New Book Announcement: Reinventing the Tripitaka: Transformation of the Buddhist Canon in Modern East Asia

I am glad to announce the publication of my new book:

Reinventing the Tripitaka: Transformation of the Buddhist Canon in Modern East Asia by Jiang Wu et al. 

Purchase Link: http://a.co/eGQeGB2

The Chinese Buddhist canon is a systematic collection of all translated Buddhist scriptures and related literatures created in East Asia and has been regarded as one of the “three treasures” in Buddhist communities. Despite its undisputed importance in the history of Buddhism, research on this huge collection has remained largely the province of Buddhologists focusing on textual and bibliographical studies. We thus aim to initiate methodological innovations to study the transformation of the canon by situating it in its modern context, characterized by intricate interactions between East and West as well as among countries in East Asia. 

During the modern period the Chinese Buddhist canon has been translated, edited, digitized, and condensed as well as internationalized, contested, and ritualized. The well-known accomplishment of this modern transformation is the compilation of the Taisho Canon during the 1920s. It has become a source of both doctrinal orthodoxy as well as creativity and its significance has greatly increased as Buddhist scholarship and devotionalism has utilized the canon for various ends. However, it is still unclear what led to the creation of the modern editions of the Buddhist canon in East Asia. This volume explores the most significant and interesting developments regarding the Chinese Buddhist canon in modern East Asia including canon formation, textual studies, historical analyses, religious studies, ritual invention, and digital research tools and methods.

Introduction:

Jiang Wu and Greg Wilkinson

“The Reinvention of the Buddhist Tripitaka and the Rise of “Textual Modernity” in Modern East Asia”

Part 1 The Buddhist Canon Encounters the West

Jiang Wu

“Finding the First Chinese Tripitaka in the West: Early European Buddhology, the 1872 Iwakura Mission in Britain, and the Mystery of the Ōbaku Canon in the India Office Library”

Greg Wilkinson and Nicholas J. Frederick

“Inventing Buddhist Bibles in Japan: From Nanjō Bun’yū to Numata Yehan”

Part 2 Use and Utility of Modern Editions and Printings 

Kida Tomoo

“Ōtani Kozui’s Tripitaka Diplomacy in China and the Qing Dragon Canon at Ryūkoku University”

Gregory Adam Scott

“The 1913 Pinjia Canon and the Changing Role of the Buddhist Canon in Modern China”

Richard D. McBride II

“Bearing the Canon on the Crown of the Head: Jeongdae Bulsa and Worship of the Buddhist Canon in Contemporary Korean Buddhism”

Part 3 The Buddhist Canon in the Digital Age

Christian Wittern

“The Digital Tripitaka and the Modern World”

A. Charles Muller, Shimoda Masahiro, and Nagasaki Kiyonori

“The SAT Taishō Text Database: A Brief History”

Appendix: 

Fang Guangchang

“Defining the Chinese Buddhist Canon: Its Origin, Periodization, and Future”

New Book on the Chinese Buddhist Canon Available for Sale now

"Bringing together leading specialists in the Chinese Buddhist canon, Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia makes a major contribution to our understanding of both the textual and the social history of one of the most impressive textual projects in the history of the world." — John Kieschnick, Stanford University

"The Sinitic Buddhist canons rank among the largest bodies of sacred literature ever produced by any religious tradition. The compilation, editing, and publication of these massive collections required a commitment of money and manpower that was the medieval equivalent of the moon landings of the 1960s. This ground-breaking volume gives these canons the sustained attention they have long deserved from the scholarly community and will help to demonstrate that they are among the preeminent cultural achievements of the wider Sinitic world." — Robert E. Buswell, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles

"One measure of the maturity of a discipline is its critical awareness of its sources. This collection of nine expert and ground-breaking essays on the Chinese Buddhist canon, augmented by a magisterial preface by a doyen of the field and by two eminently useful bibliographical appendices, marks a genuine advance in the study of Chinese Buddhism. All students of Buddhism in China have necessarily been explorers and exploiters of the vast textual treasury of the Chinese Buddhist tradition, but they have not always been fully aware of the nature, the scope, the formation, and the limitations of great resource on which they draw. Now, with the appearance of this quite essential book, they have a reliable map and a guide to what is arguably the largest single collection of authoritative texts of any of the world's great religions. All who study Chinese Buddhism must be grateful to Professors Wu and Chia and their colleagues, and must keep this book of theirs ever handy as they pursue their research into scholarly territory now more clearly mapped." — Robert M. Gimello, The University of Notre Dame

Preface, by Lewis Lancaster

Acknowledgments

Conventions

Introduction, by Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia

Part I: Overview

1. The Chinese Buddhist Canon Through the Ages: Essential Categories and Critical Issues in the Study of a Textual Tradition, by Jiang Wu

2. From the "Cult of the Book" to the "Cult of the Canon": A Neglected Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, by Jiang Wu

Part II: The Formative Period

3. Notions and Visions of the Canon in Early Chinese Buddhism, by Stefano Zacchetti

4. Fei Changfang's Lidai sanbao ji and Its Role in the Formation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, by Tanya Storch

Part III: The Advent of Printing

5. The Birth of the First Printed Canon: The Kaibao Edition and Its Impact, by Jiang Wu, Lucille Chia, and Chen Zhichao

6. The Life and Afterlife of Qisha Canon, by Lucille Chia

7. Managing the Dharma Treasure: Collation, Carving, Printing, and Distribution of the Canon in Late Imperial China, by Darui Long

Part IV: The Canon Beyond China

8. Better Than the Original: The Creation of Goryeo Canon and the Formation of Giyang Pulgyo, by Jiang Wu and Ron Dziwenka

9. Taisho Canon: Devotion, Scholarship, and Nationalism in the Creation of the Modern Buddhist Canon in Japan, by Greg Wilkinson

Appendix 1. A Brief Survey of the Printed Editions of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, by Li Fuhua and He Mei

Appendix 2. The Creation of the CBETA Electronic Tripitaka Collection in Taiwan, by Aming Tu

Bibliography

List of Contributors

Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jiang Wu is professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. His research interests include Chinese Buddhism, especially Chan/Zen Buddhism and the Chinese Buddhist canon, Sino-Japanese Buddhist exchanges, and the application of GIS tools in the study of Chinese culture and religion.

Lucille Chia is professor of history at the University of California at Riverside. Her research interests include Chinese book culture, most recently the history of Buddhist publishing in imperial China. She is the author of Printing for Profit: The Commercial Publishers of Jianyang, Song-Ming (960-1644) and coeditor of Knowledge and Text Production in an Age of Print: China, 900-1400.

Go to Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Spreading-Buddhas-Word-East-Asia/dp/0231171609

Meeting my editor

I am so glad to meet my editor Marcela Maxfield at AAR. Great job!

blurb and backcover of Leaving for the Rising Sun

I am glad that the backcover is ready for the paperback edition. Thank Prof. Lynn Struve for her kind words.

Back cover

“In this wonderfully informative study, Jiang Wu extends the significance of his previous, groundbreaking book, Enlightenment in Dispute, from China into the greater East Asian sphere of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Through the career and legacy of the eminent monk Yinyuan Longqi (1592–1673) in China and Japan, Wu penetrates the crisis of cultural legitimacy that beset East Asia, particularly Tokugawa Japan, after the demise of the Ming dynasty.”—Lynn Struve, Professor of Chinese History, Indiana University, Bloomington

In 1654 Zen Master Yinyuan traveled from China to Japan. Seven years later his monastery, Manpukuji, was built and he had founded a new tradition, called Obaku.  In this sequel to his 2008 book, Enlightenment in Dispute, Jiang Wu tells the story of the tremendous obstacles faced by Yinyuan, drawing parallels between his experiences and the broader political and cultural context in which he lived.

Yinyuan claimed to have inherited the “Authentic Transmission of the Linji Sect.” After arriving in Japan, he was able to persuade the Shogun to build a new Ming-style monastery for the establishment of his Obaku school. His arrival in Japan coincided with a series of historical developments, including the Ming-Qing transition, the consolidation of early Tokugawa power, the growth of Nagasaki trade, and rising Japanese interests in Chinese learning and artistic pursuits. While Yinyuan’s travel is known in scholarly circles, the significance of his journey within East Asian history has not been fully explored. Leaving for the Rising Sun provides a unique opportunity to reexamine the crisis in the continent and responses from other parts of East Asia. Using Yinyuan’s story as a bridge between China and Japan, Wu demonstrates that the monk’s significance is far greater than the temporary success of a religious sect. Rather, Yinyuan imported to Japan a new discourse of authenticity that gave rise to indigenous movements that challenged, and led to the eventual breakup of, a China-centered world order.

Jiang Wu is an associate professor in Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. His research interests include Chinese Buddhism, especially Chan/Zen Buddhism and the Chinese Buddhist canon, Sino-Japanese Buddhist exchanges, and the application of spatial analysis tools in the study of religion and culture. He is the author of Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-century China (2008).

First Proof Arrived!

Today, the first proof of my book has arrived, as anticipated. I am supposed to review it for the final time and then it will be finalized. Soon after, I will be asked to make index for the whole book.

The production of the book has been taken care of by Newgen Knowledgeworks based in India. So far, I am very satisfied with their work. I was informed about the whole production process and all important deadlines in the beginning. These deadlines have been kept punctually. I start to believe that outsourcing might be the most efficient way to do business in the future.

I have spotted major mistakes in typesetting, especially the positions of illustrations. The typesetters do not know Chinese and it is typically for them to put the images upside down. There must be other typos and mistakes. An author can not take it for granted as these mistakes will be easily overlooked and become a shame after being printed.

Official Publication Date for Leaving for the Rising Sun

Recently, I have been working on copy editing and just finished answering the final queries sent by copy editor. The whole production job has been undertaken by a company in India and so far I am very satisfied with the production process.

I have been told the official publication date is going to be Dec. 12, 2014. But the book should be available at this year's AAR for sale.

Why is Yinyuan important?

Sanmon of Manpukuji ©Jiang Wu 2014

Although Yinyuan is somehow important, he is just ordinary if compared with many famous monks in Tang and Song. Then why study him? Here is the need to do some more research into the specific time period he lived in. In contrast to the common view about him, my book reveals he is extraordinary in several areas:

First, he lived at the end of the Ming and early Qing, thus witnessing the significant social and cultural changes in China.

Second, he not only successful landed in Japan, but also went beyond Nagasaki, where Chinese were confined.

Third, the high status the Japanese bakufu gave to Yinyuan and his Obaku tradition is unprecedented.

Finally, the transformation of Japanese Zen and the rise of Hakuin only occurred after Yinyuan's arrival.

All these seem to have suggested that he was very important during his time. We can only reveal his significance when we put him back in the complicated religious, cultural, and political situation in the seventeenth century.

How to deal with "garbage sources" 垃圾史料 in Ming-Qing Chinese Buddhism?

Some books were born with important topics and self-evidently significant sources. Readers will know that. The field expects the book and acclaims its contribution. The authors were lucky to work on them, mostly likely at the suggestion of their mentors or some wise people.

Unfortunately, the sources I worked with, for both of my books, can not be said to have any real significance at the first glance. And for the most time of my research, I didn't know what I was arguing for. Even the topics were blurring......religion? intellectual history? political history? I genuinely did not know until the very last moment of research and book making.

My first book Enlightenment in Dispute (Oxford, 2008) deals with Buddhist polemics in the seventeenth century. The sources are polemical essays written by monks. I will not recommend these sources to any one, including my students, because they are very dry, tedious, and tasteless, full of personal attacks and senseless accusations. Of course, the prominent Chinese historian Chen Yuan had worked on these sources. But the truth is that after he wrote his book Qingchu sengzheng ji 清初僧诤记, no one wrote anything significant on the topics and the sources and the knowledge and figures he introduced were so obscured that a Japanese scholar had to write an annotated translation of his book in the eightieth. This tells you how unattractive these sources are. Also, his grandson Prof. Chen Zhichao told me that when his grandfather wrote the book, he had an assistant going to the Forbidden City to copy for him the sources in Jiaxing Canon 嘉兴藏 which was stored there. (This edition is still there.)

My second book deals with a prominent Zen teacher whose collected work amounts to twelve volumes in modern binding. I confess I read all of them. But I have to say there are not of the best of a Zen collection. He was a poet and wrote about 5,000 poems. However, not all of them are of the high quality and clerical writing was always not well received in literary circles in China.

I finally realize that in the study of Chinese religion, history, culture there exist a large number of "garbage sources," especially in the area of religion. The same might be said about Korean and Japanese studies. Basically, they are numerous, boring, repetitive and we don't know how to make sense of them. No one what to touch them. One example is the first fascicle of local gazetteer which usually starts with "star constellation field" 星野. Another example in literature is the collection of "imperial decrees" in the beginning of hanlin literati's wenji collections. Most of them had been the officers 制诰 to draft these imperial documents. But a lot of them had lost their context and their meaning became obscure. In Chinese Buddhism, there are a lot of scriptural commentaries 注疏科判 awaiting for further exploration. If you want to find more, go the Chinese Buddhist canon 汉文大藏经, which is another topic I am working on, for "garbage." (A collection of essays co-edited by Lucille Chia and me will be published from Columbia University Press very soon.)

If you are the one of the unlucky researcher who happen to work on these "garbage sources," the tricky part is going to be how to read them and make sense of them. I believe that a selective reading of sources only with obvious significance might have obscured our understanding of history. Without fully processing these garbage sources, it is hardly true that we have a fair and objective view of the past.