Assistant Professor
@SeoulNatlUni
. Buddhist philosophy and intellectual history. 서울대학교 철학과 조교수. PhD
@Stanford
. Runner. PR 5k 17:33 | 10k 37:27 | FM 2:59:43
Movable type cake from my hometown Cheongju. Inspired by the Chikchi simch’e yojŏl 直指心體要節, the oldest known extant book printed with movable metal type. It was printed in my hometown in 1377.
I am happy to announce that I’ll be joining the Department of Philosophy at Seoul National University as an Assistant Professor of Buddhist philosophy in the spring.
Ch'usŏk 秋夕 here today, struggling to meet some manuscript deadlines. But I guess if I did have to spend the holiday working, my office might not be such a bad place to do it. I really like my setup here.
This is the social network of the known participants in Buddhist translation workshops in late fourth-century China, where an edge between two persons represents their collaboration in the translation of the same text, weighted by how many times such collaboration happened.
My T’oung Pao article, “The Invention of the ‘Eminent Monk’” is out. Combining textual research with DH methods, this article shows that Huijiao was able to perfect the abstraction of the “eminent monk” by excluding certain types of monk in his GSZ 高僧傳.
ソウル大学の近くの古本屋で『大漢和辞典』全12巻+索引を9万ウォン(9千円ぐらい)でゲット!Found this gem at a used book store near the SNU campus and bought it right away. A complete set of Morohashi’s Dai Kan-Wa jiten for 70 bucks!
I stumbled upon and immediately purchased this gem at the local antique bookstore today. The elusive first edition of Richard Robinson’s Early Mādhyamika in India and China in pristine condition.
I received the latest issue of the Eastern Buddhist and the offprints of my paper today. Excited to have become a part of this centennial tradition. 今日The Eastern Buddhistの最新号と私の論文の抜き刷りが届きました。この古い伝統に微力ながらも寄与できて光栄です。
I seem to have successfully piloted the Buddhist Philosophy course in our department. The course evaluations came in, and they are overwhelmingly positive (one of the students says it was “one of the best courses I have taken at Stanford”!).
I seem to have solved a minor yet long-lasting and annoying issue in the study of early Chinese Buddhist history: the year of Dao'an team's translation of the Bhikṣu Prātimokṣa 比丘大戒 in Chang'an. And I did this by using the open-source astronomy software Stellarium.
One of the slides I am using for tomorrows talk. A graph representing how many fascicles of Buddist texts were translated in each decade from the 1st to the 5th century according to the Chu sanzang ji ji 出三藏記集.
Beopjusa 法住寺 near my hometown in Korea, with the beautiful Palsangjeon 捌相殿 built in the early 17th century, the only still-standing pre-modern wooden pagoda in Korea. Photos from my trip to Korea last November for the SNU job talk.
My new 印仏研 paper! Talks about the possibility of the independent circulation of the Bodhisattvabhūmi bodhisattva precepts outside China. Let me know if you’d like a pdf copy.
My T'oung Pao paper on the editorial policies of the 高僧傳 and the 名僧傳, and how they masked the class and cultural divides within the Chinese sangha and shaped the enduring and influential abstraction of the "eminent monk" is now available on JSTOR!
Embarked on wrapping up a long-overdue writing project on Chinese Madhyamaka. I can’t think of a better place to do this than Komazawa University, where such important scholars of Sanlun as Hirai Shunei and Itō Takatoshi worked. Had a brief meeting with Professor Okuno today too.
Another piece of Buddhist heritage from my hometown Cheongju. This Koryŏ dynasty statue of Śākyamuni enshrined in Yonghwasa 龍華寺 has an image of an arhat carved on its back. The structure housing the statue has an opening in the back so people can make offerings to the image.
Working on a paper on Wŏnhyo's 元曉 understanding of the Chinese Buddhist theory of the soul 神. This is how Wŏnhyo analyzes the theories about buddha-nature among his earlier exegetes, the fourth one being Liang Wudi's theory that the the soul 神 is buddha-nature.
Korean Buddhist images that use concave carvings to create the illusion that the images are watching the patrons. I’d think I am quite well traveled but Korea is the only place where I’ve seen these images.
I’ll be continuing my work on the theories of mind in Indian and Chinese Buddhism, the anti-realist reading of Chinese Madhyamaka, and the early Chinese Buddhist translations of Abhidharma texts.
Started my three-week workation at Heidelberg University. Feels great to be liberated from department, board, committee, student, etc. meetings for a while. Meaning to finish three papers while I am here (& also have to attend a week-long philology program workshop at HCTS).
Took a few days off from work after successfully defending my dissertation last Friday. Cruised around San Francisco on my skateboard and caught a Giants game.
Yesterday was my official first day at SNU. Taught the first class of my Indian Buddhist Philosophy course and I was moved and humbled by the realization that I am teaching to my department kouhais and my first Korean students what I learned from my onshi Professor Siderits in
On my way to Tainan on a 高鐵 train to attend a conference on early medieval Chinese philosophy and literature. Just finished preparing the presentation script. My first ever Mandarin Chinese presentation!
My paper on the hitherto unknown Chinese translation of the bodhisattva precepts of the Bodhisattvabhūmi is out. In this study, I compare 4 Chinese versions, the Khotanese translation, and the surviving Sanskrit tradition of the bodhisattva precepts
My paper, “Empty Reality, Luminous Mind: The Metaphysics of ‘One Reality’ and ‘One Mind’ in Shi Sengwei’s ‘Shizhu jing hanzhu xu’,” has been accepted for publication in the T’oung pao!
Is this system of metaphysics, where the world of many minds and many objects is explained as the product of the interaction between the "one mind" and "one reality," Buddhist or Chinese?
Hint: It's from the early fifth century CE.
Done. My first paper in Japanese. I will read this (on Zoom) at the Japanese Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies annual conference coming Sunday (Saturday PST).
終わった。初めて最初から日本語で書いた論文。今週末の印仏研学会でこれを発表します。
In Kyoto to give a talk at Ryukoku University tomorrow. The talk, to start around 3 pm and once again in Japanese, will also be streamed via Zoom. It’ll be on the relationship between 神不滅 and 起信論. Let me know if you are interested in attending (either in-person or online).
This is the cutest precept article I've stumbled upon so far. If a monk steals from a lion more than five coins' worth of meat, the monk commits a pārājika offence. Found only in the Dao'an team's translation of the Sarvāstivāda vinaya and not anywhere else.
I will be giving a (Zoom) lecture on 釋僧衛's Daśabhūmika scholarship and its influence on the 大乘起信論 at Heidelberg University in two weeks. I am excited about this opportunity to share my hypothesis about the relationship between 神不滅論 and Chinese tathāgatagarbha thought.
My paper on the Wutai shan 五台山 cult in Silla Korea was published the other day. I analyze in this paper two different traditions (one canonical and the other local-manuscript) of the corpus of miracle stories related to the Wutai shan cult in Korea,
Is this system of metaphysics, where the world of many minds and many objects is explained as the product of the interaction between the "one mind" and "one reality," Buddhist or Chinese?
Hint: It's from the early fifth century CE.
Just wrapped up and submitted what hopefully will be my first comparative philosophy publication! The paper is about Jizang’s anti-realist theory of truth. This concludes a project I started while studying with Professor Siderits at SNU about a decade ago.
Have you ever seen arguments that run like “everything is false, and therefore everything is true” in Chinese Buddhist writings and wondered what’s going on? My Philosophy East&West paper studying Jizang’s use of such arguments is now available online. .
Throughout my 20s and early 30s I struggled with alcohol dependence. Today I am celebrating two years of sobriety. Starting a new job in Korea I thought might present challenges, but gladly I learned that Korean society has become much more open to people who practice sobriety.
This new reference book looks worth checking out: Sinology Reference Manual for the Digital Age デジタル時代の中国学リファレンスマニュアル. Comes with QR codes for quick access to various digital databases for Chinese studies.
Second & last day of the conference on the 起信論 in Dunhuang. I was able to squeeze in a morning 5k run. I’d like to think that I am the first Buddhologist-runner who’s trained in this ancient oasis city.
“Oh dragon, let it rain!x2 A dragon should let it rain for a dragon to be a dragon. If a dragon does not let it rain, how can a dragon be a dragon? Oh dragon,let it rain!x2” A sentence used in Korea to show how the same word can assume different word classes in classical Chinese.
今年『印仏研』論文の抜刷りが日本から届きました。中国仏教の「一心」概念についての研究です。Came home to find the offprints of my second Inbutsuken paper in the mailbox. DM me if you’d like a pdf copy!
A thought-provoking take on the history of Buddhist studies that I am not completely sure what to make of. What would be the role played in this narrative by all the Asian scholars who came from Buddhist traditions and devoted their careers to the foundation of the field?
Finished the first draft of my paper on Wŏnhyo’s understanding of the Chinese Buddhist theory of the soul 神. I am presenting this paper at coming Friday’s conference on East Asian Buddhism hosted by my department.
Working on a paper on Wŏnhyo's 元曉 understanding of the Chinese Buddhist theory of the soul 神. This is how Wŏnhyo analyzes the theories about buddha-nature among his earlier exegetes, the fourth one being Liang Wudi's theory that the the soul 神 is buddha-nature.
I got the email today that my paper on the notion of one-mind in the Awakening of Faith has passed the peer-review for publication in the JAIBS journal. 『印仏研』への投稿論文、無事に査読を通過しました。『大乗起信論』の「一心」概念の淵源に関する論文です。
Just wrapped up and sent out a paper on the institutional history of Indian Mahāyāna I’ve been working on non-stop the past few weeks, “The Mundanities of the Bodhisattva Path: The ‘Bodhisattva Prātimokṣa’ and the Bodhisattva Ideal on the Ground in the Middle Period Mahāyāna.”
Latest addition to my collection of old Buddhist studies publications. Yaśomitra’s Sphuṭārthā edited by Wogihara and Stcherbatsky, published in “Leningrad” in 1931.
My paper on the distinction between "masters" 師 and "ascetics" 苦節 in monastic communities in early medieval China is out! 去年の印仏研学会で発表した、六朝仏教の「師」と「苦節」の区別についての論文がネットで公開されました。
@bongdak2019
덧붙이자면 대승 불교의 공(空, śūnyatā) 사상을 얘기할 때 ‘공허’라는 말은 꺼려지는 편입니다. 불교 용어로 “자성”(自性)이라고 하는 형이상학적 본질이 뭇 현상에 없다는 게 공 사상의 핵심인데 “공허”라고 하면 자칫 현상 자체의 실재를 부정하는 형이상학적 허무주의로 오독될 여지가 생겨서요.
Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum, Socrates’ Prison (alleged), and the Panathenaic Stadium. From my philosophy & athletics themed trip to Athens last December.
I tweeted this early this year; now I use AI for my daily research converting traditional era name years to CE years and romanizing publication titles.
@JeffreyKotyk
I used to use this all the time. These days I rely on wikipedia pages for era names. Still waiting for an AI that’ll convert any era name+year I say out loud to the common era equivalent year.