Eine kurze Geschichte des Buddhismus

by Edward Conze, Friedrich Wilhelm (Translator)

Immer mehr Menschen im Westen fühlen sich zum Buddhismus hingezogen, weil er ihnen Spiritualität und Lebenshilfe ohne Dogma zu bieten vermag.
"Die Stärke von Edward Conzes Buch liegt nicht allein in der Analyse der Lehre, sondern in der Beschreibung ihrer weltweiten Ausbreitung und ihres Einflusses, den sie auf die Gedankenwelt Europas ausübt" Die Welt
(Klappentext)

Genres: Buddhism, History, Religion, Nonfiction, Philosophy

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Eberhart Julius Dietrich Conze, who published as Edward Conze, studied Indian and comparative philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Hamburg. He later lectured in psychology, philosophy, and comparative religion at Oxford, held a number of academic appointments, and served as Vice-President of the Buddhist Society.

Reviews

[Buzz Fledderjohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars seems a harsh rating for one of the most renowned buddhologists of the last century, and in fact lack of intellectual depth or expertise is not this volume's issue. However, if you look at this books title and compare it to the number of pages, you basically know what's wrong: There's approximately 2500 years of history condensed down into less than 200 pages. This means there's a lot of namedropping without further explanation; the book feels very rushed. There's a plethora of facts and names and years - but they lack contextualization and coherence.
That being said, this is not a "bad" book in the sense that it got something wrong or is badly written. It fulfils its purpose, but that purpose (a really, really, really short history of Buddhism) is what's questionable to me. If you're knew to Buddhism and want to get some short introduction, you're most likely gonna be completely overwhelmed (that is, overcharged) by this book.

[Thắng Công · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trong vòng chưa đầy 200 trang sách (350 trang cho cả Anh + Việt), tác giả dựng nên một bức tranh quá đồ sộ của Lịch sử Phật Giáo Thế giới, hàng trăm cái tên, hàng trăm tông phái, hàng trăm tên sách kinh điển cùng vô số thuật ngữ Phật Giáo được nêu ra. Wow, choáng ngợp, thực sự đáng sợ :3 Hơi ngoài dự tính một chút là cuốn sách này lại không nhắc nhiều đến lịch sử thời Đức Thích Ca còn tại thế cũng như các lần kết tập kinh điển. Có lẽ mục tiêu chính của tác giả nhắm tới quá trình truyền bá Phật Giáo và sơ lược về các tông phái Phật Giáo trên thế giới. Bản dịch rất tuyệt vời, dịch giả rất am hiểu về Phật Giáo, còn bản thân nguyên tác tiếng Anh khá khó đọc vì tác giả sử dụng ngôn ngữ hàn lâm.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A USEFUL (THOUGH NOT PARTICULARLY EXTENSIVE) HISTORY

Edward Conze (1904-1979) lectured on various subjects at the universities of London and Oxford; he also served as Vice President of the Buddhist Society in London.

He wrote in the Introduction to this (posthumously published) 1980 book, “Buddhism claims that … the Buddha or ‘The Enlightened one’ rediscovered a very ancient … wisdom… round about 600 or 400 B.C. … His reformulation of the perennial wisdom was designed to counteract three evils: 1. VIOLENCE was to be avoided in all its forms… 2. The ‘SELF’… was held to be responsible for all pain and suffering, which would in the end be finally abolished by the attainment of a state … known as ‘Nirvana.’ … 3. DEATH was an error which could be overcome by those who entered the ‘doors to the Deathless.’ … Apart from providing antidotes to these three ills, the Buddha formulated no definite doctrines or creeds, but put his entire trust into the results obtained by training his disciples through a threefold process of moral restraint, secluded meditation and philosophical reflection.” (Pg. 1)

He outlines, “Buddhism has so far persisted for about 2,500 years and during that period it has undergone profound and radical changes. Its history can be conveniently divided into four periods. The first period is that of old Buddhism, which largely coincided with what later came to be known as the ‘Hinayana’; the second is marked by the rise of the Mahayana; the third by that of the Tantra and Ch’an. This brings us to about AD 1000. After that Buddhism no longer renewed itself, but just persisted, and the last 1,000 years can be taken together as the fourth period.” (Pg. 3-4)

He asks, “What, then… is common to all this variety of diverse teachings, what are the common factors which allow us to call all of these ‘Buddhist’? 1. Among the more stable factors the MONASTIC ORGANIZATION is the most … conspicuous… 2. … a traditional set of MEDITATIONS… 3. Thirdly, all Buddhists have had one and the same AIM, which is the ‘extinction of self.’ … 4. Throughout its history, Buddhism has the unity of an ORGANISM, in that each new development takes place in continuity from the previous one.” (Pg. 6-7)

Of the first 500 years, he observes, “Always without a central organization, Buddhism had divided itself… into a number of sects… Most of these sects had their own Canon. Nearly all of them are lost to us, because they were never written down, or because the depredations of time have destroyed the written record… We therefore possess only a small portion of what actually circulated in the Buddhist community during the first period… Some modern European books abound in confident assertions about what the Buddha himself has personally taught. They are all mere guesswork. The ‘original gospel’ is beyond our ken now. The farthest we can get back in time is the period when the community split up into separate sects.” (Pg. 8-9)

He laments, “This [first] period had little interest in the biography of the Buddha Sakyamuni as a person… The story of His life was at first a collection of precedents, which were invoked to justify the Vinaya [tradition] rules. In addition, many stories and legends gradually grew up in connection with some holy place or shrine, to account for its sanctity. Little attempt was made to weave all these stories into one consecutive biography. At present we are not in a position to decide which ones of them are trustworthy historical information and which ones are the pious inventions of a later age.” (Pg. 20-21)

He explains, “The different sects tended to have their own organization and Scriptures… They all shared one common Dharma, although… the verbal formulation of this Dharma did not exist in a brief, handy and unambiguous form. It was transmitted orally… but there was so much of it that no one person could keep it all in mind. In consequence different parts of the Scriptures were handed to specialists who knew by heart, say, the Vinaya of the Sutras… The reciters of each part of the Scriptures formed separate corporations with privileges of their own and their very existence would add to the divisions within the Order.” (Pg. 26-27)

He recounts, "If Buddhism departed from the tenets of the first period, it was largely the work of the laity… The same kind of popular pressure would induce the monks to become more manifestly useful to laymen. In the … Tantric period they inserted themselves into their magical beliefs and acted as astrologers, exorcisers… etc. That is why the story of Buddhism becomes unintelligible unless due weight is given to the desires of the dumb common people.” (Pg. 38)

Turning to the Second Period (A.D. 0-500), he observes, “The Mahayana developed in North-West India and South India, the two regions where Buddhism was most exposed to non-Indian influences… This cross-fertilization … rendered that Buddhism of the Mayahana fit for export outside India… Roughly speaking only in its modified Mahayana form has it been able to survive outside India. In due course the Mahayana has conquered the entire northern half of the Buddhist world…” (Pg. 41)

He notes, “Our Hinayana sources practically never mention the Mahayanists, either positively or negatively. They were somewhat incredulous of all these innovations and they refused to take seriously the claim that the many new Mahayana works gave the Buddha’s actual words. In fact they rejected these works as just so many ‘concoctions’ and unworthy of serious consideration. The … complete and total silence of all Hinayana doctors on the subject of the Mahayana shows clearly what they thought of all this splendor.” (Pg. 54)

He suggests, “The [Chinese] Emperors would be pleased to number as many peace-loving Buddhists as possible among their subjects … The ruling layers of society would find the Buddhist priests more amenable than their Taoist rivals who were continually fomenting rebellions among the peasantry… The Buddhists, on the other hand, relied on the donations of wealthy laymen, and could therefore be relied upon not to pursue unwelcome political schemes of their own.” (Pg. 67-68)

Turning to the Third Period (A.D. 500-1000), he comments, “The Tantra endeavored to assign an honored, though subordinate, role to all the spirits… [and] ogres and ghosts which had haunted the popular imagination... This further step in popularizing the religion aimed at providing it with a more solid foundation in society. But as far as the elite was concerned, there was the important difference that non-Buddhists use magic to acquire power, whereas the Buddhists do so to free themselves from the powers alien to their own true being.” (Pg. 76) He adds, “Unlike the early Mahayanists… the Tantric authors no longer link their scriptures with Sakymuni, but frankly assign them to some mythical Buddha who is said to have preached at them at some remote and distant past.” (Pg. 77)

Of the Last Period (A.D. 1000-1978), he reports, “In India itself, Buddhism came to an end about 1200… The main cause which precipitated its disappearance was, of course, the Mohammedan invasions. In their fanatical hatred for what seemed to them ‘idolatry,’ these ruthless conquerors burned down the flourishing monasteries and universities… and killed the monks, who offered no resistance… the cause for this decline must be sought as much within Buddhism as without it.” (Pg. 107)

He continues, “As a SPIRITUAL FORCE Buddhism had played itself out… what had ceased was the creative impulse. The Buddhists had nothing new to say any more. By analogy with what happened in the 1st and 6th centuries, a new burst of creative activity was due in the 11th, and was necessary to the rejuvenation of the religion. It failed to take place. What had of course happened was that in the course of 1,700 years of coexistence the Hindus had taken over a great deal from the Buddhists and the Buddhists likewise from the Hindus. In consequence the division between them had increasingly diminished and it was no great thing for a Buddhist to be absorbed into the largely Buddhified Hindu fold. The Buddha and some Buddhist deities were incorporated into the Hindu pantheon. The philosophy of Nagarjuna had been absorbed into the Vedanta… The Buddhist Tantras had provoked their Hindu counterparts, which abound with references to Mahayana deities. (Pg. 108-109)

In Ceylon, “The revival began about 1880, first stimulated by the Theosophical Society, and then carried out under the impulse of awakening nationalism… and in 1950 they took the lead in trying to bring all Buddhist countries together, and set up the World Fellowship of Buddhists.” (Pg. 113)

He states, “three great achievements are to the credit of the Tibetan Buddhism of this period. First there is the codification of the canonical literature in two gigantic collections… Secondly there is the production of an enormous indigenous literature---of manuals, commentaries, sub-commentaries and so on… Thirdly, the Buddhist Church became firmly rooted in the life of the people,” (Pg. 135-136)

He also notes, “In Japan our industrial age has put a premium on those sects, Zen, Shin, and Nichiren, which have most radically departed from tradition. Shin, the numerically most successful sect, has reduced Buddhist doctrines and practices to a point where they become hardly perceptible.” (Pg. 143)

This book will be of keen interest to those studying the history of Buddhism. (Although Conze’s somewhat ‘negative’ perspective may turn some readers off.)

[William West · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intelligently presented, if rather dryly written, concise history of Buddhism. Seems as thorough as a 120 page book can be about 2500 years of history.

Predictably, I couldn't help inflicting a little class analysis on the subject. The earliest monks were, supposedly, genuine ascetics who lived a vagabond life-style of meditating in the streets and surviving on charity. As this approach did nothing to win the vast majority over to the faith, or increase the prestige of its practitioners, Buddhists turned increasingly to promising local rulers safety and salvation in return for protection and temples. Gradually, the monasteries became part of the bureaucratic power structure of the Asian kingdoms of the first millennium AD, in not such a different, if much less centralized, way as did the Catholic Church in medieval Europe. When rulers fell, the monasteries were sometimes able to seize power for themselves and rule as theocracies, as happened in Tibet right until the Chinese revolution.

Much has been made of the "peaceful" nature of Buddhism by western orientalists, such as the author of this book. Indeed, Buddhists have historically seemed less inclined to try to forcefully convert non-believers to their faith. Their violence has rather been self-directed. Monasteries and sects often declared war on one another, with the losers being killed in mass and their temples burned to the ground by the victors. Sometimes these struggles were simply for bounty, others, at least officially, over obtuse philosophical differences, somewhat in the manner of Marxists. The Tibetan Lamas came to power through a particularly long and bloody war between local sects.

None of this real-politic is to take away from the majesty of the Buddhist philosophical tradition, which in the early centuries of the first millennium AD was tackling issues- such as the inertia between being and non-being, the anxiety of thinking consciousness faced with the thing-ness of the body, and the validity of the self-other distinction- that have been precious to European philosophy and psychology for the last two centuries.

[CP · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is indeed too short to describe the entire Buddhism history so comprehensively, but this is meant to be a “Short History”, as the title suggests. To that end, it has done a very good job.
You probably need some basic level of familiarity with some Buddhism terms to get into it, otherwise it may be too obscure. But I just happened to be me, and I do need some quick walkthrough. This book is a great fit for me.
I am not too sure that I agree with the author’s preference for “innovation”. His history focuses on ideas, which is fine, but he does not need to “dismiss” anything that is more conservative.
I would also appreciate a little bit more discussion of the wider economic, social, and political background. Now the Buddhism history seems to happen in a vacuum here.
Still, this is a great book for people who want to dip toes into Buddhism history.

[Luis Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro cumple muy bien su objetivo: hacer una breve historia del budismo. La información está organizada de manera intuitiva en tres bloques históricos, cada cual con pequeños apartados dedicados a casa país, la expansión, las escuelas correspondientes... Sin embargo, no lo considero un buen libro para aprender sobre la religión y la doctrina budista. Sí, tiene apartados excelentes sobre la filosofía o los dogmas básicos; pero la brevedad del libro y la amplitud del tiempo estudiado dan a veces la sensación de pesadez e incomprensión: tiradas de nombres, reinados, lugares...
De todas formas, estoy muy satisfecho, en general. Seguramente vuelva a él en varias ocasiones para refrescar algunos momentos conceptos de la historia del budismo o las panorámicas de escuelas que ofrece.

[Phil Calandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Buddhism a Short History" is a scholarly work that attempts to cover 2500 years of Buddhist history into a relatively short book. The result is an overwhelming amount of factual information that is impossible to digest in an introductory book. A much better book is "Buddhism" by Joan Duncan Oliver.

[cass · Rating 2 out of 5]

first time i’ve ever wanted to describe a book as dry

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very short history indeed. 2500 years in 125 pages. I need to read more about Buddhism in China during the Tang dynasty I think.

Although the cultural background and social conditions of the China of the Tang differed in almost every way from those of the India of Buddha Sakyamuni, rarely have Buddhists at any time come as near to the spirit of their founder as the great masters of the Ch'an school. p 84

I can't help querying if it would be correct to say, as the author states in the section of the book entitled The Present Situation, that Wittgenstein ever testified to having been influenced by Buddhism. Others have perhaps noted similarities between the later Wittgenstein and Buddhist thought but I doubt if Wittgenstein himself ever acknowledged any direct influence.

Edward Conze

Tang religion and philosophy

[Zachary Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a very concise and sweeping introduction to the history and development of Buddhism, with primary focus on India and China. The book's strongest asset is its sweeping reach from the beginnings of the religion to the present and throughout numerous countries and historical periods. However, I feel that the work would have been stronger had some of the material been condensed or if the size of the book had been expanded (it is only around 150 pages)as the casual reader such as myself with only limited knowledge of Buddhism is likely to miss some important points or get different schools and thinkers mixed up given the speed at which the author moves through the material.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This brief history is full of details. Specific schools are named and described. The history is comprehensive geographically and chronologically. Conze also elegantly describes the changing social relations and theological differences.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very concise and chock full of information in small volume.

[Yupa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Introduzioncina di servizio, senza infamia né lode, anche se un po' confusa o troppo concisa.

[Fatih · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pengetahuan sejarah singkat mengenai agama Buddha. Sebuah buku pengantar untuk memulai mempelajari sejarah agama Buddha dan perkembangannya.