This chapter discusses a little-known Buddhist scripture, the Sutra of the Questions by Druma, King of the Kinnara (Daiju kinnara-ō shomon-gyō), translated into Chinese by Kumārajīva in the early fifth century. This sutra is unique in that it proposes a powerful, and sympathetic, philosophy of music rooted in the Mahayana doctrines of emptiness; it also offers a template for Buddhist rituals involving music and dance that have been performed in Japan since the eighth century as part of the Gagaku and Bugaku repertory.

An unprecedented number of multilevel pagodas were built in China from the tenth through the thirteenth century. This growing emphasis on verticality, in contrast to the usual horizontal sprawl of China’s building tradition, raises questions about what “height” meant in the history of Chinese architecture. This essay argues that the height of the multilevel pagoda was necessarily performative: not so much because the pagoda served as a means of ascending to that height, but because it drew the attention of the faithful.

Wonhyo examined the broad range of Mahāyāna doctrines in a systematic, rational, thoroughgoing, and insightful manner. In addition to the breadth of his scholarly mastery of the Mahāyāna system, he possessed excellent skills in literary Chinese, and the combination of these talents allowed his writings to bring a profound influence on the development of Buddhism in East Asia.

This volume brings together key writings and prefaces of Wonhyo that present his integrative approach to Mahāyāna Buddhism—systematising multiple doctrinal strands into a unified framework and emphasising the harmonisation of apparent conflicts.

The significance of this book within the history of research lies in its comparatively rigorous and objective interpretation of the entire history of Korean Buddhism, from the Three Kingdoms period to modern times.

The English translation of Joseon Bulgyosa-go, a book on Korean Buddhist history by Gim Yeongsu. This work delves into the development, struggles, and societal impact of Buddhism in Korea, exploring its relationship with politics, culture, and the broader historical context.

This article focuses on the relationship between Buddhism and science illustrated by 一行 Yīxíng’s (683–727) participation in [Chinese] calendar formulation.

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were many types of Buddhist scripture-interpretation literature, including xuányì 玄義, xuánlun 玄論, yìshū 義疏, yìzhāng 義章, etc. These exegetical forms are related to Chinese traditional literary style, but mainly inherit the tradition of Indian Buddhist hermeneutics. In this paper, all such types would be summarized as yì (義, exegesis), lun (論, treatise) and shū (疏, commentaries), which are described as follows…

Unaffiliated with any particular school or doctrinal tradition, Wonhyo applied himself to the explication of all the major Mahāyāna source texts that were available at the time, and in doing so had a major impact on East Asian Buddhism.

This paper explores Wonhyo’s role in harmonizing Mahāyāna doctrines and his extensive commentarial work, while also discussing his hagiography—which likely reflects the folk hero he became rather than the historical thinker himself.

Therefore, in Wŏnhyo’s One Mind philosophy, enlightenment is the act of returning to the One Mind. This can be achieved through the practice of the six paramitas—generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom—or by chanting to Amitābha with faith in the One Mind and the three Buddhist treasures.

This encyclopedic introduction to Korean Buddhism shows how Buddhism entered the Korean peninsula from China in the 3rd to 6th centuries and then developed uniquely through doctrines like Hwaŏm and Sŏn, becoming deeply embedded in Korean cultural, political, and philosophical life.

The harmony between the master and the disciple was as fortunate as a mustard seed falling from the sky hitting the point of a needle.

This work offers English readers a threefold insight into Korean Buddhist hagiography by presenting three major compilations of biographies of eminent monks. The translations and annotations were based on an annotated Korean manuscript, with reference to the Hanmun originals held at the Archives of Buddhist Culture at Dongguk University.

In this article, after focusing on one particularly radical group, whose beliefs consisted of worshipping one’s own future Buddha (法身) residing within oneself (the Dilun school 地論宗), I show that all three schools born of the northern region—the Huayan (華嚴), Chan (禪) and the Three Stages Movement (三階教)—succeeded the radical group…

I compare the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices (二入四行論), considered the most prestigious early Chan text, with various texts from the Three Stages Movement, and demonstrate that there are some common elements. Both Schools were heavily influenced by the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra (涅槃經), which emphasized the importance of perceiving the Buddha-nature, and the Three Stages Movement practiced the same method of contemplation. The Huayan school of Zhixiang Monastery (至相寺), located next to the holy ground of the Three Stages Movement, propagated the theory of “originally achieved Buddhahood” (舊來成佛) and criticized both Chan Buddhism and the Three Stages Movement.

Perhaps to the ordinary believer the very idea of upholding the precepts themselves promised safety as much as moral improvement…

The notion of chunghwa 中華, an ideology that points to China as the place of cultural origin, was commonly adopted by both the Confucian scholar-officials and Buddhist monks during Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910).

Paekgok’s composition [the Taegak Tŭnggye jip 대각등계집] is a further example of how no division between Korean and Chinese history was perceived.

It was after the Sino-Japanese war of 1894 that such conceptions of China were shattered, leading the Koreans to be more open to western influences.

I will concentrate on the intellectual exchange between Buddhism and Chinese culture and outline the major issues from the historical perspective.

A basic introduction to Buddhism’s introduction into China.

Depending on the context, they could be perceived as annoying, filthy, or useful. They were associated with improper behavior, seen as helpful or even indispensable, or viewed as the innocent victims of human misbehavior. Yet, all these considerations were overshadowed by the Buddhist proscription against harming or killing any sentient being.

The famous cultural hero, King Sejo (1455–1468), at first he put in place, on the advice of his officials, very punitive and strict regulations around Buddhism. But as time went on, he got sick of the [Confucian State Council] he was dealing with. He started to think that his officials were nuts, I mean actually crazy. You can see in his documents, he himself was being driven crazy having to deal with these people. And the whole issue was Buddhism. They want the recurring thing: to convince a King to go the whole way and kill off Buddhism once and for all.

[By the 16th century], they kind of succeed in [stripping Buddhism of legal recognition] but there’s an unhappy conclusion: it didn’t atrophy and die. In fact, something worse happened: because they removed the government oversight of Buddhism, it started to flourish!

a study of avadāna narratives found in two related anthologies, the Za piyu jing 雜譬喻經 (T207) and the Zhong jing xuan za piyu 眾經撰雜譬喻 (T208). […] These narratives are carefully constructed literary productions that offer a window into both the world of the Indic society in which they were initially composed and the Chinese society which translated them.

By using original documents this article shows the evolution of the Zen denominations within the larger context of the legal framework that shaped all Buddhist denominations, and depicts how the divisions between sects and branches were reshuffled several times before stabilizing in their present form.

Reciting the “Hero’s March Spell” every day causes goblins, demons, and strange ghosts to be sincere and refrain from harming people.

The Léngyán Zhòu (楞嚴咒), or Śūraṅgama Mantra, is a protective dhāraṇī that has long been chanted by East Asian Buddhists. This article explores the Śūraṅgama’s history and enduring appeal as well as the distinction between exoteric and esoteric magic.

Yang Yi’s advocacy of Chan as ‘a separate practice outside the teaching’ in the Chuandeng lu coincided with a literary model that distinguished Song civilization from its predecessors.

The Pure Land was often very concretely present in the Chinese landscape or made present through ritual practice, but it was not owned by a single religious tradition.

While for Huisong, China was indeed a center of Buddhist studies as opposed to the ‘barbaric’ Gaochang, Xuanzang and Puguang most likely regarded China as a Buddhist borderland as opposed to India.

This paper introduces and critically discusses the earliest dated biography of an East Asian Buddhist nun that is known to us, and also provides a complete annotated translation of said biography. The text in question is the entombed biography and eulogy of Shi Sengzhi (釋僧芝 d. 516 CE).

The Chinese translations are mirrors of Indian scriptures, whose languages had shifted from colloquial ones, including Gāndhārī, to Sanskrit. Many of these Chinese translations are dated or datable. Therefore, if we carefully put the translated and transliterated words in chronological order, we may be able to trace the change of the original Indian forms

220–581 C.E. … This so-called “Dark Age” was highly creative. Innovations in warfare, religion, print technology, artistry of all types set the stage for the China to come out of this period. What scholars haven’t pointed out yet is that this period also marked a high point in the diversification of social roles for women. Indeed, the collapse of the classical tradition is what made space for new understandings of gender performance. Women experienced greater freedom of movement and choice with the entrance of Buddhism to the Yellow River Valley.

How Central Asian Buddhism came to the Chinese court and brought with it new ideas of women’s agency which culminated in the ascension of Empress Dowager Ling (靈皇後) in 515.

Zhu Fonian may have begun to produce new ‘scriptures’ without benefit of any Indian source-texts in an attempt to revive his own flagging fame.

How one Chinese Āgama translator came to write Chinese apocrypha.

The vinaya canon, some major sutras and the writings of eminent vinaya exegete Daoxuan in China insisted that astrology was not to be practiced by a Buddhist monk or nun. Despite this fact, a tradition of Buddhist astrology nevertheless emerged in China from the eighth century and came to full maturity in the ninth century.

This article examines early Buddhist Vinaya rules on astrology in both India and China. The author shows that, though all varieties of astrology are forbidden in earlier texts, Buddhist monastics in China still developed and practiced it. The analysis delves into the motivations and justifications for this tradition and its significance for the evolution of Buddhism in East Asia.

This paper attempts to describe the many difficulties faced by the first Buddhist translators through the analysis of the translation of a particular poem, the Buddhacarita. The case study aims at pointing out how this translation process involved linguistic, religious and cultural issues.

I would like to consider the blend of Indian and Chinese cultures that is evident in the works of Indian scholar monks who immigrated to China.

… this paper explores the processes by which he was transformed into a saintly figure. The manifold images of Xuanzang reflected the interaction and synthesis of Chinese and Indian Buddhist traditions that began during the early medieval period, further transformations when transmitted to other cultures, distinctions between elite and popular worship, and the intertwining of visualal and literary forms of [Buddhist] art.

Even the sundry demons of hell broke off their cruel horns. Indeed, it seemed as if all the beings from the eight great hells up to the one-hundred thirty-six minor hells might gain liberation.

This paper takes a closer look at the variations in the translation of tridoṣa in Chinese. I argue that translation inconsistencies reflect not confusion, but a range of strategic translation decisions. While some translators prioritised closer fidelity to Sanskrit originals, most chose to emphasise the compatibility between Indian and Chinese medical thought by glossing the tridoṣa with terms that were loaded with indigenous metaphorical connotations. In a rereading of one such passage, I show that understanding so-called errors as translation tactics allows historical analysis to move beyond a limited focus on the accuracy of translations and to instead explore the cultural resonances and social logics of translated texts in their historical context.

This study takes as its focus the medieval deification of Prince Shotoku’s mother, Anahobe no Hashihito. Long associated with the Nara nunnery Chuguji, Empress Hashihito was resurrected as patron goddess of the nunnery in the medieval period, when Chuguji was restored and expanded by the nun Shinnyo (1211-?). Images of Empress Hashihito and the Nun Shinnyo take center stage in the literature and art associated with Chuguji. This article argues that medieval Chuguji narratives effectively ignore androcentric Buddhist teachings in favor of popular legends that present Empress Hashihito as a female deity and Shinnyo as a female Buddhist exemplar. That Chuguji materials offer these seemingly positive images of Buddhist women challenges the commonly held scholarly assumption that medieval Japanese women fully internalized the disparaging views of the female body disseminated in Buddhist doctrinal texts.

Despite being cultural aliens, the nomads were aware of the superior literary and cultural tradition of the Chinese with whom they came into contact. Accepting the Confucian tradition and Chinese ways, however, would have meant subsuming their military superiority to and separateness from those they conquered. Instead, most nomadic rulers chose to adopt Buddhism as an alternative cultural policy.

… the controversial basis for such identification, the tomb’s now-vanished inscription of “shēlì 猞猁,” resulted from an unverifiable reading by a local archaeologist working under adverse conditions and an unqualified confirmation … distorting the picture of early Buddhism and its material culture in China.

As a sacred site for pilgrimage, Bodhgayā became even more prominent from the sixth and seventh centuries onward, when the rebuilding of the Mahābodhi Temple coincided with the installation of a Buddha statue with the earth-touching gesture, symbolic of the Buddha’s calling upon the earth to bear witness to his victory over evil. Miracles enshroud the creation of the image itself, and later it became a famous icon widely copied throughout the Buddhist world.

This essay investigates the image’s origins and its dissemination to China. Further, it argues that the legends surrounding the image that developed in China contributed to Chinese pilgrims visiting India to pay homage to the site and the sacred statue, and to seek experiences of the numinous and validation of their piety. In turn they brought replicas of the statue back to China, contributing to the spread of the image type. Pilgrims’ accounts of miracle-performing images and their depictions in visual forms affirm, to the pious, the efficacy of the divinities, not seen as separate from their material forms

This article proposes a new reading of the mirror analogy presented in the doctrine of Chinese Yogācāra Buddhism.

In contrast with existing interpretations of this analogy as a figurative way of expressing ideas of projecting and reproducing, I argue that this mirroring experience should be understood as revealing, whereby we perceive other minds through the second-person

…as soon as they could demonstrate that a text had been composed and translated from an Indian language, they refused to question it.

John Kieschnick explains how Chinese Buddhists thought and wrote about their own history from antiquity to the modern day.

Although Ru and Dao are disparate gateways,
Clouds and grove are rather a shared mode.

The preeminent example of Classical Chinese Buddhist poets, Meng Haoran shows how deeply Buddhist and Chinese culture mixed during the Tang Dynasty to produce the quintessentially East Asian Buddhism we now call “Chan.”

One is in the center of the market engaged in all kinds of work and yet he stays on top of the solitary peak, gazing at the sky.

A word on the importance of balancing the relative and absolute, engagement and renunciation on the Bodhisattva path.

Chan did not originate in the Chinese appropriation of Indian Buddhist texts. Instead, its origins can be traced to the appropriation of Indian Buddhist practices

With Ch’an but no Pure Land, nine out of ten people will go astray.

How Ch’an and Pure Land were combined over a thousand years ago.

The spell overflows with concrete nouns and dynamic verbs, with-out ever committing fully to semantic or syntactic cohesion. What does such language do? How does it act in the world of the speaker or reader? The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka itself offers guarantees of efficacy, but does not explain the precise mechanism of the dhāraṇī.

Medieval, Chinese exegetes were unanimous in saying that dhāraṇī should not be translated, but offered a variety of explanations why.

Linguistically, China remained China even after this massive import of Indian culture. Nevertheless, there are some non-negligible aspects of Indian Buddhist language that contributed [to] the Chinese language.

No explanation has ever been offered or demanded for the admiration the Chinese have had for hermits. Hermits were simply there: beyond city walls, in the mountains, lone columns of smoke after a snowfall. As far back as records go, there were always hermits in China.

A beautifully written introduction to the (living!) tradition of Chinese eremitism: from its pre-Daoist roots to contemporary Chungnan Shan.

From the 1920s, Vietnamese Buddhist reformers revitalized their religion, inspired in great part by the Chinese monk Taixu’s blueprint to modernize and systematize sangha education and temple administration, and by his idea of rénjiān fójiào, “Buddhism for this world”

On the transnational origins of “Engaged Buddhism”

… it appears contradictory that Chinese who follow the teachings of Mahāyāna Buddhism have worshipped arhats. […] who was the arhat for Chinese Buddhists?

A translation of a number of primary sources which, taken together, paint a surprisingly complete picture of the arhat “invitation” ritual of ~11th c. China, including what these events looked like, where they were performed, how they were imagined, who conducted them and what benefits the sponsors hoped to gain from them.

Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the MNS has provided the historical starting-point as well as the chief scriptural basis for enquiry into the problem of the Buddha-nature in China, and it would be difficult if not impossible to grasp the significance of the concept and its subsequent evolution in Chinese Buddhism without a proper understanding of the teaching of the MNS on the subject.

A thorough introduction to the concept of the “Buddha-nature” in Mahāyāna Buddhism through its most influential, textual basis.

… what was the religious environment that encouraged the spread of the new technology of printing in late seventh century China?

The captivating story of how Empress Wu’s struggle for legitimacy led to the printing of the first mass-produced Buddhist text.

This man is one of those who have seldom been seen from ancient times to the present. Since the Great Doctrine flowed on to the East there has been no one to be compared with Hien in his forgetfulness of self and search for the Law.

The extraordinary first-hand account of Buddhism in South Asia during the fifth century and of one monk’s journey to bring the true Buddhist texts back to China.

The historical period of this area was the third century until 627–649, when Zhenla took over. Buddhism on this route was mahāsāmghika. Important was Avalokiteśvara, Nanhai Guanyin, who may have merged with Mazu along the southern Chinese coast.

Regardless of the historical reality, we could at least observe, on the textual level, that qíufǎ (求法 = the search of Dharma) represents the main objective for [these early] Chinese pilgrims.

I, Li Bo, love wine completely, right now. How to attain the immortality within wine? This Dao always gets muddled. Don’t look for it in a ladle! The deity of drunkenness will give transmission to whoever is chosen.

An anthology of writing by and about the legendary swashbuckler-poet of Tang China.

I will consider the Zengyi ahan jing chiefly as the product of historical actors, three-dimensional human beings engaging their own world, rather than the putative witness to some ill-defined sectarian tradition

A lengthy monograph on the historical circumstances surrounding the production and dissemination of T.125 — a process that would have an enduring impact on Chinese Buddhism.

Note that certain “combining” diacritics were dropped in the PDF due to a publishing error. The corrected diacritics are listed here.