Visiting student exchanges provide structured mentorship by renowned international scholars for students to become skilled in working with a wider range of materials and texts. These exchanges also allow students to become confident in working with host institutions and employees in unfamiliar surroundings. These opportunities improve language proficiency, sensitivities to and appreciation of different cultures; and more notably, through these short-term experiences abroad, our students will be expected to create and expand upon international networks that will prove invaluable for their own future career development. Visiting students are often supported through awards from Mitacs.
| Mitacs Research Awards | Mitacs Research Internships | Visiting Students |
Program: Mitacs Globalink Research Award
Participant: Qing Wang (Shanghai International Studies University)
Host Institution: UBC
Period: January – March 2024
Project Title: Assimilating Buddhism in Victorian Literature: Exploring Rudyard Kipling’s Engagement and Reception
Description
This project aims to explore the Victorian reception of Buddhism, focusing on the renowned British writer Rudyard Kipling and his works. By examining Kipling’s growth experience, reading history, and knowledge sources, we seek to understand how he conceived Buddhism and represented it in his literary works.
During the turn of the century, there was a growing fascination with Oriental religions, and Buddhism captivated the attention of intellectuals and writers. This project aims to examine the influence of this trend on literature, with Kipling and his works serving as an outstanding example of cultural encounters, where numerous Buddhist elements can be found.
Through this project, we will delve into how Kipling assimilated Buddhist ideas and integrated them into his literary creation. Our objective is to unravel the nuances of Kipling’s understanding of Buddhism and explore the ways in which he portrayed it in his literary creations.
By closely analyzing Kipling’s reading history, knowledge sources, and representation of Buddhism, this project will foster a deeper understanding of the cultural dynamics and intellectual influences that shaped Victorian literature. Moreover, it will provide valuable insights into the broader cross-cultural encounters of the time and shed light on the enduring impact they had on Western society’s perception of Buddhism.
Participant: Qixin YANG (Ph.D. Student, Zhejiang University)
Host Institution: UBC
Period: October – December 2023
Project Title: Reorganization of Buddhist Belief Order: the Development of Chan and Pure Land Buddhism in the Middle Tang Dynasty
Description
Looking back at the history of Buddhism in medieval China, more and more scholars believe that the Tang Dynasty was a significant turning point in the development of Buddhist schools. Before the mid-Tang Dynasty, various Buddhist sects developed well.However, the southern Chan and the Pure Land were the dominant sects after the mid-Tang Dynasty. Furthermore, “Chan and Pure Land dominance” has always been the norm in Chinese Buddhism after the Tang Dynasty. In this context, this study will mainly explore three questions: (1) What caused Southern Chan and Pure Land to stand out among the many Buddhist sects of the Tang Dynasty? (2) How to understand the relationship between Southern Chan and Pure Land that they unite with each other and attack each other? (3) How to understand the regional incongruity and regional difference between Southern Chan and Pure Land Development?
Participant: GU Long (Ph.D. Student, East China Normal University)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Date: September – December 2023
Project Title: The Ways of Absorption and Interpretations of Prajna and Nāgārjuna’s Philosophy in Tian Tai Buddhism
Description:
Prajna and Nāgārjuna’s Philosophy, whose main character is to dispel, eliminate, and integrate, has gained a new meaning structure after Tiantai Zhiyi’s interpretation. Judging from the appearance of the teachings, Prajna brings together the general teaching and other teachings, while the right teaching is the perfect teaching. In terms of insight wisdom, the wisdom of “equality and one taste” is about the realm of all living beings and has the distinction of insight wisdom. Under the perspective of the Reality Theory of the Perfect Teaching, the Three Views and the Three Wisdoms, as the expansion dimensions of Prajna, are just one mind, equal and unobstructed, all of which are appropriate and complete, and encompass the Three Truths, the Three Paths, and the Three Buddhas. Waiting for the truth of the middle way of all dharmas. At the same time, as one of the sources of Zhiyi’s “Three Truths” thoughts, the “Three Truths” also has multiple meaning structures under Zhiyi’s judgment system, and has the character of covering all dharmas as a whole.
Read Gu Long’s report
Participant: ZHUO Wang (Ph.D. Student, East China Normal University)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Date: September – December 2023
Project Title: Research on Layman Education Thoughts of Master Taixu
Description:
This project will conduct a systematic study on Master Taixu’s thoughts on layman education. Master Taixu was a pioneer in the reform of modern Buddhism and had a profound impact on the development of modern Buddhism. As the vast majority of Buddhist belief groups, lay Buddhists are the main participants in family and social activities, and they are the practical carriers for the development of Humanistic Buddhism.This project will comprehensively sort out Master Taixu’s views on the relationship between monks and laymen, clarify Master Taixu’s views on the order and content of layman’s practice, and propose enlightenment and reflection on modern layman education and the development of Humanistic Buddhism.
Read Zhuo Wang’s report
Participant: Yutong ZHENG (Ph.D. Student, Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Host Institution: McGill University
Period: June – September 2023
Project Title: The connection between the doctrine on Insentient Things’ Buddha-Nature and the view of whether AI can become Buddha
Description:
With the development of artificial technology in recent years, the relationship between AI and Buddhism has gradually become a frontier issue. This project will focus on three aspects:
First, based on the findings of previous scholars, it will further describe the “Doctrine of Insentient beings”, which connects the theory of “Insentient being has Buddha-nature” with AI.
Second, the latest AI monks in China, Japan, and Thailand, as well as the chat software for preaching such as ChatGPT, will be taken as cases to explain how AI can contribute to the modernization and transformation of Buddhism.
Furthermore, this project will highlight the limitations of using AI monk. It will also explore what is the real “machine enlightenment”. The aim is to further understand the relationship between Buddhism and AI in the post-epidemic era with rapid technological development.
Participant: Vivian (Xiao Wen) LI (MFA Student, UBC)
Host Institution: Sun Yat-sen University
Period: June – August 2023
Project Title: On Chinese Philosophy and Memory: Examining Chan Buddhism Recollection, Ritual, and Narrative
Description:
While there is research related to Chan Buddhism memory principles, and Western novels published alluding to Chinese Philosophy, there are limited resources bridging and exploring the possibilities of both realms. Through the Mitacs Globalink Awards, and under the supervision of Professor Gong Jun at Sun Yat-Sen University, she will be researching archives, temples, and libraries to explore intersections between memory, Chan Buddhism, and Chinese literature. While working on her novel exploring mental health and Chinese Philosophy in a narrative where time is a fluid entity, she will combine Chan Buddhist concepts with non-linear narrative styles that could help highlight the Chinese Canadian diaspora experience.
Read Vivian Li’s report
Participant: Gaëlle BOSCALS DE RÉALS (M.A. Student, McGill University)
Host Institution: National Cheng Chi University
Period: August – November 2022
Project Title: Religion, Modernization and Spatiality in Taiwan
Description: The country has been undergoing an important religious revival in the past forty-years. However, while religiosity used to be mainly locally based, the progressive modernization of the island led to new forms of country-wide temple lineages and displaced forms of worship. The aim of this project is to look at how this shift in religious location took place as well as how it is lived, produced, and assumed by the Taiwanese urbanites. Through the Mitacs Globalink Awards, Gaëlle Boscals de Réals will gain the opportunity to be a visiting student at the Graduate Institute of Religious Studies at the National Chengchi University, Taipei. Under the mentorship of the host supervisor, Professor Yu-Chen Li, de Réals will be able to do the necessary on-ground research in major cities such as Taipei and Tainan, and come up with both empirical data and a suitable problematic for their MA thesis. As a visiting student, de Réals also plans to visit the unique library collection, and thus gain necessary access to the history of current temple lineages.
Read Gaëlle Boscals de Réals’ report
Participant: Qianqian ZHU (M.A. Student, China University of Political Science and Law)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: February – May 2020
Project Title: Research on cultural exchanges between China and Japan from the perspective of Japanese monk going to the Song Dynasty for consultation about Tenda’s thoughts——Taking the answer of Siming Zhili as an example
Description: Chinese and Japanese scholars hold different views about Japanese monks ask for Zhili. Some scholars in Japan’s later generations believed that the Tenda of the Song Dynasty was in a period of stagnation and revival, while the Japanese Tenda was in its infancy. Therefore, the Japanese Buddhism at that time should be equal to the Tenda of the Song Dynasty. Whether the interaction involves the complicated situation of China and Japan and the positions of China and Japan should be taken further study. Focus on the specific content of Japanese consultation and the answers, I will answer three questions,1) I will analyze the basic viewpoint of Japanese Buddhism at that time based on the position of Yuanxin in the Japanese Buddhist circle and his doctrine. 2) I will focus on analyzing of why Japanese Buddhism raises these questions, and what is the Buddhist background of the question, what Yuanxin’s position in the Japanese Buddhist session. 4)Yuanxin raised these questions under what circumstances, and for what purpose.
Participant: Wen LIU (M.A. Student, China University of Political Science and Law)
Host Institution: McMaster University
Period: January – April 2020
Project Title: The cultural identity in the Buddhist thought of modern China and Japan — taking the Buddhist reform movement of Taixu rabbi as the research object
Description: Since modern times, Chinese intellectuals can’t help thinking about the “value” of Chinese civilization when facing the very different western civilization. Therefore, since the May 4th Movement, there has been no lack of modern radical intellectuals who have regarded it as “cultural dross”. While Buddhism has been neglected and its status has declined. Master Taixu devoted his whole life to the revitalization of East Asian Buddhism and put forward the concept of “Humanistic Buddhism”. He believed that Buddhism had a “guiding” effect on the real world. On the one hand, he guided China’s future development, responded to the problems of western modernity and advocated the popularization of Buddhism in the world. On the other hand, by taking advantage of the similarity of Buddhist thoughts in the East Asian civilization circle, he advocated that East Asia should unite to resist the cultural impact and political invasion of the West. However, the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War undoubtedly made Master Taixu’s Buddhist Mouvement de la Renovation a mirage. The Japanese Buddhists have turned to believe that the cruelty of the war lies in China’s tenacious resistance. The staged achievements of the “East Asian Buddhist Conference” have also been declared bankrupt. The purpose of this lesson is to use horizontal comparison method to select a representative and typical modern Buddhist master, Master Taixu. Through sorting out his memoirs, diaries, autobiographies, works and other documents, this lesson focuses on the modern Sino-Japanese relations and analyzes whether East Asian Buddhism in the same civilization circle has the internal unity beyond the nation, the relationship between religion and politics and the causes behind it.
Participant: Shaopeng FAN (M.A. Student, East China Normal University, Shanghai)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: October 2019 – January 2020
Project Title: A Study of Religious Dialogue: Based on Buddhism and Catholicism in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China
Description: This study is about the dialogue of Buddhism and Christianity during the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, focusing on the views of the Ultimate World, such as the Kingdom of Heaven in Catholicism and the Pure Land in Buddhism. Through research methods of history, philology, and sociology, this study will contribute constructive opinions to the current dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity, and provide resources for the current study of the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity. It can provide some constructive advice on the current peaceful development of Chinese Buddhism and Christianity which have the most believers among all religious believers in China today.
Participant: Siqi GAN (M.A. Student, East China Normal University, Shanghai)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: October 2019 – January 2020
Project Title: The translation and research of a sanskrit manuscript: Vajravali
Description: The present research which he will conduct during his visit to UBC is the textual research of a Sanskrit manuscript–Vajrāvāli. This is a tantric ritual compendium compiled by Abhayākaragupta, the famous abbot of Vikramaśila monastery and centered on the mandala rituals in esoteric Buddhism. His research will make a critical edition of the Sanskrit version of Sutranavidhi and Rajahpatanavidhi, two of the rituals contained in the manuscript, and then translate them into Chinese.
Participant: Zipei OUYANG (Ph.D. Student, East China Normal University)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: October 2019 – January 2020
Project Title: Beliefs, Practices and Integration of borderland knowledge: A Study of Mahāvaipulya- mahāsamnipāta sūtra under the view of Intellectual History
Description: This project concentrates on the 60-volume Chinese translation of the Mahāsamnipāta sūtra, I will place this sūtra within the perspective of intellectual history and conduct a study on the Buddhist beliefs, practices and mutual integration of borderland knowledge in medieval China.
Participant: Sarah FINK (M.A. student, University of British Columbia)
Host Institution: Sichuan University
Project Period: May – August 2019
Project Title: The Feminist Buddha: Revisiting the Role of Gender within Buddhist Communities in Sichuan Province, China
Description: This project will be researching gender inequality in Buddhist communities within Sichuan province, China. The research will include interviews with both monastic and lay practitioners for firsthand accounts of the role of gender in Buddhist institutions. Previous scholarly work concludes there is significant gender inequality within Buddhist institutions. This project will revisit the issue of gender inequality in Buddhism to provide updated research on the perceptions of gender by Buddhist practitioners, how gender roles function within Buddhist communities and whether any actions have been taken by these communities towards creating greater gender equality. The goal of this project is to connect previous literature and proposed resolutions for gender inequality to the current functionality of Buddhist communities in Sichuan province. Furthermore, the research may develop a more thorough understanding of how gender plays a role in contemporary Buddhism.
This project contributes to Sarah Fink’s Masters Thesis: The feminist Buddha: Buddhist nuns in contemporary Chengdu and their nuanced approach to progress, agency, and leadership
Participant: Meng ZHANG (M.A. student, University of British Columbia)
Host Institution: University of Tokyo
Project Period: April – August 2019
Project Title: A Comparative Study of Buddhism’s Impacts on the Rise and Evolution of Female Rule in China and Japan (2019)
Description: Approaching from an international perspective, this project will use cross-disciplinary methods to explore Buddhism’s influence on the birth, evolution and gradual recession of female rule in East Asia, with a comparative study of several Chinese and Japanese empresses as the focus. The project will be survey a plethora of relevant materials from a variety of media to rigorous multidisciplinary scrutiny. It will also combine literary works such as biography, artwork such as painting, and social customs such as costume and mores, in order to conduct thorough and in-depth research. This project may reveal significant insights to scholars who study Empress Wu in China or her counterparts in Japan. The project will also conduct a systematic investigation into Buddhism’s influence upon female rule in these two countries. More importantly, this research will underscore the necessity of contextualizing any specific tradition of East Asian Buddhism within a broader East Asian perspective, given Buddhism’s cross-cultural and cross-boundary characteristics, and to provide a new perspective on feminist studies in the context of East Asia.
Participant: Jiajia ZHENG (Ph.D. student, Renmin University of China)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: September – December 2018
Project Title: Research on the Tang Buddhist Palace Chapels
Description: The research focuses on the study of the relationship between the system of the Buddhist Palace Chapels and the imperial power in the Tang Dynasty. In fact, the specific architectural functions of the Buddhist Palace Chapels in each period and the focus of service for imperial politics are not the same. The imperial power restricts and requires the Buddhist Palace Chapels to provide religious value. At the same time, the Buddhist Palace Chapels also affect the consideration of imperial politics.
This doctoral thesis reveals the inner relationship and mutual influence of the relationship between politics and religion in the Tang Dynasty through the evolution of the Buddhist Palace Chapels, and expounds the great role of the Buddhist nuns’ family background in their participation in political activities and their great influence on the family. In addition, this doctoral thesis also elaborates on the religious system of the Tang Dynasty.
Program: Mitacs Globalink Research Internship
Participant: Lina (Elina) JIN (Undergraduate Student, Minzu University of China)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Project Title: “Compassionate Killing”: Violence and Buddhism in China and Beyond
Description: Over the last few decades scholars have become increasingly aware of the long-term and widespread intersections between violence and Chinese Buddhist institutions and ideologies. To date, however, scholarly attention has been, by and large, focused on fairly narrow topics in the long history of violence in the saṃgha. This project will attempt a systematic study on the different roles played by medieval Chinese Buddhist monks in warfare and other activities with the potential for violence—e.g., service as military chaplains and counsellors, warriors, practitioners and promoters of the martial arts, and spies. By bringing to light an important (and severely understudied) arena in which the saṃgha interacted with the secular world, this project aims at elevating the current scholarly understanding of the issue of Chinese Buddhism and violence to new levels. It will hopefully stimulate further study of religious violence in other parts of East Asia as well as more nuanced and innovative studies of religious violence in general.
Participant: Nan YAO (Undergraduate Student, Huazhong University of Science and Technology)
Host Institution: McMaster University
Project Title: Texts in Statues (2018)
Description: The main goals of the “Texts in Statues” project are to identify, catalogue, and study all statues from China, Korea, and Japan with manuscripts and texts that have been interred inside of them. Included in the scope of this project will be statues in situ in Asia as well as those in museums in Asia or abroad. As part of the foundational preparatory work for this project researchers in each area will be charged with compiling an annotated bibliography of: 1.) Primary sources (canonical and extra-canonical) that describe the internment of material inside of statues; 2.) Academic studies of known statues containing manuscripts and texts; and 3.) Mentions of the interment of texts in other historical or literary sources.
This project contributes to FROGBEAR’s Cluster 3.3 research.
Participant: Anqi ZHANG (Undergraduate Student, Shanghai International Studies University)
Host Institution: University of Saskatchewan
Project Title: East Asian Buddhist Scriptures: “Secondary” Producers, “Primary” Roles (2018)
Description: There are three separate fieldwork projects for this project that examine three sites to address three “secondary” producers: (1) twelfth-century copies of eighth-century manuscripts collected by distinct communities into Old Japanese Manuscript canons; (2) Late Koryŏ and Chosŏn era (14th-18th century) Korean manuscripts; and (3) fifteenth-century Gozan editions of manuscripts and seventeenth-century Chinese Chan canons (Jingshan).
Researchers in this workshop will strive to accomplish three goals: (1) to produce an English / CJK catalog of canonical and extra-canonical materials to be compared with the Taishō, Korean, and primary and extant Chinese canons (e.g., Jingshan); (2) to compile an annotated bibliography and study of where canon-formation took place on the “periphery” by “secondary” producers; and (3) to produce an annotated bibliography and study of how sectarian, institutional groups shaped the process of canon-formation in East Asia. Goal (3) will lead to a working catalog current researchers and students can use to learn where to access important archives, collections, and sites where alternative—perhaps “original”—editions of texts, with colophons, can be accessed.
Separate field workshops for this project will run during the summers of 2017; 2018; and 2019 in Japan, Korea, and China, respectively. The proposed projects are as follows: (1) 2017 in Japan: manuscript collections and archives (and site visit research) where Tendai manuscripts can be accessed; (2) 2018 in Korea: archival research (Dongguk and Seoul university libraries) and site fieldwork to re-examine how the Korean canon was informed by specific contexts and how manuscript production continued in Korea into the Chosŏn period tied to the boundaries of canonicity well into the nineteenth century. (3) 2019 in China: now readily available [Japanese] Gozan editions of Chan texts—compared with the Ōbaku canon—demonstrate how communities in southern China shaped and fundamentally redefined the Chinese Buddhist canon, from the ground up.
This project contributes to FROGBEAR’s Cluster 2.2 research.
Visiting Students
Participant: Qing ZHANG (Ph.D. Student, Sichuan University)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: October 2019 – September 2020
Project Title: The Soul-Body Perspectives of Chinese Buddhist Scriptures: based on the Spread of Indian and
Chinese Buddhist Scriptures on ancient Silk Road
Description: My research tends to analyze the Body Perspectives of Chinese Buddhist Scriptures based on the Spread of Indian and Chinese Buddhist Scriptures on ancient Silk Road The Chinese Buddhist Scriptures are not only the treasure of Chinese culture but also the wealth of ancient Indian culture. Its spread witnessed the close exchanges between China and India on the ancient Silk Road. The early Chinese Buddhist Scriptures focused on life and its absolve. They regarded the human being as the subject of “Five Skandhas”,“Six Places” and “Twelve Ru”. The early Chinese Buddhist Scriptures emphasized the superiority of soul over the body, many expressions such as “the myriad dharmas are made from the mind alone”, “spiritualism in triloka”(The Avatamsaka Sutra ) all belittled the body, even denied and rejected it. The body is regarded as an unclean thing in Samyutta Nikaya. Man of practice needs to give up his attachment to the body and desire, gives up unnecessary greed to get physical and mental stability. Although the body is unclean, the practice of the body plays an important role in Buddhist Scriptures, like the “breathing method”, which trains one’s awareness by observing the breath. Based on this, we can find that there are both incarnated and non-incarnated bodies in the Chinese Buddhist scriptures. Although body and soul are detached, they are unified in the practice subject itself, and the body is dominated by the soul. Then there is also the moralized body which has received the disciplines for attaining a higher status.
Participant: LI Wei (Ph.D. Student, Peking University)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: September 2018 – August 2019
Project Title: From Buddhist Metaphors to Chinese Piyu in the translations of Buddhist texts in the Six Dynasties (2019)
Description: The common Chinese translation of the Buddhist term “avadana”, meaning narratives or parables, is Piyu (譬喻), yet Piyu when analyzed from a Chinese perspective has additional meanings. Piyu can be used as a metaphor or an analogy. It also means special way of giving an “example”, which is one of the three members of a syllogism (三支).[1] And it is in a complicated process in which these different meanings mixed together as one. This is a sinisizing process, embodied in the Avadana sutras, the chapters of parables in other sutras, notes and commentary of sutras and Chinese literature.
Yet literature, as one of the most important forces of this sinisizing process, hasn’t been well discussed. Therefore, two unique terms, The Literariness and Literalization of Chinese Buddhist texts, could be used to outline the contours of the Chinese Buddhist.
Using Piyu for different Buddhist terms wasn’t an ambiguous way of using language, but rather a unique path towards a more complex idea of Metaphor. And Metaphor, bridging the gap between language and understanding, works as guideposts towards the direction of Literalization of Chinese Buddhist texts. It is in this journey of Buddhist metaphors transitioning into Chinese Piyu that a new way of understanding was formed and prospered.
Participant: PARK Bumkeun (Ph.D. Student, Tsinghua University)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: March–August 2019
Project Title: Historical Reality through the Reflections between Image and Text: Northern Dynasties Buddhism and Beyond (2019)
Description: Forthcoming
Participant: LE Jing (Ph.D. Student, East China Normal University)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: January 2018 – September 2019
Project Title: Efficaciousness, body and the Interaction of multi-religions: Illustrated by the Case of Wang the second grandmother in Ping Gu and Xiang He (2018)
Description: Efficaciousness is an important cultural symbol in religion system, it not only is the medium of the interactive communication between human and deities, but also presents the actual meaning of belief in Daily life; Besides, in the field of belief practice, religious experience and efficaciousness are accomplished and realized through body: for example, the incarnation of eminent monks, sacrificial behaviors, diseases and premonitory dreams are expressions which established on the notions of body. So, behind the two clues—efficaciousness and notions of body—What is the relationship between Buddhism, Taoism and folk belief?
This study will investigate the relationship between different religion systems under the narration of efficaciousness about diseases, bodies and dreams. To solve these problems, we must have a historical perspective, and make a macro context grasp of local social-historical development and the inheritance vein of the belief of Wang the second grandmother; at the same time, we also need to have the contemporary vision, based on the social reality and life practice in the two areas, to seek the belief order in modern society.
Participant: LI Xinyuan (Ph.D. Student, Minzu University of China)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia
Period: September 2017 – September 2018
Project Title: The Evolution of Vimalakirti image in ancient China (2018)
Description: The Vimalakirti Sutra is one of the key research which I followed during my master studies. The unique ideology of the early Mahayana Buddhist in the scriptures deeply attracted me. In my doctoral period, I would love to continue focusing on The Vimalakirti Sutra. The Study of Vimalakirti image is aimed to analyze the interpretation of Chinese people, especially the Chinese intellectuals in different dynasties, of Vimalakirti’s wisdom and spiritual plane created from the Vimalakirti Sutra. Such image is philosophically based on the Vimalakirti wisdom interpreted in the Vimalakirti Sutra, such as Emptiness of Nature, Non-duality, the Middle Way, the Ultimate Truth. Indeed, the evolution of the image was resulted from different understandings by Chinese people at different times, greatly influenced by the changes of society and traditional culture of China. Therefore, this issue involves the communication between Indian Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese culture, not only reflecting the process of the localization of Indian Buddhism in China, but also indicating the dissemination routes and evolution of Buddhist classics in the ancient Chinese society.
Participant: FU Jisi (Ph.D. Student, Fudan University)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia (2017-18)
Period: December 2017 – November 2018
Project Title: Study on Dunhuang Chinese Manuscripts
Description: This project focused on the research of Sutra of the Questions of Pratibhāna from Dunhuang Cave. Based on the study of more than ten pieces of Chinese Dunhuang manuscripts, the record of the translator from Taisho—Fachang 法場 of North Wei 北魏 Dynasty—was found to be incorrect. Reason as follows: The colophon of S.2925 was copied at the middle of 5th century, and the format and calligraphy of several pieces proved these manuscripts were copied before 5th century. What’s more, the words used in the Chinese translation strongly indicated that they were translated around Jin 晋 Dynasty. The whole study was a combination of philology study from Dunhuang manuscripts and linguistic study of translating language on the early Chinese sutra.
Participant: ZHANG Wa (Ph.D. Student, Peking University)
Host Institution: University of British Columbia (2017-18)
Period: September 2017 – March 2018
Project Title: Forthcoming
Description: Mythological images out a comprehensive execution of how she prepares to investigate this subject matter and in turn, contribute and further the dialogue regarding Buddhist aesthetics, and research on Mythology and Comparative Cultural and Religious Studies. She intends to examine what the aesthetics of Buddhism are and how they are used in regard to mythological form, giving a contemporary definition to her subject matter. This investigation brings about questions regarding the role of mythology in Buddhism and religion in general, thus dealing with a very crucial and essential issue of aesthetics and philosophy as well as Cultural and Religious Studies.
