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Matthew W. King offers a groundbreaking account of the literary, social, and political history of the circulation, translation, and interpretation of Faxian's
The Record of Buddhist Kingdoms. He reads its many journeys at multiple levels, contrasting the textual and interpretative traditions of the European academy and the Inner Asian monastery.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Conventions
Introduction
1. Chang’an to India
2. Beijing to Paris
3. Buddhist Asia to Jambudvīpa
4. Jambudvīpa to Science
5. Science to History of the Dharma
Conclusion
Appendix. The Inner Asian Record
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Matthew W. King is associate professor in transnational Buddhism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire (Columbia, 2019), which won the 2020 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies from the American Academy of Religion.
Summary
Matthew W. King offers a groundbreaking account of the literary, social, and political history of the circulation, translation, and interpretation of Faxian’s The Record of Buddhist Kingdoms. He reads its many journeys at multiple levels, contrasting the textual and interpretative traditions of the European academy and the Inner Asian monastery.
Additional text
In the Forest of the Blind, another excellent and interesting book by Matthew W. King, calls for new interpretative frameworks from those that dominated social and intellectual history in Western academia. King's idea to trace and follow the reception of Faxian's fifth-century classic, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat’s interpretation, and its reception in Inner Asia is innovative and fascinating.
