The Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies @ UBC, with the administrative support from the UBC SSHRC partnership grant project FROGBEAR (From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Buddhism), proudly presents a lecture by Albert Welter (University of Arizona).
Click here to read the lecture report written by Jisi Fu and Jing Le.
Click here to read Dr. Ernest Billings Brewster’s interview report with Professor Albert Welter
演讲者：魏雅博（亚利桑那大学）
When: Thursday September 20, 2018
Time: 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Venue: Room 120 in the CK Choi building
Abstract: 佛教研究从一开始便更加重视其在印度和南亚的发展，将佛教在其他地区的发展视为印度模式的产物或转向。实际上，所有主流的教科书都是主要讲述佛教在印度的发展，而把其他地区的佛教，尤其是东亚佛教作为事後补充。这并非偶然，而是激发西方佛教学术研究的特定文化架构的必然结果。到十世纪时，印度佛教已然消解，不再是佛教发展的源泉。而此时，中国佛教开创了高度中国化的佛教新形态，印度佛教对中国佛教而言不再是活力的源泉而仅留存着一些被动的影响。此演讲聚焦於中国的一个地区— —以杭州为中心的吴越地区。在前所未有的全新的佛教思想丶修行方式和组织架构的基础上，正是此地成为了佛教的新的故乡。这些新的佛教思想丶修行方式和组织架构成为了宋代佛教的基础，也成为了遍及东亚地区的新的佛教型态传播的范本，并且直至今日仍是东亚佛教的内在组成部分。
About the Speaker:
Albert Welter’s area of academic study is Chinese Buddhism, and he has published in the area of Japanese Buddhism as well. His main research focuses on the study of Buddhist texts in the transition from the late Tang (9th century) to the Song dynasty (10th-13th centuries). In recent years, he has published Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism (Oxford, 2006), The Linji lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy: The Development of Chan’s Records of Sayings Literature (Oxford, 2008), and Yongming Yanshou’s Conception of Chan in the Zongjing lu: A Special Transmission within the Scriptures (Oxford, 2011), in addition to numerous articles. His work also encompasses Buddhist interactions with Neo-Confucianism and literati culture. He just finished a project on the social and institutional history of Buddhism as conceived through a text compiled in the early Song dynasty, Zanning’s Topical History of the Buddhist Clergy, published by Cambria Press in 2018 (The Administration of Buddhism in China; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqJKcl0ygU0). Stemming from this latter research interest, Professor Welter has also developed a broader interest in Chinese administrative policies toward religion, including Chinese notions of secularism and their impact on religious beliefs and practices, leading to a co-edited volume (with Jeffrey Newmark), Religion, Culture, and the Public Sphere in China and Japan (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017). He recently received funding from the Khyentse Foundation for a project, “The Hangzhou Region and the Creation of East Asian Buddhism,” in conjunction with Zhejiang University, the Hangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, and the Hangzhou Buddhist Academy. He also received funding from the American Council of Learned Societies (with the support of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation) for an international conference, “Creating the World of Chan/ Sŏn /Zen: Chinese Chan Buddhism and its Spread throughout East Asia.” Before coming to the University of Arizona, Dr. Welter was based in Canada, where his research projects were regularly supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
