Brief History Of Buddhist Studies In Europe And Maerica

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

Page 85

BUDDHIST STUDIES IN THE WEST
results which can be obtained by the combined efforts of a group of scholars in the study of one text. In a review of this work in the T’oung Pao Paul Demiéville has expressed his great appreciation of the work done by these scholars. However, he has not omitted to point out that the Japanese translation of the text does not solve all problems related to the interpretation of the text, mainly because difficult terms have not been translated. Demiéville remarks that, in translating the same text into English, Liebenthal had to decide in each single instance how to render a Chinese term into English. Undoubtedly, the ideal solution would be that Japanese and Western scholars would work together in order to translate such texts into English to the benefit of both Japanese and Western scholarship.
In what has been said up to now, the main emphasis has been put on philological problems, such as critical editions of texts, analysis of style and language, critical translations, etc. Buddhist studies, of course, embrace much more than philology but philology is of basic importance. Once texts have been properly edited, interpreted and translated it will become possible to study the development of religious and philosophical ideas. Indian Buddhism has produced a very rich literature, of which much is preserved in Sanskrit and Pāli but even much more in Tibetan and Chinese translations. Moreover, Buddhist monuments show another important aspect of Buddhism. The great wealth of literary and archaeological sources for the study of Buddhism in India will occupy many scholars for centuries to come. However, this mass of material must not make us forget that Indian Buddhism cannot be studied in isolation from its context. It is necessary to study Vedic and Brahmanical literature, Jainism and other Indian religions, Dharmaśāstras, etc. The study of Indian Buddhism has in the first place to be seen as a branch of Indology. In Japan the study of Buddhism has for many centuries been based exclusively on Chinese Buddhist texts. In the last one hundred years Japanese scholars have added to the study of Chinese texts that of Sanskrit, Pāli and Tibetan texts and much has been done by them for the study of Indian Buddhism. However, other branches of Indological studies have not developed to the same extent. Recent years have seen an increasing interest among Japanese scholars for the study of the six darśanas. It is to be hoped that many scholars
2 Vol. 45 (1957), pp. 221-235.
81