1. The Characteristics of Chinese Buddhist Translation
How Buddhism Acquired a Soul on the Way to China - Jungnok Park †
Jungnok Park † [+ ]
Oxford University
Jungnok Park, 1971-2008, was a Korean student of outstanding intelligence and originality. He began his university education only after spending 10 years (1989-1999) as a Buddhist monk. He had a brilliant career in the Dept. of Philosophy at Seoul National University; his MA thesis was on Nirvana and Buddhist Ethics. In 2003 he came to Wolfson College, Oxford, on a scholarship from the Korea Foundation. Already proficient in Classical Chinese and fluent in reading Japanese, he soon learnt enough Sanskrit and Pali to use them for his research. This book is based on his Oxford D.Phil. thesis, which he completed early in 2008.
Description
It is the aim of this chapter to provide insights into the linguistic and cultural circumstances in which the Buddhist translators in China could arbitrarily insert certain terms to indicate a permanent agent in saṃsāra .