynopsisTibet’s Mount Kailas is one of the world’s great pilgrimage centres, renowned as an ancient sacred site that embodies a universal sacrality. But Kailas Histories: Renunciate Traditions and the Construction of Himalayan Sacred Geography demonstrates that this understanding is a recent construction by British colonial, Hindu modernist, and New Age interests. Using multiple sources, including fieldwork, Alex McKay describes how the early Indic vision of a heavenly mountain named Kailas became identified with actual mountains. He emphasises renunciate agency in demonstrating how local beliefs were subsumed as Kailas developed within Hindu, Buddhist, and Bön traditions, how five mountains in the Indian Himalayan are also named Kailas, and how Kailas sacred geography constructions and a sacred Ganges source region were related.Trade Review'The book under review is a significant contribution to studies of trans-Himalayan pilgrimages and sacred places. Contrary to popular perceptions of an ancient history of mount Kailas, Alex McKay, however, unravels a rather recent history of the holy mountain that he argues evolved over the past hundred years or so.' Soumen Mukherjee, newbooks.asia 'In this formidable study, Alex McKay provides the first historical account of the development of Mt. Kailas as an iconic site of Himalayan religiosity (...) In historicizing the multiple genealogies that fed into the current construction of Kailas-Manasarovar as a sacred space, the book more than accomplishes its goals.The span of data, their analyses, and contextualisation are a feat of considerable importance, rendering it indispensible for those interested in the religions of South Asia, the Himalayas, and Tibet, as well as for scholars of sacred geography writ large. While the pervasive impact of modernity on the construction of Kailas as a site of timeless sanctity is clearly demonstrated, this interpretation relied on the staggering overlay of anterior conjunctions of divergent readings originating in multifarious cultural worlds in the Himalayan borderland. In this respect, McKay amply delivers on his initial qualification of Kailas as “a dynamic process as well as a place” (20), while reminding us of the very human agency and motivations of those involved in the construction of sanctified spaces in the Himalayas and beyond.' Arik Moran, University of Haifa, Israel, Asian Ethnology 75/2 (2016) 'Kailas Histories is, overall, an indispensable guide to the many texts and traditions that have shaped sacred Himalayan geographies over time.' Kyle Gardner, University of Chicago, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 79 (3/2016)

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Book SynopsisThrough a detailed analysis of epistolary writing, A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship: Spiritual Ambitions, Intellectual Debates, and Epistolary Connections brings to life the Buddhist discourse of a network of lay disciples who debated the value of Chan versus Pure Land, sudden versus gradual enlightenment, adherence to Buddhist precepts, and animal welfare. By highlighting the differences between their mentor, the monk Zhuhong 袾宏 (1535-1615), and his nemesis, the Yangming Confucian Zhou Rudeng 周汝登 (1547-1629), this work confronts long-held scholarly views of Confucian dominance to conclude that many classically educated, elite men found Buddhist practices a far more attractive option. Their intellectual debates, self-cultivation practices, and interpersonal relations helped shape the contours of late sixteenth-century Buddhist culture.Trade Review'Jennifer Eichman’s rich and insightful book sheds significant new light on the ethical and religious aspirations, self-understandings, and practices of elite men in late-Ming China. This is a vital book for understanding the interactions between Buddhism and Confucianism, and indeed, what Buddhism and Confucianism meant in practice. (...) Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this book is the fluidity with which sociological theory, historical and cultural investigation, literary analysis, and doctrinal and more anthropological studies of religion all blend together seamlessly.' Stephen C. Angle, Wesleyan University 'Eichman purposely limits her study to the relatively narrow Wanli period (1573–1620), giving the work a depth that would otherwise not be possible. This allows her to examine the development, over about half a century, of a religious network strung together by personal relationships.(...) This level of detail assists us—both author and reader—to avoid one of the pitfalls of the study of Pure Land Buddhism, which is the presumption of the normative status of later Japanese developments, such as exclusive adherence.(...) Eichman’s study makes important contributions for several different interested audiences, more than can be discussed adequately in this brief review. Two of these are historians of Chinese religions, and scholars of religious studies.(...) Given the important contributions made by this work, it will continue to provide resources for later studies, as well as standing as an exemplary instance of how such studies should be conducted. Richard K. Payne, Reading Religion (http://readingreligion.org/books/late-sixteenth-century-chinese-buddhist-fellowship) 'In short, this is a rich study with fruitful and instructive findings. Its calls for a more interactive and fluid model of late Ming Buddhist-Confucian relations and for further exploration of Buddhist epistolary collections should be heeded.' Yiqun Zhou, Stanford University, Journal of Chinese Religions, 45:2, (2017) 'This book makes a valuable contribution to the study of late imperial Chinese Buddhism by examining a network of monks and lay practitioners connected by relationships rather than geography. Drawing primarily on epistolary sources, it seeks to ground late Ming intellectual, social, and religious history in a particular group of elite men concerned about how they might best cultivate their heart-mind. Eichman uses “mind cultivation” as a bridge concept in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Buddhist and Confucian discourse (...) Eichman presents her arguments carefully and meticulously, and she provides ample footnotes for specialists in late imperial Chinese Buddhism. (...) The structure of her book allows for individual chapters to be easily incorporated into graduate or advanced undergraduate courses as one discusses general topics such as religious identity, ethics, and meditation, or more specific issues such as killing and eating animals, releasing-life societies, encounter dialogues, or Pure Land recitation.Finally, Eichman allows for and acknowledges ambiguity in her sources, which results in a nuanced and complex rendering of religious thought and practice.' Beverley Foulks McGuire, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Journal of the American Oriental Society 137.4 (2017)

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Book SynopsisBringing together leading authorities in the fields of Chinese and Tibetan Studies alike, Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism engages cutting-edge research on the fertile tradition of Esoteric Buddhism (also known as Tantric Buddhism). This state of the art volume unfolds the sweeping impact of esoteric Buddhism on Tibetan and Chinese cultures, and the movement's role in forging distinct political, ethnical, and religious identities across Asia at large. Deciphering the oftentimes bewildering richness of esoteric Buddhism, this broadly conceived work exposes the common ground it shares with other Buddhist schools, as well as its intersection with non-Buddhist faiths. As such, the book is a major contribution to the study of Asian religions and cultures. Contributors are: Yael Bentor, Ester Bianchi, Megan Bryson, Jacob P. Dalton, Hou Chong, Hou Haoran, Eran Laish, Li Ling, Lin Pei-ying, Lü Jianfu, Ma De, Dan Martin, Charles D. Orzech, Meir Shahar, Robert H. Sharf, Shen Weirong, Henrik H. Sørensen, and Yang Fuxue and Zhang Haijuan.Trade Review"These essays provide a rich resource of new information and new analyses that will continue to contribute to future research for years to come." - Richard K. Payne, Institute of Buddhist Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, in: Reading ReligionTable of ContentsList of Figures Introduction Part I: Chinese Perspectives on the Origins of Esoteric Buddhism Chapter 1: Charles D. Orzech - Tantric Subjects: Liturgy and Vision in Chinese Esoteric Ritual Manuals Chapter 2: Henrik H. Sørensen - Spells and Magical Practices as Reflected in the Early Chinese Buddhist Sources (c. 300–600 CE) and their Implications for the Rise and Development of Esoteric Buddhism Chapter 3: Lü Jianfu - The Terms “Esoteric Teaching” (“Esoteric Buddhism”) and “Tantra” in Chinese Buddhist Sources Part II: Chan, Chinese Religion, and Esoteric Buddhism Chapter 4: Robert Sharf - Buddhist Veda and the Rise of Chan Chapter 5: Lin Pei-ying - A Comparative Approach to Śubhakarasiṃha’s (637–735) “Essentials of Meditation”: Meditation and Precepts in Eighth Century China Chapter 6: Meir Shahar - The Tantric Origins of the Horse King: Hayagrīva and the Chinese Horse Cult Part III: Scriptures and Practices in the Their Tibetan Context Chapter 7: Dan Martin - Crazy Wisdom in Moderation: Padampa Sangyé's Use of Counterintuitive Methods in Dealing with Negative Mental States Chapter 8: Eran Laish - Perception, Body and Selfhood: The Transformation of Embodiment in the Thod rgal Practice of the “Heart Essence” Tradition Chapter 9: Yael Bentor - Tibetan Interpretations of the Opening Verses of Vajraghaṇṭa on the Body Maṇḍala Part IV: Tibetan Buddhism in China Chapter 10: Shen Weirong - Ming Chinese Translations of Tibetan Tantric Buddhist Texts and the Buddhist Saṃgha of the Western Regions in Beijing Chapter 11: Ester Bianchi - Continuities and Discontinuities in Sino-Tibetan Buddhism: The Case of Nenghai’s Legacy in the Contemporary Era Part V: Esoteric Buddhism in Dunhuang Chapter 12: Jacob Dalton - On the Significance of the Ārya-tattvasaṃgraha-sādhanopāyikā and Its Commentary Chapter 13: Li Ling and Ma De - Avalokiteśvara and the Dunhuang Dhāraṇī Spells of Salvation in Childbirth Part VI: Esoteric Buddhism in the Tangut Xixia and Yugur Spheres Chapter 14: Hou Haoran - Notes on the Translation and Transmission of the Saṃpuṭa and Cakrasaṃvara Tantras in the Xixia Period (1038–1227) Chapter 15: Yang Fuxue - Mongol Rulers, Yugur Subjects, and Tibetan Buddhism Part VII: Esoteric Buddhism in the Dali Kingdom (Yunnan) Chapter 16: Hou Chong - The Chinese Origins of Dali Esoteric Buddhism Chapter 17: Megan Bryson - Between China and Tibet: Mahākāla Worship and Esoteric Buddhism in the Dali Kingdom Index

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Book SynopsisThe first scholarly monograph on Buddhist maṇḍalas in China, this book examines the Maṇḍala of Eight Great Bodhisattvas. This iconographic template, in which a central Buddha is flanked by eight attendants, flourished during the Tibetan (786–848) and post-Tibetan Guiyijun (848–1036) periods at Dunhuang. A rare motif that appears in only four cave shrines at the Mogao and Yulin sites, the maṇḍala bore associations with political authority and received patronage from local rulers. Attending to the historical and cultural contexts surrounding this iconography, this book demonstrates that transcultural communication over the Silk Routes during this period, and the religious dialogue between the Chinese and Tibetan communities, were defining characteristics of the visual language of Buddhist maṇḍalas at Dunhuang.Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Abbreviations and Conventions Introduction    Recentering Buddhism at Dunhuang    The Shingon Impact    Maṇḍalas in the Making    Overview of Chapters 1 From Dhāraṇī to Maṇḍala    Dhāraṇī Pillars in Medieval China    Maṇḍalas and Altars    Visualizing the Maṇḍala 2 The Crowned Buddha and Narratives of Enlightenment    The Cult of Vairocana in Early Tibet    The Crowned Buddha    Networks of Transmission    Stylistic Bilingualism in Images of Vairocana    The Eight Bodhisattvas 3 Maṇḍalas and Historical Memory    Mogao Cave 156 and the Victory of Zhang Yichao    The Cult of Avalokiteśvara at Dunhuang    The Maṇḍala of Eight Great Bodhisattvas in the Guiyijun Period    Amoghavajra and the Vajradhātu Maṇḍala    Maṇḍalas and Ritual Space 4 Maṇḍalas, Repentance, and Vision    The Vajra Realm in Ritual Manuals from Dunhuang    The Five Buddhas and Repentance Altars 5 Beyond the Maṇḍala    Bodhisattvas and Repentance    The Kalyāṇamitras as Embodied Experience    The Vows of Samantabhadra    The Ascent to the Dharma Realm Epilogue Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisGyōnen’s Transmission of the Buddha Dharma in Three Countries is the first English translation of this work and a new assessment of it. Gyōnen (1240-1321) has been recognized for establishing a methodology for the study of Buddhism that would come to dominate Japan. The three countries Gyōnen considers are India, China and Japan. Ronald S. Green and Chanju Mun describe Gyōnen’s innovative doctrinal classification system (panjiao) for the first time and compare it to other panjiao systems. They argue that Gyōnen’s arrangement and what he chose to exclude served political purposes in the Kamakura period, and thus engage current scholarship on the construction of Japanese Buddhism.Trade Review"Ronald S. Green and Chanju Mun have translated for the first time into English a crucial Japanese Buddhist work that had become greatly influential in dictating the approach with which Buddhist texts were interpreted and understood in Kamakura Japan. (...) The book is an outstanding addition to the existing English-language literature of Japanese Buddhism which should be of great interest to all students of East Asian religions." - Lehel Balogh, Hokkaido University, in: Religious Studies Review 47.1 (2021).Table of ContentsContents Preface  Ronald S. Green Abbreviations Preliminary Notes Historical Chronology (Through Gyōnen’s Time) List of Japanese Buddhist Monastic Ranks List of Tables and Diagrams Part 1: A Sketch of The Transmission of the Buddha Dharma and Related Issues Introduction: Gyōnen and the Organizational Structure of His Text  1 The Life of Gyōnen (1240-1321) and his Perspective in this Text  2 The Organizational Structure of the Text 1 Indian Foundations and Chinese Developments of the Buddha Dharma  1 Indian Foundation  2 Chinese Developments 2 Korean Contributions to Japanese Buddhism  1 Korea as the Political Bridge  2 The Introduction of Korean Buddhism into Japan  3 The Formation of Japanese Buddhism 3 Japanese Development of the Buddha Dharma  1 Historical Establishment of the Eight Older Schools of Japanese Buddhism  2 Historical Establishment of the Newer Kamakura Schools of Gyōnen’s Time Part 2: Translation of Gyōnen’s The Narrative History of Transmission of the Buddha Dharma in Three Countries 4 Fascicle One   Introduction  1 Transmission of the Buddha Dharma in India  2 Transmission of the Buddha Dharma in China 5 Fascicle Two  3 Transmission of the Various Traditions in Japan 6 Fascicle Three  7 The Ritsu (Vinaya) School Colophon Bibliography Glossary Index

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Book SynopsisEine Aufsatzsammlung japanischer und deutscher Philosophen zur transzendentalen Philosophie (Kants, Fichtes, Husserls) und klassischer Mahayana Texte (einschließlich der Kyoto Schule) verweist - ohne wesentliche Unterschiede westlichen und östlichen Denkens zu leugnen - auf ihren gemeinsamen Grund in prä-reflexiver Erkenntnis. Inspired by Leibniz´ idea of the philosophia perennis, volume 46 of the Fichte Studien contains a collection of essays based on (Kant´s, Fichte´s and Husserl´s) transcendental philosophy and classical documents of Mahayana Buddhism (including the Kyoto school).

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Book SynopsisThe Transnational Cult of Mount Wutai explores the pan-East Asian significance of sacred Mount Wutai from the Northern Dynasties to the present day. Offering novel readings of comparatively familiar visual and textual sources and, in many cases, examining unstudied or understudied noncanonical materials, the papers collected here illuminate the roles that both local actors and individuals dwelling far beyond Mount Wutai’s borders have played in its making and remaking as a holy place for more than fifteen hundred years. The work aims to contribute to our understanding of the ways that sacred geography is made and remade in new places and times.Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements Figures and Tables Introduction  Susan Andrews and Chen Jinhua Part 1: Court Patronage and State Control  1 From Mount Wutai to the Seven Jewel Tower: Monk Degan and Political Propaganda of the Wuzhou Period  Yinggang Sun  2 Faith and Realpolitik: Tang Dynasty Esoteric Buddhism at Mount Wutai  Geoffrey Goble  3 Monastic Officials on Wutai Shan under the Ming dynasty  Kuan Guang  4 Beyond Seeking for Sacredness: Shedding New Light on the Carving of the Jiaxing Canon on Mount Wutai  Dewei Zhang Part 2: Pilgrims and Sacred Sites  5 A Japanese Pilgrim’s Visit to Wutai in the Winter of  Robert Borgen  6 The Pilgrimage Account of Duke Miγvačir of Alaša to Mount Wutai in  Isabelle Charleux  7 Visions in Translation: A Qing-Gelukpa Guidebook to Mount Wutai  Wen-shing Chou  8 Mount Wutai and Mañjuśrī in Old Uigur Buddhism  Peter Zieme  9 How Important is Mount Wutai? Sacred Space in a Zen Mirror  T.H. Barrett Part 3: Changing Practices at Mount Wutai  10 Lama Nenghai’s imprint on Mount Wutai: Sino-Tibetan Buddhism among the Five Plateaus since the 1930s  Ester Bianchi  11 The Pure Land Teachings of Fazhao and the Mañjuśrī Cult of Mount Wutai  Sheng Kai  12 Fazhao Jin Bifeng, and Constructed Histories of Buddhist Chant and Music at Mount Wutai  Beth Szczepanski Part 4: Replicating Mount Wutai  13 The Legacy of the True Visage: The Mañjuśrī Statues at Zhenrong yuan and Shuxiang si of Mount Wutai  Sun-ah Choi  14 Khotan and Mount Wutai: The significance of Central Asian actors in the making of the mountain cult  Imre Hamar  15 Transnational Mountain Cult, Local Religiopolitical and Economic Concerns: Mount Wutai and the Kamakura period miracle tales of Tōnomine  Susan Andrews  16 The Emergence of the “Five-Terrace Mountain” Cult in Korea  Sangyop Lee  17 Flying Mañjuśrī and Moving Mount Wutai Towards the Xi Xia Period: As Seen from Dunhuang Caves  Wei-Cheng Lin Index

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Book SynopsisFrom the fifth century BC to the present and dealing with the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) as well as popular religion, this introduction to the eight-volume Early and Modern Chinese Religion explores key ideas and events in four periods of paradigm shift in the intertwined histories of Chinese religion, politics, and culture. It shows how, in the Chinese church-state, elite processes of rationalization, interiorization, and secularization are at work in every period of major change and how popular religion gradually emerges to a position of dominance by means of a long history of at once resisting, adapting to, and collaborating with elite-driven change. Topics covered include ritual, scripture, philosophy, state policy, medicine, sacred geography, gender, and the economy. It also serves as the basis for an on-line Coursera course.Trade Review"The book is a fertile source of reliable information on many aspects of religious history." -Barbara Hendrischke, University of Sydney, in Religious Studies Review, Volume 45, Number 2, June 2019 'The book covers essentially all the main aspects of Chinese religiosity in a nutshell and it constitutes an invaluable guide for extant academic research on Chinese thought.' - R.Tatu, (Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, South Africa), Pharos Journal of Theology, 102 (2021). 'By preparing an invaluable synthetic overview that presents many of the field’s most important intellectual breakthroughs, Paradigm Shifts can help scholars take stock of where we stand as well as consider new directions for future research.' - Paul R. Katz, Academia Sinica, Taipei, T’oung Pao 105 (2019) 649-652. 'Quoi qu’il en soit, Paradigm Shifts est un livre brillant, utile et provocant, qui contribue à insérer l’étude des religions – et de la religion – chinoises dans une approche globale du fait religieux en régime de modernité et post-modernité.' - Benoît Vermander, Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 188 (2019), 353-356.

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Book SynopsisThe Fozu tongji by Zhipan (ca. 1220-1275) is a key text of Chinese Buddhist historiography. In the present volume Thomas Jülch presents his translation of the first five juan of the massive annalistic part. Rich annotations clarify the backgrounds to the historiographic contents, presented by Zhipan in a highly essentialized style. For the historical traditions the sources Zhipan refers to are meticulously identified. In those cases where the accounts presented are inaccurate or imprecise, Jülch points out how the relevant matter is depicted in the sources Zhipan relies on. With this carefully annotated translation of Fozu tongji, juan 34-38, Thomas Jülch enables an indepth understanding of a key text of Chinese Buddhist historiography.Table of ContentsForeword Acknowledgements Introduction Preliminary Remarks Translation Fayun tongsai zhi, juan 1 Fayun tongsai zhi, juan 2  Supplements for Fayun tongsai zhi, juan 1 and 2 Fayun tongsai zhi, juan 3  Supplements for Fayun tongsai zhi, juan 3 Fayun tongsai zhi, juan 4 Fayun tongsai zhi, juan 5 Glossary of Sanskrit and Pāli Terms Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisContextualizing the sutra within a milieu of intense religious and cultural experimentation, this volume unravels the sudden rise of Diamond Sutra devotion in the Tang dynasty against the backdrop of a range of social, political, and literary activities. Through the translation and exploration of a substantial body of narratives extolling the efficacy of the sutra, it explores the complex social history of lay Buddhism by focusing on how the laity might have conceived of the sutra and devoted themselves to it. Corroborated by various sources, it reveals the cult’s effect on medieval Chinese religiosity in the activities of an empowered laity, who modified and produced parasutraic texts, prompting the monastic establishment to accommodate to the changes they brought about.Trade Review"Ho has produced an exemplary piece of research that deserves to be widely read and appreciated. This is a substantial work and the writing is dense, detailed, and nuanced. [...] Reading it forced me to rethink some of my approaches to and understandings of Buddhist narrative materials from premodern China. [...] I think anyone working on Buddhist narrative literature will find this book essential reading. I look forward to spending many more hours with it and discussing it with my graduate students." – James A. Benn, McMaster University, in JAOS 141.3 (2021). "Given that scholarship pertaining to the Diamond Sutra is a vast field, it is rather refreshing to see it examined from the perspective of lay empowerment. Few scholars of religion would dispute the importance of the Diamond Sutra in (and beyond) Chinese Buddhism. What Ho has provided in this volume is a most welcome line of inquiry that will hopefully generate fruitful further dialogue." – Joseph Chadwin, University of Vienna, in Religious Studies Review 47.3 (2021).Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Conventions Introduction Part 1: Study 1 Buddhism on the Ground: Parasutraic Narratives and Lay Religiosity 2 Parasutraic Narratives as Collective Memories: Underpinnings and the Rhetoric of Persuasion 3 Parasutraic Representations: The Religiosity of the Diamond Sutra Cult 4 Religious Innovations: Lay Autonomy in Textual Production 5 The Impact of the Cult of the Diamond Sutra and Its Parasutraic Narratives Part 2: Translation 6 A Record of Collected Proofs of the Efficacy of the Diamond Sutra, Jin’gang bore jing jiyanji 金剛般若經集驗記, Composed by Meng Xianzhong 孟獻忠, Adjutant of Zizhou 梓州司馬 7 Collected Marvels of the Diamond Sutra, Jin’gang jing jiuyi 金剛經鳩異, Compiled by Kegu 柯古, Duan Chengshi 段成式of Linzi 臨淄 [Commandery], Junior Chamberlain for Ceremonials, Tang Dynasty 8 A Record of the Proven Efficacy of the Diamond Sutra and the Merit to Be Gained from Upholding and Reciting It, Chisong Jin’gang jing lingyan gongde ji 持誦金剛經靈驗功德記, Compiled by Zhai Fengda 翟奉達 Appendices Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe Neo-Buddhist Writings of Lafcadio Hearn: Light from the East by Antony Goedhals offers radical rereadings of a misunderstood and undervalued Victorian writer. It reveals that at the metaphysical core of Lafcadio Hearn’s writings is a Buddhist vision as yet unappreciated by his critics and biographers. Beginning with the American writings and ending with the essay- and story-meditations of the Japanese period, the book demonstrates Hearn’s deeply personal and transcendently beautiful evocations of a Buddhist universe, and shows how these deconstruct and dissolve the categories of Western discourse and thinking about reality – to create a new language, a poetry of vastness, emptiness, and oneness that had not been heard before in English, or, indeed, in the West.Table of Contents Preface  Acknowledgements  List of Illustrations  Notes on the Text and Conventions Adopted 1 A Metaphysics of Buddhism and Its History in the West  Introduction  Core Issues Outlined: the Letters of George Milbry Gould and Basil Hall Chamberlain  Dr George Milbry Gould  Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain  Hearn’s Reception in the West  The Existing Scholarship on Hearn’s Buddhism  The Advent of Buddhism to the West  The European Discovery of Buddhism in ‘British’ India  Buddhism a Radical Metaphysic  Buddhism a Construct, a Story  Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia (1879)  Conclusion 2 Biographical and Critical Studies of Hearn  Introduction  The ad hominem Nature of Biographical and Critical – ‘Bio-critical’ – Works on Hearn  The Bio-critical Memes of Hearn Studies  Biographies and Bio-critical Works on Hearn   Elizabeth Bisland’s Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn (1906)   George Milbry Gould’s Concerning Lafcadio Hearn (1908)   Hearn’s Work Denigrated by Attacking the Man   Hearn’s Ancestry and Vision Attacked   Hearn’s going ‘Fantee’ and his Abandonment of a Loving Father-God   George M. Gould Collection of Hearniana: a Testimony to Obsession and Fearfulness   The History of Gould’s Encounter with Hearn and Gould’s Deprecation of Hearn on Grounds of Defective Vision   Hearn is ‘the Poet of Myopia’   Gould’s Fatherly Theism   God as ‘Biologos’ Creating out of Dead Matter the Garden of the World   ‘Karma’: a Tale Told for its Teller  Post-Gould, pre-World War I Critical Biographies of Hearn   Joseph De Smet’s Lafcadio Hearn: l’Homme et l’œuvre (1911) and Edward Thomas’s Lafcadio Hearn (1912)   Nina Kennard’s Lafcadio Hearn (1912)   Yone Noguchi’s Lafcadio Hearn in Japan (1910)   Setsuko Koizumi’s Reminiscences of Lafcadio Hearn (1918), Kazuo Koizumi’s Father and I: Memories of Lafcadio Hearn (1935), and Re-Echo (1957)  Critical Biographies of Hearn Written between the Two World Wars   Edward Larocque Tinker’s Lafcadio Hearn’s American Days (1924)   Jean Temple’s Blue Ghost: A Study of Lafcadio Hearn (1931) and Oscar Lewis’s Hearn and His Biographers: The Record of a Literary Controversy (1930)   Hearn – An Interpreter of Buddhism   Kenneth Kirkwood’s Unfamiliar Lafcadio Hearn (1936)  Critical Biographies of Hearn Written after World War II   Vera McWilliams’s Lafcadio Hearn (1946)   Orcutt William Frost’s Young Hearn (1958)   Elizabeth Stevenson’s The Grass Lark: A Study of Lafcadio Hearn (1961)   The Dorothea McClelland Papers  Critical Biographies of Hearn in the 1960s and 1970s   Albert Mordell’s Discoveries: Essays on Lafcadio Hearn (1964)   Beongcheon Yu’s An Ape of Gods: The Art and Thought of Lafcadio Hearn (1964), Arthur Kunst’s Lafcadio Hearn (1969), and Kenneth Rexroth’s The Buddhist Writings of Lafcadio Hearn (1977)  Contemporary Biographies of Hearn   Paul Murray’s Fantastic Journey: The Life and Literature of Lafcadio Hearn (1993)   Jonathan Cott’s Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn (1991)   Robert Rosenstone’s Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan (1988)  Conclusion 3 Buddhism in the American Writings and ‘Seeking the Orient at Home’  Introduction  Hearn’s First Encounters with Buddhism   Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia   Atheism and Individual Responsibility in The Light of Asia   Causation, Karma, Reincarnation, and the Interrelation of all Phenomena in The Light of Asia   Buddhism a Revisioning of ‘the Self’   Buddhism a Revisioning of the Problem of Death   Hearn’s Buddhism Ontological, not Moralistic  Articles about Buddhism   The Times-Democrat a ‘Buddhist Newspaper’, an ‘Infidel sheet’   ‘The People We Send Missionaries To’   ‘The World’s Worships’   ‘What Buddhism Is’   ‘Recent Buddhist Literature’  Articles about the Hindu-Buddhist Matrix and Other ‘Oriental’ Subjects   ‘Edwin Arnold’s New Book’   The ‘Neo-Buddhism of the Theosophists’  Herbert Spencer’s ‘Synthetic Philosophy’ and Buddhism  Hearn’s Translations of Buddhist Stories and His Neo-Buddhist Fictions   Stray Leaves From Strange Literature   ‘The Legend of the Monster Misfortune’   ‘A Parable Buddhistic’   ‘Pundari’   ‘Yamaraja’   ‘The Lotus of Faith’  Hearn’s ‘fantastics’ and Ghost Stories: Meditations on Love and Death   Background to the ‘fantastics’   ‘When I was a Flower’   ‘A Dead Love’   ‘His Heart is Old’   ‘Hereditary Memories’   ‘Metempsychosis’   ‘The Undying One’   ‘The Story of Ming-Y’  Hearn’s Cosmic ‘fantastics’   ‘Subhadra’   ‘The Life of Stars’ and ‘The Destiny of Solar Systems’   ‘The great “I-Am”’ and ‘A Concord Compromise’  Conclusion 4 Japan and the ‘Romance of Reality’  Introduction  ‘Popular’ or ‘Lower’ Buddhism   ‘From the Diary of an English Teacher’   ‘The Writings of Kōbōdaishi’ and ‘Jizō’   ‘A Pilgrimage to Enoshima’   ‘At the Market of the Dead’, ‘By the Japanese Sea’, and ‘From Hōki to Oki’  Shinto   ‘Bon-Odori’ and ‘The Household Shrine’  Individual Observations of Reality: Hearn’s Buddhist Meditations   ‘My First Day in the Orient’  The ‘Shock of Emptiness’   ‘From a Traveling Diary’   ‘In the Twilight of the Gods’  Three Central Essay-Meditations   The ancestors, karma   ‘The Idea of Preëxistence’   ‘Some Thoughts About Ancestor-Worship’   ‘Nirvana: A Study in Synthetic Buddhism’  Three Central Story-Meditations   ‘Dust’   ‘The Stone Buddha’   ‘In Yokohama’: closing the cycle of the ‘Buddhist papers’  The Buddhist Writings of the Last Years  ‘Insect-Studies’   ‘Story of a Fly’, ‘Fireflies’, ‘Gaki’, ‘Kusa-Hibari’, and ‘Mosquitoes’  Stories with Buddhist Settings   ‘Within the Circle’   ‘The Story of a Tengu’   ‘A Legend of Fugen-Bosatsu’   ‘Fragment’ and the Fenollosas   Ernest Fenollosa’s Attack on Hearn in The Atlantic Monthly  Oneness   ‘A Drop of Dew’   ‘Of Moon-Desire’  The Paradise of Possible Worlds  Time-Travel and Ghost Stories   ‘The Reconciliation’   ‘The Story of Itō Norisuké’  Conclusion 5 Conclusion  Bibliography   Hearn’s Writings   Secondary Texts  Index

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Book SynopsisBuddhist Philosophy of Consciousness brings Buddhist voices to the study of consciousness. This book explores a variety of different Buddhist approaches to consciousness that developed out of the Buddhist theory of non-self. Topics taken up in these investigations include: how we are able to cognize our own cognitions; whether all conscious states involve conceptualization; whether distinct forms of cognition can operate simultaneously in a single mental stream; whether non-existent entities can serve as intentional objects; and does consciousness have an intrinsic nature, or can it only be characterized functionally? These questions have all featured in recent debates in consciousness studies. The answers that Buddhist philosophers developed to such questions are worth examining just because they may represent novel approaches to questions about consciousness.Table of Contents Notes on Contributors  Introduction Part 1: Conceptualism and Nonconceptualism  Introduction to Part 1 1 Knowing Blue: Ābhidharmika Accounts of the Immediacy of Sense Perception  Robert H. Sharf 2 Nonconceptual Awareness in Yogācāra and Madhyamaka Thought  John Spackman 3 Turning Earth to Gold: the Early Yogācāra Understanding of Experience Following Non-conceptual Cognition  Roy Tzohar Part 2: Meta-cognition  Introduction to Part 2 4 Whose Consciousness? Reflexivity and the Problem of Self-Knowledge  Christian Coseru 5 Should Mādhyamikas Refute Subjectivity? Thoughts on what might be at stake in debates on self-awareness  Dan Arnold 6 Self-Knowledge and Non-self  Mark Siderits 7 The Genesis of *Svasaṃvitti-saṃvittiReconsidered  Toru Funayama 8 Dharmapāla on the Cognition of Other Minds (paracittajñāna)  Shinya Moriyama Part 3: Mental Consciousness in East Asian Buddhism: MSF  Introduction to Part 3 9 Mānasa-pratyakṣa as the Perception of Conventionally Real (prajñaptisat) Properties – Interpreting Dignāga’s mānasa-pratyakṣa based on Clues from Kuiji  Ching Keng 10 Mental Consciousness and Its Objects  Zhihua Yao 11 Vasubandhu’s Theory of Memory: a Reading based on the Chinese Commentaries  Chen-kuo Lin  Index

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Book SynopsisBringing together the innovative work of scholars from a variety of disciplines, Matsuri and Religion explores festivals in Japan through their interconnectedness to religious life in both urban and rural communities. Each chapter, informed by extensive ethnographic engagement, focuses on a specific festival to unpack the role of religion in collective ritualized activities. With attention to contemporary performance and historical transformation, the study sheds light on understandings of change, identity and community, as well as questions regarding intangible cultural heritage, tourism, and the intersection of religion with politics. Read as a whole, the volume provides a uniquely multi-sited ethnographic, historical, and theoretical study, contributing to discourses on religion and festival/ritual/performance in Japan and elsewhere around the globe.Table of ContentsPreface Notes on Contributors List of Figures 1 Introduction Matsuri and Religion in Japan  Michael Dylan Foster (, , ) and Elisabetta Porcu (, , ) 2 Displaying Mythological Characters Changes in the Meanings of Decorations in the Sawara Grand Festival in Chiba, Japan  Tsukahara Shinji 塚原伸治 (, , )Jude Pultz 3 Gion Matsuri in Kyoto A Multilayered Religious Phenomenon  Elisabetta Porcu (, , ) 4 Sannō Matsuri Fabricating Festivals in Modern Japan  John Breen (, , ) 5 Eloquent Plasticity Vernacular Religion, Change, and Namahage  Michael Dylan Foster (, , ) 6 Kuma Matsuri Bear Hunters as Intermediaries between Humans and Nature  Scott Schnell (, , ) 7 Fire, Prayer, and Purification Early Winter Events and Folk Beliefs in Kyoto  Yagi Tōru 八木透 (, , ) 8 Encounters with the Past Fractals and Atmospheres at Kasuga Wakamiya Onmatsuri  Andrea Giolai (, , ) 9 Demographic Change in Contemporary Rural Japan and Its Impact on Ritual Practices  Susanne Klien (, , ) 10 Photographic Essay: Secret Eroticism and Lived Religion The Art of Matsuri Photography  Michael Dylan Foster (, , ) and Ogano Minoru 小賀野実 (Photographer, Saitama City, Japan) Index

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Book SynopsisThis book introduces the reader to different cases of cultural intersections between Tibet and China in the field of Buddhism. The ten chapters provide a series of insights into Sino-Tibetan exchanges within religious practices and doctrines, material culture and iconography. Spanning from pre-modern encounters in Central Asia to contemporary forms of Sino-Tibetan hybridity in Chinese-speaking environments, Sino-Tibetan Buddhism Across the Ages produces further evidence that, beginning with the very introduction of Buddhism into Tibet, there were constant and fruitful contacts and blending between the Buddhist traditions developing in China and those of Tibet. Contributors are Urs App, Ester Bianchi, Isabelle Charleux, Martino Dibeltulo Concu, Alison Denton Jones, Weirong Shen, Penghao Sun, Wei Wu, Fan Zhang, and Linghui Zhang.

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Book SynopsisThis Reader aims to help students start reading original Sanskrit literature. When we study ancient languages, there often is quite a gap between introductory, grammar-based classes and independent reading of original texts. This Reader bridges that gap by offering complete grammar and vocabulary notes for 40 entertaining, thought-provoking or simply beautiful passages from Sanskrit narrative and epic, as well as over 130 subhāṣitas (epigrams). These readings are complemented by review sections on syntax, word formation and compounding, a 900-word study vocabulary, complete transliterations and literal translations of all readings, as well as supplementary online resources. The Reader can be used for self-study and in a classroom, both to accompany introductory Sanskrit courses and to succeed them.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Read Me! A Brief Introduction You Won’t Want to Miss How to Do More With Words: Building Up Your Sanskrit Vocabulary Beginning to Read Sanskrit: Some Practical Tips for English Speakers Annotations and Abbreviations The Readings 1 Hitopadeśa, or Supportive Advice  a The Dog, the Donkey and the Thief (2.2)  b The Lion, Mouse and Cat (2.3)  c The Clever Woman and the Bell (2.4)  d The Clever Woman with Two Lovers (2.6)  e The Lion and the Old Hare (2.8)  f The Elephant, the Hares and the Moon (3.3)  g The Blue Jackal (3.7)  h The Sage and the Mouse (4.5)  i The Old Crane and the Crab (4.6)  j The Brahmin and the Pots (4.7)  k The Two Demons (4.8)  l The Brahmin and the Three Crooks (4.9) 2 Vikramacarita, or Vikrama’s Deeds  a I Volunteer as Tribute (Story 8)  b Eight Jewels from Eight Goddesses (Story 21)  c King Vikrama in His Element (Story 22)  d Don’t Believe Everything You See (Story 30) 3 Rāmāyaṇa, or Rāma’s Journey  a The Beauty of the Night (1. 33.14–18)  b A Perfect Leader (2.1.15–28)  c A Land Without Leadership (2.61.8–23)  d Jābāli the Materialist on the Meaning of Life (2.100.1–17)  e Sītā Cautions Rāma on the Handling of Weapons (3.8.1–12, 20–29)  f Rāma Asks Nature If It Has Seen Sītā (3.58.1–22, 31–34)  g The Ascetic Śabarī (3.70.4–27)  h The Hermitage of the Seven Sages (4.13.12–27)  i Tārā Counsels Her Husband Vālin (4.15.7–23)  j Tārā Laments Her Husband Vālin (4. 20.12–17)  k The Rainy Season (4.27.2–46)  l Svayaṃprabhā’s Cave (4.49.12–52.13)  m Hanumān Learns about His Immaculate Conception (4.65.8–28)  n How Should I Address Sītā? (5.28.3–44) 4 Kathāsaritsāgara, or Ocean of Rivers of Stories  a Śiva Explains the Significance of Skulls (1.2.10–15)  b Brahmadatta and the Golden Swans (1.3.27–34)  c Pāṇini (1.4.20–25)  d Hand with Five Fingers, Hand with Two Fingers (1.5.8–12)  e Why the Fish Laughed (1.5.14–25)  f King Śibi Sacrifices Himself (1.7.88–97)  g How the Bṛhatkathā Came to Earth (1.8.1–38)  h Ahalyā: Bilingual and Clever (3.3.137–147)  i Buddhist Merchant, Hindu Son (6.1.11–54)  j The Brahmin and the Outcaste (6.1.123–133)  k The Seven Princesses: King Kaliṅgadatta Is Told a Story within a Story within a Story (6.2.9–45)  l Tapodatta Tries to Replace Study with Penance (7.6.13–24)  m Should You Turn a Mouse into a Girl? (10.6.125–135)  n Once You’ve Tasted the Good Stuff … (10.6.178–185)  o Guard the Door! (10.6.209–211) 5 Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha, or Verse Summary of the Great Story 6 Subhāṣitas, or Epigrams Appendix 1: Roman Transliteration of All Texts Appendix 2: Literal Translations of All Texts Appendix 3: Study Vocabulary

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Book SynopsisBuddhist Statecraft in East Asia explores the long relationship between Buddhism and the state in premodern times and seeks to counter the modern, secularist notion that Buddhism, as a religion, is inherently apolitical. By revealing the methods by which members of Buddhist communities across premodern East Asia related to imperial rule, this volume offers case studies of how Buddhists, their texts, material culture, ideas, and institutions legitimated rulers and defended regimes across the region. The volume also reveals a history of Buddhist writing, protest, and rebellion against the state. Contributors are Stephanie Balkwill, James A. Benn, Megan Bryson, Gregory N. Evon, Geoffrey C. Goble, Richard D. McBride II, and Jacqueline I. Stone.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction  Stephanie Balkwill and James Benn 1 Metropolitan Buddhism vis-à-vis Buddhism at the Metropolis: How to Understand the Ling in the Empress Dowager’s Name  Stephanie Balkwill 2 Silla King Chinhŭng Institutes State-Protection Buddhist Rituals  Richard D. McBride II 3 The Commissioner of Merit and Virtue: Buddhism and the Tang Central Government  Geoffrey C. Goble 4 Images of Humane Kings: Rulers in the Dali-Kingdom Painting of Buddhist Images  Megan Bryson 5 Buddhism and Statecraft in Korea: The Long View  Gregory N. Evon 6 Refusing the Ruler’s Offerings: Accommodation and Martyrdom in Early Modern Nichiren Buddhism  Jacqueline I. Stone Index

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Book SynopsisDrawing on Dunhuang manuscripts and the latest scholarship in Dunhuang and Buddhist Studies, this translation analyzes Buddhist monasticism via such topics as the organizational forms of Dunhuang Buddhist monasteries, the construction and operation of ordination platforms, ordination certificates and government ordination licenses, and meditation retreats, etc. Assuming a pan-Asian perspective, the monograph also made trailblazing contributions to the study of Buddhist Sinicization and Sino-Indian cultural exchanges and is bound to exert long-lasting influences on the worldwide academic study of Buddhism.Trade ReviewProf. Zhan Ru’s book Disciplinary Rituals in Dunhuang Buddhism is a major contribution to Buddhist studies and, more specifically, the history of Buddhism in Dunhuang. It is based on a careful analysis of first-hand resources and is bound to have a lasting impact on scholarship. It traces the links between Indian Buddhist institutions and their later forms in Dunhuang and China proper. The approach of looking at institutions and phenomena in a transnational manner works especially well for Dunhuang, which stood at the intersection of Chinese, Central Asian and Indic cultures. It is becoming increasingly obvious that one cannot study Dunhuang in isolation but has to consider its interactions with other regions, cultures and languages. Prof. Zhan Ru does a remarkable job in integrating often disconnected topics (e.g. Indian Buddhism, Dunhuang popular literature, lay associations, political history) into a coherent narrative. We are extremely grateful to Brill and the team of expert translators for making this book available for an international readership. -- Imre Galambos (University of Cambridge)Table of ContentsList of Figures Conventions 1 Introduction  1.1 History of Indian Buddhist Vinaya Studies  1.2 History of Chinese Buddhist Vinaya Studies  1.3 A History of the Studies of the Disciplinary Rituals of Dunhuang Buddhism 2 The Organization and Character of Dunhuang’s Buddhist Temples, Meditation Caves, and Araṇya  2.1 Preamble  2.2 Early Monastic Regulations in China  2.3 Administrators (Gangguan 綱管) of Dunhuang Monasteries  2.4 The Organizational Structure of the Three Meditation Caves  2.5 The Principle of Dhūta (Austerities) and Its Social Function Reflected in Dunhuang’s Araṇya  2.6 Characteristics of Dunhuang’s Buddhist Temples 3 Evolution of the Ordination Platform and Dunhuang’s Fangdeng Daochang 方等道場 (Vaipulya Ordination Platform)  3.1 Preamble  3.2 The Origins and Formation of the Ordination Platform  3.3 Transformation of the Ordination Platform  3.4 Dunhuang’s Fangdeng Ordination Platforms and Lintan Dade 臨壇大德 (Ordination Platform Presiders of Great Virtue)  3.5 Concluding Remarks 4 Research on Dunhuang’s Precept Certificates, Rites for Conferring Precepts, and Ordination Licenses  4.1 Preamble  4.2 The Contents of the Baguan Zhai 八關齋 (Eightfold Purificatory Observance) and Their Receipt and Upholding  4.3 Protocols for the Rites of Conferral and Receipt of the Baguan Zhai  4.4 The Composition and Characteristics of Dunhuang’s Baguan Zhai Certificates  4.5 Translation and Circulation of Scriptures on the Bodhisattva Precepts  4.6 Ritual Procedures for the Conferring and Receiving of Bodhisattva Precepts  4.7 Certificates for Bodhisattva Precepts  4.8 Ordination Licenses 5 A New Investigation of Upavasatha Texts and Upavasatha Procedures  5.1 Origins  5.2 Prātimokṣa and Upavasatha in Sectarian Buddhism  5.3 Upavasatha Texts and Upavasatha Procedures in Dunhuang Buddhism  5.4 Concluding Remarks 6 Examination of the Dunhuang Summer Retreat  6.1 Preamble  6.2 The Vinaya Piṭaka ‘Retreat Khandhaka’ and the Form of Retreat in Early Buddhism  6.3 Summer Retreat and Winter Retreat in Dunhuang Buddhism  6.4 Concluding Remarks 7 Stotra (Hymns) in Pure Land Teachings at Dunhuang  7.1 Zanwen 讚文 (Extolment), Jizan 偈讚 (Extol Verse) and the Pure Land Extolment Texts  7.2 Research on Extolment Verses of Pure Land Teachings  7.3 Concluding Remarks 8 Analysis of Dunhuang Zhaiwen, Zhai Gatherings, and Dharma Gatherings  8.1 Presenting the Problematic  8.2 The Origins and Evolution of Zhai 齋  8.3 Zhai Gatherings and Folk Beliefs in the Tang and Five Dynasties  8.4 Dunhuang Zhaiwen  8.5 Zhai Wanwen 齋琬文 (Zhai Model Texts) and Buddhist Procedures  8.6 Zhai Gatherings in Dunhuang  8.7 Dunhuang Zhai Gatherings and Folk Beliefs  8.8 Dunhuang Wuzhe (Non-Obstructing) Great Gatherings 9 General Conclusion  9.1 Features of Dunhuang Buddhist Communities  9.2 Disciplinary Rituals and the State Control  9.3 Multi-Facetted Beliefs about the Pure Land in Dunhuang  9.4 Formation of Dunhuang Buddhist Rituals Appendix 1: Translations of Dunhuang Manuscripts and Inscriptions  Appendix 2: Charts and Lists Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisChina has a long and complex history of interactions with the world around it. One of the most successful imports—arguably the most successful before modern times and the impact of the West—is Buddhism, which, since the first centuries of the Common Era, has spread into almost every aspect of Chinese life, thought and practice. Erik Zürcher was one of the most important scholars to study the history of Buddhism in China, and the ways in which Buddhism in China gradually became Chinese Buddhism. More than half a century after the publication of Zürcher's landmark The Buddhist Conquest of China, we now have a collection of essays from the top contemporary specialists exploring aspects of the legacy of Zürcher's investigations, bringing forward new evidence, new ideas and reconsiderations of old theories to present an up-to-date and exciting expansion and revision of what was arguably the single most influential contribution to date on the history of Chinese Buddhism. Contributors are Tim Barrett, Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Funayama Toru, Barend ter Haar, Liu Shufen, Minku Kim, Jan Nattier, Antonello Palumbo, and Nicolas Standaert.

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Book SynopsisWhat does the Chinese term xin 信 mean? How does it relate to the concept of faith in a Western sense? How far does it still denote “being trustworthy” in its ancient Confucian sense? When did major shifts occur in its long history of semantics that allowed later Christian missionaries to use the term regularly as a translation for the concept of believing in gods or God? This volume offers a broad picture of the semantic history of this Chinese term, throwing light on its semantic multi-layeredness shaped by changing discursive contexts, interactions between various ideological milieus, and transcultural encounters.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Contributors Introductory Part: Western, Chinese, and Global Genealogies of Faith and xin 1 Introduction  Christian Meyer and Philip Clart 2 An Overview: a Short Genealogy of Faith in the Western History of Philosophy and Theology and a Chinese Perspective  Jiang Manke Part 1: Setting the Stage: Traditional Uses in Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist Contexts 3 A Trustworthy Companion: xin 信 as Component Term in Early Chinese Texts  Joachim Gentz 4 A Linguistic Analysis of the Different Functions of xin and Their Historical Development from Late Archaic to Middle Chinese  Barbara Meisterernst 5 An Inquiry into Conceptions of xin 信 in Early Medieval Daoism  Friederike Assandri 6 The Concept of Faith in Chinese Buddhist Scriptures  Tam Wai Lun 7 Japanese Buddhist Concepts of Faith (shin 信): the Postmodern Narrative of the Conceptual Hegemony of Western Modernity Reconsidered  Christoph Kleine 8 Convinced by Amazement—Creating Buddhist xin 信 (Belief/Trust) in the Biographies of Thaumaturge Monks (T. 2064)  Esther-Maria Guggenmos 9 Xin in Morality Books: An Overview  Vincent Goossaert Part 2: Early Channels of Transfer: Monotheistic Uses of the Term xin from the Seventh to the Seventeenth Century 10 From Trust in the Buddha to the Belief in the One God—xin as a Buddhist, Manichaean and Christian Concept in Early Medieval China  Max Deeg 11 Xin 信 in the Early Seventeenth-Century Chinese Christian Community  Nicolas Standaert 12 Theology, Ethics and Textual Sensitivity: the Multiple Notions of xin 信 in Chinese-Islamic Texts  Dror Weil Part 3: From the Christian Milieu to the Entry into the General Lexicon of Modern Chinese: Late-Qing to Republican Uses and the Role of Japan 13 Negotiating between Chinese Religious Beliefs and Christian Faith: Timothy Richard’s (1845–1919) Understanding of “Faith”/xin 信 and Approach to Comparative Religion  Thomas Jansen 14 From Missionary Doctrine to Chinese Theology: Developing xin 信 in the Protestant Church and the Creeds of Zhao Zichen  Chloë Starr 15 Shin 信 as a Marker of Identity in Modern Japanese Buddhism  Hans Martin Krämer 16 The (New) Buddhist Semantics of xin 信 in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Arguments from China and Taiwan  Stefania Travagnin 17 Religious Concepts and Evolutionary Theory in the Early Thought of Liang Qichao: from “Religion” via “Faith” to the “View of Death and Life”  Thomas Fröhlich 18 From Universal Faith to Religious Experience: Usages of xin in Early Chinese Religious Studies (zongjiaoxue)  Christian Meyer 19 “Our Believing in the Three People’s Principles Requires a Religious Spirit”: xin (yang) and the Political Religion of the Guomindang, 1925–1949  Thoralf Klein 20 Belief in the Dao, or Knowledge of the Truth? Contested Interpretations of “Xin/Xinyang” in Yiguandao Discourses  Nikolas Broy Part 4: Contemporary Usages in Special and Everyday Language Discourses in Mainland China and Taiwan 21 Xin in the Discourse on Conversion among Tzuchians in Shanghai  Huang Weishan 22 The Role of “Confidence” in the Gender Discourse of Buddhist Nuns* in Contemporary Mainland China: Learning xinxin 信心 to Become a Masculine Hero  Johanna Lüdde 23 Giving Credit Where Its Due: Thanksgiving as Performance of Belief in Chinese Popular Religion  Adam Yuet Chau 24 What China Is Missing—Faith in Political Discourse  Gerda Wielander 25 Epilogue: Reflections and Theses on the Semantic History of xin and Faith  Christian Meyer

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Book SynopsisThis volume explores the role played by monastic discipline in the emergence and evolution of modern Chinese Buddhism. A central feature of the Buddhist tradition, monastic discipline has received growing attention in the contemporary Buddhist world, but little from scholars. Adopting a diachronic perspective and a multidisciplinary approach, contributions by leading scholars investigate relevant Vinaya-related practices in twentieth and twenty-first centuries China and Taiwan, including issues of monastic identity and authenticity, updated ordination procedures, recent variations of Mahāyāna precepts and rules, and original perspectives on body movement and related sport activities. The restoration and renewal of Vinaya practices and standards within Chinese Buddhist practices shed new light on the response of Buddhist leaders and communities to the challenges of modernity. Contributors are: Ester Bianchi, Raoul Birnbaum, Daniela Campo, Tzu-Lung Chiu, Ann Heirman, Zhe Ji, Yu-chen Li, Pei-ying Lin, and Jiang Wu.Table of Contents9789004533455 Acknowledgment List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors Introduction Part 1 Questioning Monastic Identity: Vinaya and Authenticity 1 Vinaya Master Hongyi’s 弘一 Vinaya Problem  Raoul Birnbaum 2 Retaking the Monastic Precepts: Shanghai Lay Buddhists’ Struggle for the Authenticity of Monkhood in the 1980s  Zhe Ji 汲喆 Part 2 Adjusting the Vinaya: Ordination Procedures 3 Discipline and Enlightenment: Hanyue Fazang 漢月法藏 (1573–1635) and the Spread of the Triple Platform Ordination Ceremony in Seventeenth-Century China  Jiang Wu 吳疆 4 Authenticity and Authority: Dual Ordination in Post-war Taiwan  Yu-chen Li 李玉珍 Part 3 Mahāyāna Vinaya: Bodhisattva Precepts and Chinese Monastic Codes 5 Yogācāra Bodhisattva Precepts in Twentieth Century China: Reevaluating Rules and Commitments in the Light of Modernity  Ester Bianchi 6 Changing Attitudes to the Precepts in Modern Taiwan: The Debate between Brahmā’s Net Precepts and Yogācāra Precepts  Pei-ying Lin 林佩瑩 7 Buddhist Monastic Regulations in Contemporary China: Adapting the Rules to a Changing Social and Political Context  Daniela Campo Part 4 Vinaya Specifics in the Modern World: Body Movement and Sport Activities 8 Body Movement and Sport Activities: A Buddhist Normative Perspective from India to China  Ann Heirman and Tzu-Lung Chiu 邱子倫 9 Physical Exercise and Sporting Activities in Contemporary Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese Buddhist Monasteries  Tzu-Lung Chiu 邱子倫 and Ann Heirman References Index

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