The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China

Sinica Leidensia #11

by Erik Zürcher

"The reprinting in 2007 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.

Genres: China, Buddhism, History, Religion, Nonfiction, Asia

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

A sinologist who focused on the religions of China.

His son, Erik-Jan Zurcher is a Turkologist.

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, scholarly overview of the subject. Pulled together a lot of loose strands for me. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject.

[Andy McLellan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, but very detailed, examination of early Buddhism in China.

I did not personally require all of the detail as I was reading for an overview of this time period and how Buddhism became established in China and grew into what it became, going on from there to also take seed in Japan. However, the author has clearly done extensive homework into the time period for those who do require greater depth.

The tensions between Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism were one of the most interesting parts of the book, for me, especially with the three spiritual traditions often creating their own apocrypha to include notable figures from the other traditions within their own. Thus Lao Tzu was sometimes construed as the teacher of the Buddha, the Buddha's disciple Mahakasyapa, or even the Buddha himself. In the other direction, Buddhist scholars made Confucian and Taoist figures into avatars of various buddhas and bodhisattvas.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true classic, timeless, in a sense.