World Religions

Since the first century, when Buddhism entered China, the foreign religion has influenced and been influenced in turn by traditional Chinese culture, and eventually became an important part of it. That is one of the great historical themes not only for China but also for East Asia. This book explores the elements of Buddhism, including its classics, doctrines, system and rituals, to reveal the basic connotation of Buddhism as a cultural entity.

Francesca Tarocco offers an innovative high-quality piece of work that presents a new perspective on the influence of Buddhism on Chinese culture. Drawing on scarcely analyzed historical and archival sources, including photographs and musical scores, Tarocco adeptly argues that Chinese Buddhism played a more vital role in shaping Chinese culture than previously assumed. This enlightening study fills a significant gap in the field of Chinese Buddhist history.

The book aims to describe the history of Chan (Japanese Zen) School thought from the standpoint of social history. In China, Chan infiltrated all levels of society, mainly because it engaged with society and formed the mainstream of Buddhism from the 10th-11th centuries through to the 20th century. This book, taking a critical stance, examines the entire history of Chan thought and practice from the viewpoint of a modern Chinese scholar.

The most influential work on Buddhism to be published in the 19th century, Introduction à l'histoire du Buddhisme indien, by the French scholar of Sanskrit Eugène Burnouf, set the course for the academic study of Buddhism, and Indian Buddhism in particular, for the next 100 years. First published in 1844, the masterwork was read by some of the most important thinkers of the time, including Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Emerson and Thoreau.

An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism is a comprehensive survey of Indian Buddhism from its origins in the 6th century BCE, through its ascendance in the 1st millennium CE, and its eventual decline in mainland South Asia by the mid-2nd millennium CE. Weaving together studies of archaeological remains, architecture, iconography, inscriptions and Buddhist historical sources, the book uncovers quotidian concerns and practices of Buddhist monks and nuns.

This book offers a comprehensive, nuanced and chronological account of the evolution of Buddhist religion in Japan from the 6th century to the present day. It traces each period of Japanese history to reveal the complex and often controversial histories of Japanese Buddhists and their unfolding narratives.

With a foreword by Prof. Alfred Bloom, and widely welcomed both for its scope as course reader and as a general introduction to the subject, this comprehensive study of Japanese Shin Buddhism offers a valuable combination of historical development, carefully selected readings with commentaries, and illustrations.

A classic that has influenced generations of readers and played a major role in shaping conceptions of Zen's influence on Japanese traditional arts. In simple and poetic language, Daisetz Suzuki describes Zen and its historical evolution. He connects Zen to the philosophy of the samurai and subtly portrays the relationship between Zen and swordsmanship, haiku, tea ceremonies and the Japanese love of nature.

From the 14th through the 19th centuries, Japanese monks created hundreds of maps to construct and locate their place in a Buddhist world. This expansively illustrated volume is the first to explore the largely unknown archive of Japanese Buddhist world maps and analyze their production, reproduction and reception.

It is not easy for about 560 items to accommodate the various kinds of Korean Buddhist culture which have accumulated over more than 1,600 years. Therefore, the authors chose and wrote every item with a view towards giving an explanation that would make good sense to all kinds of English speakers in Korea and around the world, and tried to write in a simple and understandable way.

Jeffrey L. Broughton offers a study and partial translation of Core Texts of the Sŏn Approach, an anthology of texts foundational to Korean Sŏn (Chan/Zen) Buddhism. The book provides a convenient entrée to two fundamental themes of Korean Sŏn: Sŏn vis-à-vis the doctrinal teachings of Buddhism (in which Sŏn is shown to be superior) and the huatou method of practice-work originally popularized by the Song dynasty Chinese Chan master Dahui Zonggao.

Drawing upon rich archives, as well as anthropological and literary approaches, this study moves beyond nationalistic, modernist and ethnocentric historiographies of modern Korean Buddhism by carefully examining individuals' lived experiences, the institutional dimensions of Korean Buddhism and its place in transnational conversations.

Tibetan Buddhist tradition has developed over thirteen centuries and has spread among the neighboring peoples: the Mongol, Himalayan and Siberian peoples, Manchus and Chinese. At its height is has been practiced in regions as far west as the Volga river and to the east in Beijing. Its capacity for creative adaptation is demonstrated by its recent growth in Europe and America. Yet still, it is at the center of political contestation in ethnically Tibetan regions of China.

This is a landmark study of the Dba' bzhed, a text recounting the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. The narrative itself is known from a number of versions, but the Dba' bzhed - preserved in a single manuscript - is the oldest complete copy. This book provides a full transcription of the Tibetan original for the first time, together with a new translation.

Buddhism was one major factor of cultural exchange in pre-modern Eastern Central Asia. For the first time the multi-layered relationships between the trans-regional Buddhist traditions (Chinese, Indian, Tibetan) and those based on local Buddhist cultures (Khotanese, Uyghur, Tangut) will be explored in a systematic way.

Today, most Uyghurs are Muslims. For centuries, however, Uyghurs were Buddhists. By around 1000 CE, they, like many of their neighbors, had decisively turned toward the Dharma, and a golden age of Uyghur Buddhism flourished under the Mongol empire. This book presents the first comprehensive history of Buddhism among the Uyghurs from the 9th to the 17th century.

The interdisciplinary volume, Transfer of Buddhism across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries), offers a new transregional and transcultural vision for religious transfer processes in Central Asian history. It looks at the region as an integrated (religious) whole rather than from the perspective of fragmented sub-disciplines and analyses the spread of Buddhism as a driving force in a societal and cultural change of pan-Asian importance.