Barrett, Timothy H. (2021) 'Japanese Monks and Chinese Books: Glimpses of Buddhist Sinology in Early Tokugawa Japan.' Religions, 12 (10). p. 871.
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Abstract
In the17th and 18th centuries, just as English scholars were reading and writing about their heritage in the continental prestige language of Latin, so too were Japanese members of the Buddhist clergy researching and publishing about the Chinese language heritage of their own religious tradition, drawing both on new printed books, often imported from China, and on much earlier manuscripts and printed texts preserved in their own country. The importation and reprinting of the canon by Ōbaku monks and the subsequent flowering of Zen scholarship is already well-known, but we should consider the efforts of Shingon monks in commenting on the heritage they received from China eight centuries earlier, and even the activities of Nichiren monks, who took steps to promote the legacy of Chinese Tiantai Buddhism. Critical reflection on the Buddhist tradition may not have emerged in Japan until the 18th century, but it did so in the context of a world of scholarship concerning an imported classical language that certainly stood comparison with that of the contemporary Anglophone world.
Item Type: | Journal Article |
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Keywords: | TokugenYōson德嚴養存 (1632–1703); Unshō運敞 (1614–1693); SōsanGensei艸山元政 (1623–1668); Nyokai如海 (?-1711); 17th-century Anglo–Japanese comparisons |
SOAS Departments & Centres: | Departments and Subunits > School of History, Religions & Philosophies Departments and Subunits > School of History, Religions & Philosophies > Department of Religions & Philosophies |
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BQ Buddhism |
ISSN: | 20771444 |
Copyright Statement: | This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): | https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100871 |
Date Deposited: | 23 Mar 2025 10:52 |
URI: | https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/43658 |
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