How Buddhism Acquired a Soul on the Way to China - Jungnok Park †
9. The Characteristics of the Chinese Buddhist Concept of Self
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
In this final chapter, I aim to show that the idea of an imperishable soul became theorized in a more sophisticated way by Chinese Buddhists after the fifth century, while the expressions reflecting that idea started to disappear gradually in the works of the major translators from the time of Samghadeva and Kumārajīva, i.e., around the last decade of the fourth century and the first decade of the fifth century.