Book Reviews

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

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REVIEWS
only be solved through a detailed study of the Hua-yen ching itself and the interpretations given by the Hua-yen patriarchs. Several parts of the Hua-yen ching have been preserved in Sanskrit and a complete Tibetan translation of the original Sanskrit text is found in the Kanjur. It is therefore possible to examine critically the two Chinese translations and to determine to what extent they reproduce faithfully the Indian original. Heinemann shows clearly that Dögen's system is the result of a long historical development. It would be an interesting task to trace back the first beginnings of it to Indian Mahāyāna.
Australian National University
J. W. DE JONG
NOTE
1 Heinemann's detailed bibliography omits J. J. M. de Groot, Le code du Mahayana en Chine. Son influence sur la vie monacale et sur le monde laïque (Amsterdam, 1893) which contains a translation of the Fan-wang ching (pp. 14-88).
A. F. P. Hulsewé, China in Central Asia. The early Stage: 125 B.C. - A.D. 23. An annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han dynasty. With an introduction by M. A. N. Loewe (Sinica Leidensia, vol. XIV). Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1979, VII, 273 pp. DGID. 70,-.
Chinese historical records are of great importance for the study of the history of Central Asia and India. Chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han dynasty (Ch 'ien Han shu) and chapter 123 of the Records of the Historian (Shih-chi) have been translated several times from 1828 onwards. However, the existing translations are far from satisfactory. One of the main reasons is that previous translators did not subject the texts translated to a critical scrutiny. A crucial problem in this respect is the relation between Shih-chi, compiled by Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145-87 B.C.) and probably finished shortly before 90 B.C., and the Ch'ien Han shu. The Shih-chi is a general history of China, starting from remote antiquity and continuing until 90 B.C. Chapter 123 is entitled 'The monograph on Ta Yüan' but contains information on many more states in the Western Regions than the one specifically mentioned in its title. This chapter has in the past been considered as one of the prime sources on the history of Central Asia. However, its authenticity has often been called into question. In a very thoroughgoing textcritical study Hulsewé recently showed that the present 123rd chapter of the Shih-chi is a reconstruction (cf. "The Problem of the authenticity of Shih-chi ch. 123, The Memoir of Ta Yüan', Toung Pao, 61, 1975, pp. 83-147). In his introduction to the present book, Loewe briefly recapitulates Hulsewé's arguments (cf. pp. 12-25). He remarks on p. 25: "The conclusion of this long, but necessary digression is therefore that Han shu ch.61 is primary, and that Shih-chi ch. 123 was practically lost, to be reconstructed out of Han shu material - chiefly Han shu ch.61 -, in which a few fragments of an earlier text, perhaps of the original Shih-chi chapter, which had fortunately been preserved were inserted. This reconstruction may have been made some time during the 3rd or 4th century of our era."
The Han-shu (or Ch'ien Han shu) is the history of China during the Former, or Western, Han dynasty, and in principle it covers the period from the foundation, in 202 B.C. (including the earlier career of the founder, from c. 210), to the fall of Wang Mang in A.D. 23 (p. 11). The compilation of the Han-shu, which was started from A.D. 36, was probably completed between