Description
Book SynopsisMatthew W. King offers a groundbreaking account of the literary, social, and political history of the circulation, translation, and interpretation of Faxian’s
The Record of Buddhist Kingdoms. He reads its many journeys at multiple levels, contrasting the textual and interpretative traditions of the European academy and the Inner Asian monastery.
Trade ReviewA lucidly written, thoroughly researched and consistently fascinating account of the modern travels of an ancient travelogue. * Inner Asia *
The questions King asks demand complex answers, but raising them in the first place is what makes this book unique. It's a very significant contribution to Buddhist studies, and shines a whole new light on how we look at texts such as Faxian's. -- John Butler * Asian Review of Books *
This is a fascinating study by a considerable scholar. -- T.H. Barrett * Journal of the American Oriental Society *
Starting with Faxian's remarkable memoir of his trip from China to India in the fifth century CE to gather Buddhist teachings, this book takes the reader on a journey of journeys. Matthew King's ingenious 'circular' historiography tracks the travel of a Chinese Buddhist monk to the Buddha's birthplace; the journey of the memoir of that travel to European scholars in the nineteenth century; and then how the Orientalist scholarship that the memoir inspired made its way back to Siberia, Inner Asian scholars, and finally displaced Tibetan refugee scholars in northern India: all in service of delivering Buddhist Asia into the realm of knowledge. Replete with an expert English translation of the Tibetan translation of the Mongolian translation of the French translation of the original Chinese memoir (you get the idea), this masterfully conceived book will captivate Asianists and historians of knowledge alike. -- Janet Gyatso, author of
Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern TibetThis beautifully written 'travelogue' of Faxian's
Record takes us on the text's journeys from Chang'an to Paris, thence from the French into Buriyati Mongol and into the Tibetan lands. Matthew King, who is as learned a polyglot as the writers he discusses, discloses the different cosmic pasts 'made anew from a history.' -- Prasenjit Duara, author of
The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable FutureIn the Forest of the Blind, another excellent and interesting book by Matthew W. King, calls for new interpretative frameworks from those that dominated social and intellectual history in Western academia. King's idea to trace and follow the reception of Faxian's fifth-century classic, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat’s interpretation, and its reception in Inner Asia is innovative and fascinating. -- Vesna Wallace, author of
The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the IndividualKing succeeds in not only offering a fascinating insight into Fǎxiǎn’s Record but also forces the reader to acknowledge how they are privy to and even part of the ongoing debate on how Western and non-Western
epistemologies should be interpreted. * Religious Studies Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Conventions
Introduction
1. Chang’an to India
2. Beijing to Paris
3. Buddhist Asia to Jambudvīpa
4. Jambudvīpa to Science
5. Science to History of the Dharma
Conclusion
Appendix. The Inner Asian
RecordNotes
Bibliography
Index
