2023 Glorisun International and Intensive Program with Peking University – Seminar and Lecture Series

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Segment 1

 

Seminar 1: Imre GALAMBOS 高奕睿 (University of Cambridge 劍橋大學): Manuscripts and Lay Believers along the Silk Road 絲綢之路上的寫本與居士

1.1 Manuscripts across languages

1.2 The colophon

1.3 The book form

1.4 The extended use of manuscripts


Seminar 2: Robert SHARF 夏復 (University of California, Berkeley 加州大學柏克萊分校): Thinking through Chan Buddhism 禪思、思禪

2.1 What was the problem to which Chan was the answer?

2.2 Treatise on the Cessation of Discernment (Jueguan lun 絶觀論)

2.3 The Buddha nature of the insentient.

2.4 Jueguan lun reading continued.


Seminar 3: Kate CROSBY 寇思璧 (University of Oxford 牛津大學): Theravada Meditation: Transforming and Transformed 上座部禪定: 能變與所變

3.1 An Overview of Theravada Meditation: how, why and who?

3.2 Meditation as a Rite of Passage: Temple Sleeping and Rains Retreats among the Tai, Lao and Khmer.

3.3 Side-Effect or Tool of Transformation? The Significance of Visual Experience in Theravada meditation.

3.4 Reform, Revival, Export, and Re-import: the impact of European colonialism and modernity on the practice of meditation in Theravada countries.


Lecture 講座 1: HE Huanhuan 何歡歡 (Zhejiang University 浙江大學): To Paint the Unpaintable: Indian and Chinese Notions of Emptiness Merged in Ancient Chinese Paintings 和繪空有

Since Buddhism came into China at the end of the Han Dynasty, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas etc. were gradually painted by Chinese painters and intellectuals, which show us the unpaintable historical context of Buddhism’s integration into Chinese civilization. When I worked for the national project called “A Comprehensive Collection of Ancient Chinese Paintings”, I found out more than 3,000 Buddhist paintings in it, from which we can see a kind of Buddhism that is different from cannons. I designed a “pagoda model” to describe the overview of the development of Chinese Buddhism. The “pagoda model” consists of five elements: auspiciousness, benefits, education, humanities, and nature. This lecture will mainly discuss the “pagoda model” by showing and analyzing about 100 Buddhist-related paintings from various dynasties, as well as interpret how the Indian and Chinese notions of emptiness merged in ancient Chinese paintings. 

自漢末佛教傳入中國以來,歷朝良工巧匠、文人墨客所繪之佛不僅向我們展示了釋教融入中華文明的歷史脈絡,更含藏著異域藝術和思想適應不同時期中國社會發展變遷的文化密鑰。在「中國歷代繪畫大系」收錄的3000余件佛畫中,我們看到了「佛教中國化」的全景圖式,從靈瑞、功德,到教化、人文,再到山水間的天人合一,呈現出明顯的時間線索和時代特徵,有恭肅歸仰的追求,也有婉轉含蓄的情感。本課程將通過賞析「中國歷代繪畫大系」收錄的百餘幅佛教相關名畫,解讀其中蘊含的「空有之爭」——有形之圖像如何表達空性之義理。


Lecture 講座 2: LI Ling 李翎 (Sichuan University 四川大學): 印度石窟寺營建與古代數學——支提與窣堵波 | Perfect Mathematics: Construction of Caitya and the Cultural Origins

調查表明,印度早期石窟寺在建造時,是嚴格按照一定的數學比例關係設計的,最典型的就是石窟寺的核心洞窟——支提窟。支提窟的主室在整體設計採用了印度建築學上慣用的精緻數字比,這種簡約的數字關係,建立了一種美學上的優雅風格。這些石窟雖然經過2000多年的風蝕和人為破壞,如果忽略工匠在設計時出現的8-10釐米的微小誤差,我們可以發現,洞窟的高、寬幾乎相等;殿內,從前面木屏位置到佛塔前的距長,為整個殿寬的1.5倍;塔的直徑又是塔到兩側牆邊距的1.5倍;塔與後牆的距離等於塔與左右牆距;內頂高度與寬度幾乎相等;側廊是殿寬的1/8;(主)殿寬又是總寬度的3/5;列柱是殿內通高的2/5;入口寬為洞窟總寬的1/8等等,這些規則與印度古老的宗教建築量度,即 《準繩經》(śulva sûtras)可能密切相關,這些數字關係代表著神聖邏輯,本文嘗試從數學的角度解讀印度早期佛教石窟寺在建造上的特點。

The investigation shows that the early Indian caves were designed strictly in accordance with a certain mathematical ratio when they were built. The most typical one is the caitya, the main room of the caitya was designed with the exquisite numerical ratio commonly used in Indian architecture. Although these caves have undergone wind erosion and man-made destruction for more than 2,000 years, if we ignore the small error of 8-10 cm in the design of the artists, we can find that the height and width of the caves are almost the same; Inside the hall, the distance from the position of the front wooden screen to the front of the stupa is 1.5 times the width of the entire hall; the diameter of the stupa is 1.5 times the distance between the stupa and the sides of the wall; the distance between the stupa and the back wall is equal to the distance between the stupa and the left and right walls; the height of the inner top is almost equal to the width; the side corridor is 1/8 of the width of the hall; the width of the hall is 3/5 of the total width; the columns are 2/5 of the full height of the hall; the entrance width was 1/8 of the total width of the cave, etc. These rules may be closely related to the old Indian religious architectural literatures——the Śulva sūtras, and from this way, the paper is trying to understand the characteristics of the construction of the early Buddhist caves in India.


 

Segment 2

 

Seminar 4: Barend ter HAAR 田海 (University of Hamburg 漢堡大學): Alternative Sources for Studying Local Religious Life: Sutra Colophons (Song-Yuan) and Late Ming Precious Scrolls 研究本土宗教生活的不同資料: 經跋(宋元)與晚明的寶卷 (lecture series; Segment 2);

4.1 Lecture 1: “The study of colophons to Buddhist sutras from the Southern Song and Yuan period.”

4.2 Readings 1: “The reading and interpretation of colophons.”

4.3 Lecture 2: “Critical and humorous thinking about Amitabha and his Pure Land.”

4.4 Readings 2: “Reading Precious Scrolls as a source on non-elite doubts about Amitabha and his Pure Land.”


Seminar 5: ZHAN Ru 湛如 (Peking University 北京大學): Monastic Educational Tradition in Medieval China: Historical Background and Modern Significances 中古中國的寺學傳統及其現代意義

Lecture 講座 3-4: CHEN Jidong 陳繼東 (Aoyama Gakuin University 日本青山学院大学): Revisiting the Understanding of Buddhist Schools in Modern China 重審近代中佛教史上的宗派認識

When Yang Wenhui (1837-1911) wrote Brief Outline of the Ten Schools, he asserted that Chinese Buddhism contained ten schools (zong). This had a far-reaching influence and became the most important narrative model for describing Chinese Buddhist history in modern times. Its significance for intellectual history is twofold. First, it changed the traditional method of categorization of lineage (zong), doctrine (jiao), and precepts () as found, for instance, in the chapter “On the Establishment of the Various Teachings” from Zhipan’s (Southern Song) “Comprehensive History of the Buddha and the Patriarchs.” Instead, it uses the idea of zong to analyze and grasp the whole shape and history of Chinese Buddhism. Second, it suggested a direction for the revitalization of Chinese Buddhism. Even if many of the zong in Chinese history had already disappeared or declined, such as the Jushe (Kośa) zong, Chengshi (Accomplishing Reality) zong, Sanlun (Three Treatise) zong, Mi (Esoteric) zong, which went unremarked or died out after the Song, Yang Wenhui advocated for the concurrent promotion of all ten zong. His attempt to revive the native traditions of China undoubtedly led the way for the development of Buddhism in the late Qing. In fact, the recent resurgence of interest in Weishi (Consciousness-only/Yogācāra) and esoteric Buddhism is closely tied to Yang Wenhui’s forceful advocacy. 楊文會(1837-1911)撰《十宗略說》,主張中國佛教有十宗,影響深遠,成為近代已來講述中國佛教史最為重要的敘述模式。其思想史意義有二,一是改變了以「宗教律」這一分類法講述中國佛教的傳統模式,如南宋志盤《佛祖統紀》的「諸教立志篇」,而採用宗派概念,分析和把握整個中國佛教的歷史和形態。二是提示了振興中國佛教的方向。儘管眾多宗派在中國歷史上早已消失或衰退,如俱捨宗、成實宗、三論宗、密宗以及法相宗,宋代以後或無人問津,或傳承式微,然而,楊文會力倡十宗並興,試圖復活中國佛教的固有傳統,無疑為晚清佛教的發展指明瞭方向。事實上,近代唯識學、密教的復興與楊文會的大力提倡有著密切關係。

The background for the establishment of the ten schools model is precisely what Yang Wenhui himself stated. There were two elements, the first being the “Eight Schools and Two Practices” written by “Uncle Ru Guanjiu of Changbai,” that is, Hešeri Rushan, the second being the Essentials of the Eight Schools by the Japanese monk Gyōnen. Because it is the latter which the ten schools model directly adopted, the relationship between Yang Wenhui’s theory of the ten schools and Gyōnen’s Essentials of the Eight Schools has continually been the focus of attention within academia. However, questions around the person of Hešeri Rushan, the content of the “Eight Schools and Two Practices,” its influence on Yang Wenhui’s ten schools model, and its lack of transmission in later times have all been left unresolved. This can be said to be a major shortcoming and unanswered question within the study of recent Chinese Buddhist history.  十宗說成立的背景,正如楊文會自身所說,有兩個因素,其一是「長白如冠九年伯」即赫捨里如山撰寫的《八宗二行》,其二為日本僧凝然的《八宗綱要》。因十宗說所承襲的是後者,故而楊文會的十宗學說與凝然的《八宗綱要》的關係一直是學術界關注的焦點。可是,赫捨里如山為何等人物?其《八宗二行》的內容如何?對楊文會的十宗說有何影響?《八宗二行》於後世有無傳承?這些問題一直存而未決,可以說是近代中國佛教史研究中的一大懸案和缺憾。

Recently, the author has been fortunate to find the complete text of Hešeri Rushan’s “Eight Schools and Two Practices” in the Reichikai Zasshi (1886), published in Meiji-era Japan, thus making it possible to fully reveal the background to the formation of Yang Wenhui’s ten schools model. Furthermore, the publication in Japan of the “Eight Schools and Two Practices” and the transmission to China of  Essentials of the Eight Schools is likewise a product of modern Sino-Japanese Buddhist exchange, which reveals the shared concerns and interactions of the modern Sino-Japanese Buddhist community. Therefore, elucidating the flow of this historical vein is itself an unavoidable topic of research. In the development of Chinese Buddhism from the 20th century on, both the ten schools and eight schools models were taken up and promoted.  Thus, this fact forces us to review and revise the previous narrative model centered around the ten schools model. 近年筆者從日本明治時期發行的《令知會雜誌》(1886)中,幸運地發現了赫捨里如山《八宗二行》的全文,從而使得全面揭示楊文會十宗學說的形成背景成為可能。不僅如此,《八宗二行》的在日刊行,《八宗綱要》的中國傳入,同樣是近代中日佛教交流的產物,顯示了近代中日佛教界的共同關心和互動,因此,闡明這一歷史脈絡的躍動其本身也是不可回避的研究課題。從二十世紀以後的中國佛教發展來看,十宗說與八宗說,各自得到了繼承和發揚,這一事實迫使我們要去重審和修正以往以十宗說為中心的敘述模式。

This lecture is made of two parts. In the first part I will describe how Hešeri Rushan’s “Eight Schools and Two Practices” was discovered. I will also investigate its relationship with Yang Wenhui’s Brief Outline of the Ten Schools. Second, I will look into the influence of the discourses of “Eight Schools and Two Practices” and Ten Schools in modern Chinese Buddhism and their historical significance. 本講座將有兩個部分組成,第一部分是敘述赫捨里如山《八宗二行》這一資料發現的經過,介紹該文的具體內容,考察與楊文會《十宗略說》的關係。第二部分則考察八宗二行說以及十宗說在近代中國佛教史上的影響及其歷史意義。


Lecture 講座 5: Kai SHENG 聖凱 (Tsinghua University 清華大學): Transformation of Tang Buddhism under the Perspectives of Military Conflicts 唐代戰爭視域下的佛教轉型

The An Lushan Rebellion and Huang Chao’s Rebellion caused urban decay, social unrest, and large-scale migration to the South in history. The regime of the Tang Dynasty, as well as the structure of Buddhism in the Later Tang and the Five Dynasties period, were affected by the aftermaths. One result was the rise of the center of Buddhism in the South. The level of maturity in the Buddhist doctrines and interest in Buddhist knowledge were declining in decaying cities such as Chang’an and Luoyang, which gave the opportunity for the popularity of “forest Buddhism”/forest-type Buddhism(山林佛教)that in turn led to the spread of the Chan School. As a result, the two Rebellions provided historical reasons for the start of the Tang-Song Buddhist Reform.


Lecture 講座 6: SUN Yinggang 孫英剛 (Zhejiang University 浙江大學): Imperial Courts under the Buddha’s Light: Religious Aspects of Medieval Politics 佛光下的朝廷——中古政治的宗教面 

中古時代,佛教的傳入帶來了新的文化基因。知識和信仰體系的再造,也對當時中土的政治理論和政治實踐產生了深刻的影響。佛光照耀之下,中古政治史呈現出紛繁複雜的面相,而這些面相,是我們理解中古時代知識、信仰與政治世界內在邏輯的基礎。佛教對中古政治的參與,並非僅僅是特定政治人物、集團與特定僧人、寺院的互相利用,而有其自身信仰的邏輯———其對未來美好世界的期盼、對理想的世俗君主的理念,乃至對統治合法性的論述,都植根於自身的知識和思想之中。佛教將政治秩序置於一個神聖而又和諧的參照系之內,把神聖的宇宙秩序擴展到人的領域,從而賦予統治者一種類似必然性、確定性和永久性的東西。中古政治的起伏、邏輯和理念,需要回到中古去理解,回到宗教光芒籠罩下的人心去理解。