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" ... A descriptive analysis of specific Madhyamika texts. It compares the ideology of Kumarajiva (a great translator of the four Madhyamika treatises in the fourth century A.D.) with the ideologies of the three Chinese contemporaries--Hui-Yuan, Seng-Jui and Seng-Chao. It envisages an intercultural transmission of religious and philosophical ideas from India to China."--Back cover.
Can enlightenment be attained through words? Understanding Prajñā addresses this perennial issue in the study of mysticism through the work of Sengzhao (374-414), a Buddhist scholar-monk whose essay on prajñā («wisdom») created a sensation in early medieval China. Drawing on contemporary hermeneutic theory, this book presents a close reading of Sengzhao's work, placing it in proper context while highlighting his masterful techniques for conveying «wisdom» beyond ordinary language. Understanding Prajñā includes translations of Sengzhao's essay and his correspondence with Liu Yimin, a «hermit-scholar» who yearned to grasp the Buddha's sage wisdom.
Unparalleled in scope and detail, this classic history of Zen covers all important ideas and developments in the tradition from its beginnings in India through the Sung period in China.
The present volume selcts twenty-four of Prof. Wayman`s published research papers around the topic of Buddhist Insight, and includes only strong, well developed papers consistent with the topic. Students of Buddhism and general Indian religion will find here a rich offering of genuine research with the best of sources and Wayman`s own thoughtful presentations and original organization of the information. The papers begin with Buddha as Savior among the latest and end with the earliest in this volume, Twenty one Praises of Tara.The Hindu and Buddhist Studies illustrate Wayman`s comparative approach by showing both sides in their strong independence, and sensitively revealing their relation.
Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva are among the most celebrated Indian patriarchs in Asian Buddhist traditions and modern Buddhist studies scholarship. Scholars agree that all three lived in first- to third-century C.E. India, so most studies have focused on locating them in ancient Indian history, religion, or society. To this end, they have used all available accounts of the Indian patriarchs' lives—in Sanskrit, Tibetan, various Central Asian languages, and Chinese, produced over more than a millennium—and viewed them as bearing exclusively on ancient India. Of these sources, medieval Chinese hagiographies are by far the earliest and most abundant. Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China is the first attempt to situate the medieval Chinese hagiographies of Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva in the context of Chinese religion, culture, and society of the time. It examines these sources not as windows into ancient Indian history but as valuable records of medieval Chinese efforts to define models of Buddhist sanctity. It explores broader questions concerning Chinese conceptions of ancient Indian Buddhism and concerns about being Buddhist in latter-day China. By propagating the tales and texts of Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva, leaders of the Chinese sangha sought to demonstrate that the means and media of Indian Buddhist enlightenment were readily available in China and that local Chinese adepts could thereby rise to the ranks of the most exalted Buddhist saints across the Sino-Indian divide. Chinese authors also aimed to merge their own kingdom with the Buddhist heartland by demonstrating congruency between Indian and Chinese ideals of spiritual attainment. This volume shows, for the first time, how Chinese Buddhists adduced the patriarchs as evidence that Buddhist masters from ancient India had instantiated the same ideals, practices, and powers expected of all Chinese holy beings and that the expressly foreign religion of Buddhism was thus the best means to sainthood and salvation for latter-day China. Rich in information and details about the inner world of medieval Chinese Buddhists, Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China will be welcomed by scholars and students in the fields of Buddhist studies, religious studies, and China studies.
The history of the Madhyamaka, one of the two main Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophical traditions, began around the second century A.D. with the appearance of the writings of Nāgārjuna and Nāgārjuna's followers. Several of these writings were transmitted to China in the first decade of the fifth century, and had exerted a considerable influence on the development of Chinese Buddhist thought. This book examines the three stages of development of Chinese Madhyamaka, focussing attention on the different ways the representative figures of each stage applied basic Madhyamaka principles to deal with the central Buddhist doctrinal issues of their age. The chief aim of this book is to locate an ideological nucleus and to trace a general pattern of transformation, referring to which the precise significance of the key theoretical elements and the exact relationship between the main doctrinal aspects of a broad Buddhist intellectual trend can be clearly demonstrated and accurately defined.
In this collection of original essays, leading Asian studies scholars take a new look at the way the Chinese conceived of India in their literature, art, and religious thought in the premodern era.
Did Chinese mysticism vanish after its first appearance in ancient Taoist philosophy, to surface only after a thousand years had passed, when the Chinese had adapted Buddhism to their own culture? This first integrated survey of the mystical dimension of Taoism disputes the commonly accepted idea of such a hiatus. Covering the period from the Daode jing to the end of the Tang, Livia Kohn reveals an often misunderstood Chinese mystical tradition that continued through the ages. Influenced by but ultimately independent of Buddhism, it took forms more various than the quietistic withdrawal of Laozi or the sudden enlightenment of the Chan Buddhists. On the basis of a new theoretical evaluation of mysticism, this study analyzes the relationship between philosophical and religious Taoism and between Buddhism and the native Chinese tradition. Kohn shows how the quietistic and socially oriented Daode jing was combined with the ecstatic and individualistic mysticism of the Zhuangzi, with immortality beliefs and practices, and with Buddhist insight meditation, mind analysis, and doctrines of karma and retribution. She goes on to demonstrate that Chinese mysticism, a complex synthesis by the late Six Dynasties, reached its zenith in the Tang, laying the foundations for later developments in the Song traditions of Inner Alchemy, Chan Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism.
This is a comprehensive work on the religions of China. As such, it includes an introduction giving an overview of the subject, and the special themes treated in the book, as well as detailed chapters on ancient religions, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese Islam, Christianity in China as well as popular religion. Throughout the book, care is taken to present both the philosophical teachings as well as the religious practices of the religious traditions, and reflections are offered regarding their present situation and future prospects. Comparisons are offered with other religions, especially Christianity.