Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought

Kuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism #5

by Peter N. Gregory (Editor)

This collection of essays examines the historical basis of the debate over sudden versus gradual approaches to enlightenment in Chinese Buddhism, seeing it as part of a recurrent polarity in Chinese history and thought.

488 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1988

About the author

Peter N. Gregory, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 1981; B.A., Art History, Princeton University, 1967), was the Jill Ker Conway Professor Emeritus of Religion and East Asian Studies at Smith College and an eminent scholar of medieval Chinese Buddhism, particularly Chan and Huayan traditions during the Tang and Song periods. He also served as executive director and president of the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism from 1984 until retiring from Smith College in 2014. Previously, he taught in the Program for the Study of Religion at the University of Illinois.