The Chinese Tripitaka was introduced to the UK in 1875.Although it is not the first to be transmitted westwards,it has a major scholarly impact.For a long time period before that in the 19th century,overseas Buddhist scholars had difficulty finding Chinese Buddhist texts,thus leading to a very limited cognition on Chinese Tripitaka.This paper aims to reveal the historical context,the transmission route,the essential reason and the influence of the UK-centric early overseas reading of Chinese Tripitaka.A glimpse of the complex clash and communication of civilization among the UK,Japan and China can be caught.The two catalogues resulted from the UK state translation program exerted significant influence and were critically accepted in the international academia of Buddhism,which improved the English catalogue of Chinese Tripitaka and helped the development of overseas reading of Chinese Buddhist texts.
the Chinese Tripitakaoverseas readingBeal catalogueNanjo cataloguestate translation program
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
