From Xiangyuan to Ceylon
Editors: Jinhua CHEN, KUAN Guang
ISBN: 978-981-14-5737-1
Date of Publication: 2020-05-01Pages: 456
PRODUCT INFO
From Xiangyuan to Ceylon: The Life and Legacy of the Chinese Monk Faxian (337–422). Co-edited by Jinhua CHEN and KUAN Guang, 2020.
The fourth and fifth centuries were a crucial period for the ‘Sinification’ process of Buddhism. In this period, Faxian 法顯 (337–422), a Buddhist monk, exerted profound influence on this process on many levels. As this anthology will make clear, Faxian’s legacy is not limited to him being a wise master, a devoted Buddhist, a great traveler, or an outstanding translator. Rather, his true legacy is symbolic: Faxian lived on as a perennial symbol of perseverance who dared to overcome any distance and danger. Faxian is a spiritual monument that has inspired generations of Buddhists, including Xuanzang and Yijing, to follow in his steps to the West.
In the spirit of interculturalism as embodied by Faxian and his followers, we hosted an international conference named ‘From Xiangyuan to Ceylon: The Life and Legacy of the Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian (337–422)’ from March 25 to March 29, 2017 in Faxian’s homeland. In total, thirty-three scholars of Buddhism from thirteen countries and regions attended the conference.
The conference conducted a comprehensive survey of Faxian studies during the past century, specifically on Faxian’s life and his translated texts. Importantly, the conference adopted a macroscopic viewpoint by placing Faxian against the historical backdrop of South, Central, and East Asia at the time. We used Faxian’s travelogue as a point of reference, from which we incorporated the religious and sociological studies of the entire Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka during Faxian’s time, thereby studying the microscopic historical phenomena in an area that had only scarce historical records.
For this English collection, we have included seven English articles and six articles translated from Chinese in order to present our conference outcomes to English-speaking scholars of Buddhism.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface: From Xiangyuan to Ceylon: The Life and Legacy of the Chinese Monk Faxian (337–422)
Jinhua ChenPart One South Asian Buddhism through the Prism of Faxian
- Mahāsāṃghika and Mahāyāna: An Analysis of Faxian and the Trans- lation of the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (Chin. Mohe Sengqi Lü)
Zhan Ru 湛如 - The Neglected Pilgrim: How Faxian’s
Record Was Used (and Was Not Used) in Buddhist StudiesMax Deeg - Images and Monasteries in Faxian’s Account on Anurādhapura
Kim Haewon 金惠瑗
Part Two Faxian in the Context of East Asia
- Faxian and the Construction of the Buddha’s Shadow Platform at Mount Lu
Wang Bangwei 王邦維 - Faxian and the Meaning of Bianwen 變文: The Value of His Biography to the Study of China
T. H. Barrett - Faxian and Liu Yu’s Inner Circle: Interactions between Society and Buddhism during the Eastern Jin Dynasty
Liu Yuan-ju 劉苑如 - The Biography of Faxian: On the Practice and Spread of Chinese Buddhist Precepts during the Jin and Song Dynasties (Fourth–Fifth Century CE)
Zhang Xuesong 張雪松 - Faxian and the Establishment of the Pilgrimage Tradition of Qiufa (Dharma-searching)
Ji Yun 紀贇 - The Other Great Chinese Trepiṭaka in Japan: Faxian as Translator and Pilgrim in Medieval Japanese Manuscript Canons
George A. Keyworth
Part Three Textual Studies
- Research on Faxian VI: On the Chinese Term Bangti (傍梯) and Yi (杙) Corresponding to the Sanskrit Śaṅkupatha as Recorded by Faxian, Dharmodgata and Xuanzang
Haiyan Hu-von Hinüber 胡海燕 - ‘Please Be Seated (還坐)’: Faxian’s Account and Related Legends Concerning the First Buddha Image
Nicolas Revire - Was the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra 大般涅槃經 T7 Translated by ‘Faxian’?: An Exercise in the Computer-Assisted Assessment of Attributions in the Chinese Buddhist Canon
Michael Radich - Sites of Caṅkrama (Jingxing 經行) in Faxian’s Record
Kim Minku 金玟求
Author Biographies
- Mahāsāṃghika and Mahāyāna: An Analysis of Faxian and the Trans- lation of the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (Chin. Mohe Sengqi Lü)
