The Buddhist Conquest of China (Sinica Leidensia) [Hardcover]

ZÃ1/4rcher (Author), E. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9004156046 | ISBN-13: 978-9004156043 | Publication Date: December 31, 2006 | Edition: 3

"The reprinting in 2006 of a book originally produced nearly fifty years earlier (and based on a doctoral dissertation begun in the early 1950s) is not merely a publishing event. It constitutes a milestone in the academic study of early Chinese Buddhism that shows at once both how far the field has progressed in the past half-century as well as how fundamental the book remains." (From the new Introduction.) At the repeated request of many scholars and students here is a new edition of E. Zurcher's groundbreaking "The Buddhist Conquest of China". In his extensive introduction Stephen F. Teiser (D.T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies, Princeton University) explains why the book is still the standard in the field of early Chinese Buddhism. The introduction, newly written for this edition, analyzes the development of the field from the 1950s to the present. This edition is also updated by utilizing Pinyin (rather than the Wade-Giles system of the first two editions) for the transcription of Chinese and by including a thorough bibliography of E. Zurcher's more recent work.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 474 pages
• Publisher: BRILL; 3 edition (December 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9004156046
• ISBN-13: 978-9004156043
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,659,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reprint edition in the works!, January 9, 2006

By 

Dennis Fey (Evanston, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Buddhist conquest of China: The spread and adaptation of Buddhism in early medieval China. Notes, Bibliography, Indexes (Sinica Leidensia) (Hardcover)

Still not yet replaced and often cited in contemporary works, it is good news that Brill has decided to republish the 1972 edition (a reprint of the original 2 volume, 1959 edition with "additions and corrections") of this work, with a new, additional introduction by Stephen Teiser, and perhaps combining the text and notes as a single volume. The anticipated publication date is Autumn 2006.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensible, March 14, 2010

By 

Boon L. Kwan "Bernard" (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Buddhist Conquest of China (Sinica Leidensia) (Hardcover)

I have been using this book in the course I am taking on Chinese Buddhism at Hong Kong University, and I have to say that the depth of research involved in compiling this book is outstanding and despite being originally published more than three decades ago. This current reprint is as useful as ever in its analysis of early Buddhism in China. It also builds on previous research and shows how prior theories such Liang Qichao's theory of Buddhism being disseminated from the south, through the maritime ports is no longer tenable.

The book makes good use of the textual analysis and also balances it with a good understanding and depiction of the historical period and the political events that characterized each period, which helps place the Buddhism in context as one can start to get lost in the large number of monks and their translations. The part on the period of the three kingdoms was especially good, with the author dealing with each kingdom in turn, and this shed additional light on some of the characters that one may have been acquainted with from the romance of the three kingdom novels - like Cao Cao and Sun Quan and the Sima family.

The book is also very useful in that it includes the Chinese characters for all the names and difficult concepts within the text, unlike some books where you have to flip backwards and forwards to a glossary at the back of the book.