Brief History Of Buddhist Studies In Europe And Maerica

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

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THE EASTERN BUDDHIST
but this knowledge is not sufficient for reading Japanese books and articles. In the second place, in the West Buddhist studies are more orientated towards philological and grammatical problems. The West has been nurtured in a long tradition of editing, translating and analysing Latin and Greek texts. The methods developed by classical scholars have beer Sanskrit and Pāli texts. In Japan the Chinese Buddhist canon has for many centuries been the basic source for the study of Buddhism. This canon has been printed many times in China and Japan since the roth century and for this reason Japanese Buddhist scholars in the past were not obliged to study and edit manuscripts in the same way as Western scholars had to edit manuscripts in Latin and Greek, to study the grammar of these languages, etc. When Western scholars began a serious study of Buddhist texts, their first task was the editing and translation of Sanskrit and Pāli texts and the study of Sanskrit and Pali grammar.
It is not surprising, in view of the different traditions in which Western and Japanese scholars have been educated, that Buddhist studies have developed in different directions in the West and in Japan. However, it will certainly be to the detriment of Buddhist studies in the West, if Western scholars remain largely ignorant of the work done by their Japanese colleagues. It will always be a difficult task for Western scholars to learn enough Japanese to read Japanese publications, but this is an obstacle which must be overcome. Western Sinologists are very well aware of the importance of the work of Japanese scholars and nowadays most Western Sinologists make good use of Japanese studies. It is undoubtedly necessary for Western Buddhist scholars to follow the example of the Sinologists. Even though a Western scholar has to spend many years to acquire a good knowledge of Sanskrit, Pāli, Tibetan and Chinese, it will not be impossible for him to learn enough Japanese to enable him to read Japanese publications. However, once a scholar has learned enough Japanese, he is faced with a great practical problem. Each year Japanese scholars publish not only many books, some of which run to 600 or more pages, but also numerous articles in hundreds of periodicals. A Japanese scholar can go to his university library and find out which articles are important for his research. In the West this is out of the question. Even in the richest universities the Western specialist in Buddhist studies can make only a modest claim on the financial resources of the library for the purchase of publications in
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