First Volume of “Hualin Series on Buddhist Studies”

First Volume of “Hualin Series on Buddhist Studies”

Production and Preservation of Buddhist Manuscripts in Central and East Asia

 

Edited by Ru ZHAN, Jinhua CHEN, Yun JI
Series: Hualin Series on Buddhist Studies I
ISBN: 978-9-81149-575-5
Publishing Date: 2020-12-31
Publisher: World Scholastic Publishers
Pages: 425
Format: Paperback
Open access: Download PDF

 

The discovery of the cache of manuscripts and other materials in cave seventeen of the Mogao Grottoes, near Dunhuang in western China, early last century has kindled the new field of the study of Central and East Asian Buddhist manuscripts. Discoveries in Japan late last century of twelfth-century copies of much earlier manuscripts, in addition to the treasury of documents preserved in the Shōsōin (Shōgozō), and at sites in Korea, Chinese Central Asia, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, compel scholars to reconsider not only how we think about the transmission of Buddhist literature and religious teachings, but also the production and preservation of Buddhist texts and books across a broad geographical and chronological span. All of this once again demonstrates the importance of the study of Buddhist manuscripts.

It is precisely because of the significance of Buddhist manuscripts that an international conference entitled ‘Production and Preservation of Buddhist Manuscripts in Central and East Asia’ was held at the University of Cambridge, UK, from August 29–31, 2018.

The conference brought together experts and scholars from various countries in the fields of Buddhist philology, Buddhist history, art history, and archaeology. During the three days of the conference, scholars discussed in depth the topics of ‘The Integration of the Teachings found in the manuscripts’, ‘The Migration of the manuscripts’, ‘The Materiality of the manuscripts’, and ‘epigraphical materials and manuscripts’. We now compile this collection of eleven papers in English based on the papers presented by scholars in this conference, with slight amendments.

 

Table of Contents

1. Manuscript Network in Central and East Asia

2. Manuscript as Transmission Media

    • 2.1.   On Kambala’s Navaślokī and Its Chinese Translation
      Daisy Sze Yui Cheung 張思睿
    • 2.2.   On the Transmission of the Verse-text of Sa skya Paṇḍita’s Tshad ma rigs pa’i gter and the Rang ’grel-Auto-commentary
      Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp
    • 2.3.   The Manuscript Culture of Confucianism and Buddhism in Medieval China
      Tong Ling 童嶺

3. Technical Aspects of Manuscript Culture

    • 3.1.   Colophons by the Tōdaiji Monk Sōshō (1202–1278): The Threshold between Text and Paratext
      Asuka Sango
    • 3.2.   The Establishment of Mongolian Buddhist Collections: Highlights of Physical Appearance and Production Processes
      Sainbileg Byambadorj

4. Prayers and Rituals

    • 4.1.   Offerings and the Production of Buddhist Scriptures in Dunhuang during the Tenth Century
      Henrik H. Sørensen
    • 4.2.   The Discourse Record of Layman Ruru and Its Transformations in Canonical Liturgical Materials
      Alan Gerard Wagner
    • 4.3.   Prayers for Mediation: Thirteenth-Century Textual Culture between Kōya and Kamakura
      Brian Steininger

 

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