The Study of Chinese Buddhism
in the U.S.
Lewis Lancaster
Taiwan
April, 2015
Sectarian/Schools
Pure Land
Chan
John McCrea
Chan Oxhead School
Loose fellowship
Mostly known through
Dunhuang manuscripts
Deceased
Robert Sharf
• Pure Land is a
bibliographical category
rather than an
institution
• Reinterpreting study of
Chinese Buddhism
• University of California,
Berkeley
Charles Orzech
• Cosmology and Tantra
in political power.
• Denial of the position
that Tantra is the last
decaying phase of
Indian Buddhism
• Bristol University, U.K.
A. Welter
•
• Chan and politics
• University of Arizona
Monasteries
Vinaya
Gareth Fisher
• Anthropologist studying
the new monastic
construction projects in
the PRC
• Syracuse University
Mazio Poceski
• Hongzhou School
• Monastic codes in
Medieval China
• University of Florida
Susan Naquin
• Buddhist temples of
Beijing during the Ming
and Qing dynasties.
• Princeton University
Dynasties
Peter Gregory
• Sung was more the
“Golden Age” of
Buddhism than the Tang
• Smith College
Marsha Weidner
• Buddhist decline after
the Tang is incorrect.
• Interdisciplinary culture
based studies offer a
different picture.
• University of Kansas
Chi-chiang Huang
• Sung dynasty Buddhist
history and the
relationship to the royal
court
• Hobart-Smith Colleges
Morton Schlutter
• Platform Sutra
• Sung dynasty politics
and Buddhism
• University of Iowa
Darui Long
• Northern Ming Edition
of the Chinese Buddhist
Canon
• University of the West
Canon/Textual
Catalogues
Jiang Wu
• When did the first set of
the Chinese Buddhist
canon arrive in Europe?
• University of Arizona
Tanya Storch
• Study of catalogs and
Chinese bibliographical
sources
• How accurate are the
ancient catalogs?
• Buddhist universities in
the U.S.
• University of the Pacific
Jan Nattier
• Early translations of
Chinese texts
• University of Indiana
(retired)
Robert Buswell/ Donald Lopez
• Reference work
• Chinese Buddhist texts
and apocrypha
• UCLA/University of
Michigan
Contemporary
PRC
Taiwan
th
20
century
Reform
Holmes Welch
•
• If Taixu had succeeded
would Buddhism have
been Buddhism?
• Deceased
Charles Jones
• Buddhism in Taiwan
1660-1990
• Catholic University of
America
Don Pittman
• Taixu’s reforms of
Buddhism after the
Taiping Rebellion.
• Phillips Theological
Seminary
Daoism
Josh Capitanio
• Buddhist Taoist
interface
• University of the West
Meditation
Livia Kohn
• Comparison of Chan
and Daoist practices of
meditation
• Boston University
Eric Greene
• Chinese meditation
from 400-600 C.E. was
related to the rituals of
repentance.
• University of California,
Berkeley
Art
Stan Abe
• Buddhism and Modern
Aestheticism
• Chinese Buddhist
Sculpture
Duke University
T Griffith Foulk
• Critical of Art History
that divorces art from
original cultural
contexts
• Maintains too much
reliance on Sutras and
on the physical
appearance of images
• Sarah Lawrence College
Daniel Stevenson
• Meaning of an image is
not fixed but open to
interpretation
• Buddhist rituals of the
Tiantai and Pure Land.
• University of Kansas
Body
Cremation
Immolation
Raoul Birnbaum
• Healing Buddha and art
associated with him
• Contemporary
Buddhism in PRC
• University of California,
Santa Cruz
James A. Benn
• Study of selfimmolation the role of
the body in Chinese
Buddhist rituals and
events
• Mc Master University
Marcus Bingenheimer
• Formerly with CBETA
• Study of the life of
Yinshun
• Relics of the “Whole
Body” show that
Buddhism introduced the
idea of mummification to
China
• Temple University
John Kieschnick
• Material Culture
• “Blood Writing” of
Buddhist texts
• Stanford University
Ritual
Stephen Teiser
• Buddhism and Chinese
practices regarding
reincarnation, hells,
Ghost Festival
• Princeton University
Buddhist Theology
William Chu
• Buddhist theology and
meditation
• University of the West
Roger Jackson/John Makransky
• Buddhist “Theology”
Robert Gimello
• Buddhist thought in
China, including Tantra
• Catholic theological
perspectives on
Buddhism
• Notre Dame University
Gender
Marian Levering
• Gender in the Chan
tradition
• Women in Chinese
Buddhism
• University of Tennessee