Bibliography on Buddhism Edited by the Commemoration Committee for Prof. Shinsho Hanayama's Sixty-first Birthday

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Hsüan-tsang stands out as a pilgrim-scholar, master-translator, epic hero of Chinese narrative literature, and as the most outstanding source for the history and archaeology, philosophy and geography, of India, Central Asia and China. His 'Record' has been translated and annotated in full and several times. His 'Life' written by his direct disciples Hui-li and Yen-ts'ung was summarised in French by S. Julien in 1853. Its first half was translated into English by Samuel Beal in 1888, but the second half was just summarised. As late as 1951, the famous British sinologist Arthur Waley regretted: "... almost everything European writers have said about him is taken, directly or indirectly, from an incomplete or very imperfect French translation of his biography by Stanislas Julien, published nearly a hundred years ago". Mr. Li Yung-hsi was the first Chinese scholar to translate the complete ten chapters of the 'Life' of Hsüan-tsang into English. They were published in 1959 by The Chinese Buddhist Association, Peking. This translation presents the personality of the Master in vivid terms. It is a fresh and lively narrative that captures the ambience of the Master and his disciple-biographers. It contains interesting correspondence between Hsüan-tsang and Indian teachers Jñānaprabha and Prajñādeva. It is reproduced in this volume by the gracious permission of Mrs. Zhang Hui Ji, the wife of late Mr. Li Yung-hsi. It differs in details from the renderings of Beal and is an important work to be compared with the earlier translation. The limpid flow of the language gives a flavour of the Chinese style and a first-hand account by the disciples of Hsüan-tsang who were witnesses to his strenuous efforts. This translation is a valuable addition to literature on Buddhism, Hsüan-tsang and the Silk Route. It will deepen our knowledge of the history of a seminal period.

Shinsho Hanayama's Bibliog- raphy on Buddhism is the best reference work for articles and books on the subject written during the last two centuries: the 19th and 20th. It is comprehensive in covering the major European research journals in English, French and German. Prof. Hanayama prepared the entry cards in the libraries at Tokyo, London, Paris, Berlin and Heidelberg. The reviews of works have also been in- cluded. The articles in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics are entered, as they are important contribu- tions by eminent scholars like T.W. Rhys Davids and Louis de la Vallée Poussin. The entries are alphabetised under the name of authors. A comprehensive index en- hances its utility. With 15073 entries, it is a sine qua non for any scholar working on Buddhist art, philosophy, literature, history, and of any Buddhist country. Areas of interest: Bud- dhism, history of art, area studies, South Asia, SE Asia, East Asia.

Professor Shinsho Hanayama was born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture, on December 3, 1898 and gradu- ated from the Department of Indian Philosophy and Buddhism of the Tokyo Imperial University in March, 1921. He studied in Europe from 1924 to 1926 after which he taught at Nihon University, Toyo University, Kokugaku-in University, Tokyo Bunrika University, Kyushu Imperial University, Tohoku Imperial University, etc. From 1934 on, he taught at the Tokyo Imperial Univer sity (the present University of Tokyo) and assumed full professorship in 1946, during which he lectured on Japanese Buddhism. He was granted the Imperial Acad- emy Award for his outstand- ing work Hokke-Gisho no Kenkyu (A study of Prince Shotoku's commentary on the Saddharma-pundarika-sūtra) in 1935, and the degree of the Doctor of Literature for his work Shōmangyō-Gisho no Jõgüwo-sen ni kansuru Kenkyū (A study of Prince Shotoku's commentary on the Śrīmālādevi-simhanāda-sūtra).

Professor Shinsho Hanayama was born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture, on December 3, 1898 and graduated from the Department of Indian Philosophy and Buddhism of the Tokyo Imperial University in March, 1921. He studied in Europe from 1924 to 1926 after which he taught at Nihon University, Toyo University, Kokugaku-in University, Tokyo Bunrika University, Kyushu Im- perial University, Tohoku Imperial University, etc. From 1934 on, he taught at the Tokyo Imperial University (the present University of Tokyo) and assumed full professorship in 1946, during which he lectured on Japanese Buddhism. He was granted the Imperial Academy Award for his outstanding work Hokke- Gisho no Kenkyū (A study of Prince Shotoku's commentary on the Saddharma- pundarika-sūtra) in 1935, and the degree of the Doctor of Literature for his work Shōmangyō-Gisho no Jõgüwo-sen ni kansuru Kenkyū (A study of Prince Sho- toku's commentary on the Śrīmālādevi-sinhanāda-sūtra) in 1942. In 1948 he acted as a chaplain for the "war-criminals" confined in the Sugamo Prison. The following year, he attended the Philosophy East and West Conference held in Hawaii as one of the Japanese delegates. Having reached the retirement age, he resigned from his post at the University in March, 1959, and hence became Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo. Since then he has been active in the United States as the Bishop of the Buddhist Churches of America.

Having reached the retirement age of sixty-one, I leave my position as a professor at the University of Tokyo with many memories. As a project commemorating this occasion my friends and former students planned the completion of a work which had been suspended by the war. I am now deeply grateful for the appearance of the splendid volume Bibliography on Buddhism.

I well remember, after the graduation from Tokyo Imperial University in the summer of 1921, I came across B. H. Hodgson's Quotation in Proof of his Sketch of Buddhism in the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. II published in 1835. This led me to wonder about the number of works on Buddhism that had been done by Occidental scholars in the past, and I began collecting titles of dissertations on Buddhism from many journals and periodicals at the Tokyo Imperial University Library. In the spring of 1924 I was sent to London on the scholarship offered by the Nishi Hongwanji of Kyoto. Although my special field of study was Japanese Buddhism, I took advantage of my stay in London to make daily trips to the Library of the Great British Museum and the Library of the India Office to continue this survey of Buddhist books and titles. Later I carried on this research work at the Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris; Preussische Staatsbibliothek, in Berlin; and Universität Bibliothek, in Heidelberg. Two years later, in the spring, when I returned to Japan I resumed my work on Japanese Buddhism, but the cards which were collected in various countries were left to be arranged for future days.

**Contents and Sample Pages**