Professional Distinctions and Awards

May - Aug., 2002:          Visiting Fellow of the International Research Institute for Advanced                                                              Buddhology, Soka University, Tokyo.      
          June, 2000:          Inducted into the Dutch Society for Japanese Studies.
    Jan-May, 2000:          Numata Visiting Chair in Buddhist Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
    Jan-May, 1999:          Numata Visiting Chair in Buddhist Studies, Leiden University, the  Netherlands.
          1990-1992:          Research Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor, Institute for the Study of
                                       Buddhist Literatures, University of Michigan (Department of Asian Languages and Cultures).
               1987-             Honorary Fellow of the Chunghwa Institute of Buddhist Studies (Taipei, Taiwan)
             1984-85:           Columbia University President's Scholarship, Columbia University (declined).
             1984-85:           Japan Foundation Graduate Studies Scholarship, Columbia University (declined).
         May, 1981:           M.Phil., with Distinction, Columbia University.
         May, 1977:           M.A., with Distinction, Columbia University.
         June, 1974:           B.A., with Cum Laude and High Distinction, Dartmouth College.

Grant Activity
           
F2005:     Hall Center for the Humanities Fellowship.
2004:    Center for East Asian Studies: New Course Development Grant ($2500). 
2003:    Center for East Asian Studies Faculty Development Travel Grant ($2000) for summer research in Japan.
2002:    Grant from American Council of Learned Societies for project on “Meticulous Rules of Salvation: Ritual Protocol and Religious Value in Song-Dynasty (960-1279) Pure Land Practice.” Fall 2002 - Spring 2003.
2002:    Hall Center for the Humanities Fellowship, Fall 2002.  Declined.
2002:    Sabbatical Leave Award (competitive) for Spring of 2003. Declined
2002:    Coauthor (Miwha Stevenson, p.i.) of successful application for grant from Korea Foundation for international conference at KU on “Archaeology Across Borders: The Heritage of Koguryŏ”, March 30-31, 2003. Amount, $10,000.
2000-2001:    Collaborated (with Bill Tsutsui, p.i., Director of the Center for East Asian Studies) on authorship of successful Japan Foundation grant for new position in Japanese religions (Dept. of Religious Studies).
Summer 1996:  Kansas University GRF Award.
Summer 1994:  Kansas University GRF New Faculty Research Grant.
1992-1993:    National Endowment for the Humanities: Texts and Translations Grant.
1992:   American Council of Learned Societies: China Postdoctoral Fellowship Award for                                        
1992-1993, voluntarily reduced to partial stipend, June-August, 1992.
1990-1991:    Butler University Faculty Fellowship--course reduction for research (declined).
Summer 1989:   Butler University Faculty Development Grant.
1981-1982:    Fulbright-Hays Fellowship for Dissertation Research Abroad (Taiwan and Japan).

Scholarly Publications  in  Print

Books:

with KANNO Hiroshi. Nanyue Huisi (515-577) and the Lotus Sūtra: A Study and Annotated Translation of Huisi’s Meaning of the Course of Ease and Bliss (Fahua jing anlexing yi). Tokyo: International Institute for Advanced Buddhology, 2006. 

with Ven. Sheng-yen. Hoofprint of  the Ox: The Practice of Chan Buddhism as Taught by a Modern Chinese Master (Oxford University Press, 2000). Paperback edition, OUP, 2002. 286 pages.

with Neal A. Donner. The Great Calming and Contemplation: An Annotated Translation of the Synopsis Chapter of Chih-i's Mo-ho chih-kuan. Kuroda Institute Classics in East Asian Buddhism no. 2 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993). 385 pages.

Major Articles:

“Where Meditative Theory Meets Practice: Requirements for Entering the ‘Halls of Contemplation/Penance’ (觀/懺堂) in Tiantai Monasteries of the Song.” Tendai gakuhō: tokubetsugo, kokusai tendai gakkai ronshū (Tendai gakuhō: Special Issue, Essays from the International Tendai Conference), edited by the Tendai gakkai (October 2007): 71-142.

“Taking the Measure of Heaven and Earth: the Tiandi duliang pin as an ‘Apocryphal’ Twenty-ninth Chapter of the Lotus Sūtra.” In Contribution of Buddhism to the World Culture, edited by K. Sankaranarayan, R. Panth, and I. Ogawa. Somaiya Centre for Buddhist Studies. (Mumbai: Somaiya Publications, Ltd., and Ōtani University, 2006). 41 pages.

“The ‘Hall for the Sixteen Contemplations’ as a Distinctive Institution for Pure Land Practice in Tiantai Monasteries of the Song (960-1279).” In Buddhism in Global Perspective, edited by Kalpakam Sankaranarayan and Ravindra Panth, and Ichigo Ogawa (Mumbai: Somaiya Publications, Ltd., 2004), pp. 147-204.

“Death-Bed Testimonials of the Pure Land Faithful.” Originally published in Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995, pp. 592-602. Reprinted in Asian Religions in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton University Press, 2002).

“Text, Image, and Transformation in the History of the Shuilu fahui, the Buddhist Rite for Deliverance of Creatures of Water and Land.” In Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism, edited by  Marsha Weidner (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001), pp. 30-70.

“Protocols of Power: Tz'u-yün Tsun-shih (964-1032) and T’ien-t’ai Lay Buddhist Ritual in the Sung.” In Buddhism in Sung Dynasty China, edited by Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz, Jr., (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), pp. 340-408.

“The Lotus School: The Tiantai Synthesis.” In Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2nd revised edition, edited by W.T. de Bary (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), pp. 444-446, 456-458, and 462-471.

“Visions of Mañjuśrī on Mount Wutai (Visionary Experiences of the Tang-Dynasty Monk Fazhao).” In Chinese Religion in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr., with an introduction by Stephen Teiser (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 203-222.

“Pure Land Buddhist Worship and Meditation in China.” In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), pp. 359-379 (11 pages of background and analysis; 10 pages of translation).

“Tales of the Lotus Sūtra.” In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), pp. 427-451 (4 pages of historical background and analysis; 21 pages of translation).

“Death-Bed Testimonials of the Pure Land Faithful.” In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), pp. 592-602 (5 pages of background and analysis; 6 pages of translation).

“The Prodigal Son's Return: The Lotus Sūtra and the Domestication of Buddhism in China.”  Publication circulated in house for the Program on Education and Training, East West Center, University of Hawaii, 1995. 50 pages.

“The Four Kinds of Samādhi in Early T'ien-t'ai.” In Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism, edited by Peter N. Gregory, Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism no. 4 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986), pp. 45-97.

 

Minor Articles and Reviews:

Ten entries (translations of selected Chinese Buddhist texts, with brief introductions) in Buddhist Scriptures, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (London and New York: Penguin Books, 2004). Total, 81 pages:

pp. 37-45 (“A Scripture that Protects Kings”)
pp. 51-59 (“Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side”),
pp. 84-89 (“A Sacred Peak”),
pp. 193-199 (“Enshrining a Relic”),
pp. 278-284 (“Making New Monastic Rules”),
pp. 297-305 (“The Nine Patriarchs of the East”),
pp. 370-374 (“On the Relation of Study and Meditation”),
pp. 394-401 (“Freeing Birds and Fish from Bondage”),
pp. 402-415 (“Against Animal Sacrifice”),
pp. 416-422 (“Feeding Hungry Ghosts”).

Entry on the “Shuilu fahui” (Ritual Assembly for Deliverance of the Creatures of Water and Land), for Encyclopedia of Religion in Contemporary China (forthcoming, Routledge). Two pages.

Review of Cuong T. Nguyen, Zen in Medieval Vietnam: A Study and Translation of the Thien Uye’n Tap Anh (Kuroda Institute Classics in East Asian Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), in JESHO 42.4 (2000), three pages.

“Daochuo: Compendium on the Happy Land.” In Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2nd revised edition, edited by W.T. de Bary (NY: Columbia University Press, 1999), pp. 486-488.

Review of Kuo Li-ying, Confession et contrition dans le bouddhisme chinois du Ve au Xe siecle (Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, 1994), in Journal of Chinese Religions 24(Fall, 1996), pp. 203-207.

"Zhiyi," in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy (London: Routledge, forthcoming), 4 pages.

Entries on “Faxian” (1:463), “Fotudeng” (1:474), “Kumarajiva” (2:371), and “Xuanzang” (4:251-252). In The Encyclopedia of Asian History 4 vols., Ainslee Embree, gen. ed., (NY: Scribner’s and Macmillan, 1988).

Scholarly Work Accepted for Publication:

Major Articles:

 

“Buddhist Practice and the Lotus Sūtra in China.” Invited chapter for book on the culture of the Lotus Sūtra, edited by Stephen Teiser and Jacqueline Stone. Forthcoming from Columbia University Press, 2007.  

“Anxieties of Scriptural Presence: The Lotus Sūtra as Written Text, Recovered Memory, and Transcendent Corpus in Medieval China.”  For volume of articles on the Lotus Sūtra in East Asia, edited by Paul Groner, editor. 75 pages. Revisions completed; final version with editor.

“Ritual Text and Ritual Authority in Song-Dynasty Tiantai Buddhism.” In Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Tiantai Buddhist Studies. The Research Institute for Ch’ontae Buddhist Studies. Seoul, Korea. Forthcoming, 21 pages.

 

Work Under Contract:

 

 “Buddhism in the Song.” Survey of Buddhism in Song-dynasty China, to be published in the Song Dynasty volume of the Cambridge History of China, edited by John Chaffee and Denis Twitchett, Cambridge University Press.

Scholarly Publications/Research in Progress

Books:

“Meticulous Rules of Salvation: Ritual Protocol and Religious Value in Song Dynasty (960-1279) Pure Land Buddhism.”

Major Articles:

“The ‘Tiantai Four Books’: Protocols of Buddhist Learning in Tiantai Public Monasteries of Late-Song and Yuan China.” Paper in progress.

“Troublesome Crossings: the ‘Food Distribution’ (shishi) Motif and the Buddhist Rite for Deliverance of the Creatures of Water and Land (shuilu fahui) in Song-Dynasty China.” Draft, in process of revision.

“Symbolic Superscription and Ritual Polysemy in the Buddhist Shuilu fahui (Rite for the Deliverance of Beings of Water and Land).” Draft, in process of revision.

 

Papers and Presentations for Professional Organizations

*Conferences and presentations for which all expenses have been assumed by the sponsoring organization are marked by asterisk.

Invited Scholarly Presentations and Papers:

 

*Session chair and discussant for Second International Conference on Contemporary Chinese Buddhism. National Taiwan University, Sheng Yen Educational Foundation. Taipei, May 24-25, 2008.

*Keynote speaker: “Bestowing the ‘Triple Refuge’ in Buddhist Rites for Domestication of Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors.” Presenter and keynote speaker, International Conference on Comparative Study of Ritual in Chinese Local Society, May 5-7, 2008, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

*“The Ties that Bind: Chinese Buddhist Rites of Repentance and Rebirth in the Pure Land. Presentation for international symposium on Ritus und Rituel, EKŌ-Haus der Japanischen Kultur, Dusseldorf, Germany. April 4-6, 2008.

*”The ‘Tiantai Four Books’: Protocols of Buddhist Learning in Late-Song and Yuan China.”  Lecture. Buddhist Studies Forum, Harvard University. Nov. 5, 2007.

*”Practice Meets Art: Ritual Mediations of Iconic Presence.”  Presentation for public symposium on “Art and Practice: Buddhism in china from the 5th-9th Centuries,” China Institute, New York, Oct. 21, 2007. Accompanied the opening of a major exhibit of medieval Chinese Buddhist sculpture from the Beilin collection, Xi’an, China

*“Ven. Sheng-yen and the Dictum of ‘Taking Responsibility’ for Oneself and Others”: A Traditionary or Progressive Educational Vision?” International Conference of the Shengyen Educational Foundation: Contemporary Society and the Thought of Sheng-yen. Taipei, Taiwan. Oct 18, 2006. (Presentation delivered in Chinese.)
*“Production of Manuals for the Rites of the Tiantai Four Samādhis in Later China:
The Case for an Inter-textual Ritual Discourse.” International Buddhist College, Penang, Malaysia. August 10-13, 2006.

*“Production of Manuals for the Rites of the Tiantai Four Samādhis in Later China: The Case for an Inter-textual Ritual Discourse.” International Conference on the Lotus Sūtra and Lay Buddhist Culture, Ningbo, PRC. June 25-30, 2006.

“The Ties That Bind: Ritual, Community, and Salvation among Pure Land Buddhist Devotees in Song China (960-1279).” Hall Center for the Humanities, University of Kansas. November, 2005.

*“The ‘Pure and Everlasting Faculties Born of Father and Mother’: Sudden Enlightenment and the Senses in Huisi’s Meaning of the Course of Ease and Bliss.” International Conference on the Lotus Sutra, Beijing University, May-June 2005. PAPER READ AND DISCUSSED IN MY ABSENCE. Presented by Paul Groner, University of Virginia. Respondent: Linda Penkower, University of Pittsburgh. May 25-28, 2005.

*“Ritual Text and Ritual Authority in Song-Dynasty Tiantai Buddhism.” Seventh International Conference on Tiantai Buddhist Studies. The Research Institute for Chontae Buddhist Studies. Seoul, Korea. November 25-27, 2004. Paper. Respondent tba. PAPER READ AT CONFERENCE IN MY ABSENCE.

*“Kumārajīva Revisited: Tang-Period Controversies over Manipulation of the Text of the Lotus Sutra.” Respondent, Professor ICHISHIMA Masao, Taishō University. Sixth International Conference on the Lotus Sutra. University of Toronto, August 2004. 20-page paper.

*“Ritual and Religious Value among Pure Land Devotees of the Song.” University of Michigan, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. Febuary 2004. Presentation.

*“The ‘Tiantai Four Books’ (tiantai sishu): Curriculum, Learning, and the Production of Authoritative Knowledge in Tiantai Monasteries of the Southern Song.” International Conference on Buddhist Contributions to World Culture. Somaiya Centre for Buddhist Studies, Mumbai, India. Sponsored by Somaiya University and _tani University. March, 2004. 18-page paper.

*Panelist for symposium on “Buddhist Views of Life and Death.” Tokyo University, June 4, 2003.  Sueki Fumihiko and Shimazono Susumu, principal organizers, with support from the Center of Excellence initiative of the Japanese Ministry of Culture.

*“Where Meditative Theory Meets Practice: Requirements for Entering the ‘Halls of Contemplation/Penance’ (guan/chantang) in Tiantai Monasteries of the Song.” International Conference of the Association for Tendai Studies, Eizan Institute, Otsu (Mount Hiei), Japan. May 26-28, 2003. Invitation only conference. Respondent, Ikeda Rōsan (Komazawa University); discussants,  Ōkubo Ryōshun (Waseda University) and Paul Swanson (Nanzan University). 21 page paper.

“Nanyue Huisi (515-577) and the Lotus Sūtra.” Institute for Oriental Philosophy, Soka University, July 21, 2002. 22 page paper.

“The ‘Hall for the Sixteen Contemplations’ as a Distinctive Institution of Song-dynasty (960-1279) Pure Land Practice.” Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan.  June 17, 2002.

*“The ‘Hall for the Sixteen Contemplations’ as a Distinctive Institution of Song-dynasty (960-1279) Pure Land Practice.” Conference on Buddhist Institutions and the State in Song-dynasty China. Discussant: Richard von Glahn, UCLA. University of California, Los Angeles, May 18, 2002.  35 page paper.

*“Troublesome Crossings: Distribution of Food to Hungry Ghosts (shishi) and the Ritual Assembly for Delivering the Creatures of Water and Land (shuilu fahui) in Song China (960-1279). University of Virginia, April 4, 2002.

*“The ‘Hall for the Sixteen Contemplations’ as a Distinctive Innovation in Song-Dynasty (960-1279) Pure Land Practice.” For conference on Buddhist studies sponsored jointly by the Somaiya University Centre for Buddhist Studies and Otani University (Kyoto, Japan). Somaiya University, Mumbai, India, March 13-15, 2002.  25-page paper.

*“Meticulous Rules of Salvation: Getting to the Pure Land in Song-Dynasty China.” Conference on Re-presenting Chinese Religions. University of Colorado, Boulder. November 16-17, 2001.

“Rare Manuals for the ‘Rite for Delivering the Creatures of Water and Land’ (shuilu fahui) in Korean Archives: the Texts and their Prospects.” Sungkyungkwan University, Seoul, South Korea. August 2, 2001.

*“The Lotus Sutra as Written Text, Recovered Memory, and Corpus Transcendent: the Ambiguities of Scriptural Presence in Mid-Tang China.”  Harvard University.  April 21, 2001. 60 pg paper.

*“A Reappraisal of Pure Land Buddhism in Song Dynasty China.” Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. April 15, 2001. Discussant: Daniel Getz, Bradley University. 20 pg paper.

“Buddhist Lay Ritual in Song Dynasty China.” Presentation for workshop in preparation for production of Cambridge History of China chapter on “Buddhism in the Song.”  Smith College. September, 2000. 

“Troublesome Crossings: Song Buddhist Ritual Influences in Medieval Japan.” Dutch Association for Japanese Studies, Leiden University. May 29, 2000. 20 pg paper.

*“Troublesome Crossings: The ‘Food Distribution’ (shishi) Motif in Song-Dynasty Buddhist Ritual.” School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. April, 2000.

*“Meticulous Rules of Salvation: Pure Land Ritual Symbolics in Later Imperial China..” School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.  April, 1999.

*“Meticulous Rules of Salvation: Pure Land Ritual Symbolics in Later Imperial China..” Dusseldorf University and the Ekō House (for Japanese and European Cultural Exchange), Dusseldorf, Germany. May, 1999.

*“Paths not Taken: Canonical Hegemonics and the Formation of an Authoritative Lotus Sûtra in Medieval China.” Fourth International Conference on the Lotus Sûtra. Leiden University, the Netherlands. Discussant: Michael Pye, University of Marburg. May 1-3, 1998.  57 page paper.

*“Protocols of Power: Buddhist Liturgy as Idiom of Efficacy, Identity and Authority in Sung Religion.”  Stanford University, Department of Religion and Institute for Buddhist Studies. April 24, 1998.

*“Making the T'ien-t'ai Master: Symbolics of Clerical Authority in Sung Buddhist Monasticism.”  University of Virginia, Department of Religion. April 3, 1998.

*“Protocols of Power: Buddhist Liturgy as Idiom of Efficacy, Identity, and Authority in Sung Religion.” Princeton University, Department of Religion and Center for East Asian Studies. April 1, 1998.

 

Professional Service:

Co-chair of the Chinese Religions Group, American Academy of Religion, 2006-present.
Steering Committee for the Buddhist Studies Unit, American Academy of Religion, 2004-2006.
Co-chair of the Chinese Religions Group, American Academy of Religion, 2003-2005.
Publications Board of the University of Michigan Institute for the Study of Buddhist Languages and       Literatures, 1994-present.
Consultant and Fellowship review board for the International Sheng-yen Institute for Education. Taipei,
Taiwan. 2007 - present

 

Courses Currently Taught (University of Kansas):

General Offerings (regular rotation):

REL 106/EALC 105,  Living Religions of the East (also as REL 108/EALC 108, Honors section).
REL 360/EALC 331,  Buddhist Traditions in South and East Asia
REL 404/EALC 431,  Reading Asian Religious ‘Classics’
REL 508/EALC 508,  Religion in China
REL 509/EALC 507,  Religion in Japan
REL 500, Readings in Non-English Religious Texts.

New Courses Under Development (e.g., taught one time)

REL 602 Topics in Religion:  Buddhism in China.
REL 602 Topics in Religion: Buddhism and Society in Contemporary East Asia

Seminars:

As REL 733/EALC 733, Topics in Eastern Religious Texts:
    
The Lotus Sutra in East Asian Culture: A Study in Buddhist Scriptural Practice.
Reading Asian Religious ‘Classics’

As REL 762/EALC 732, Topics in Eastern Religious Thought :
    
Chan/Zen Buddhism
‘Popular’ Religion in China
Pure Land Buddhism in East Asia
Buddhist Ritual and Institution in China
Sectarian Movements in China: the Poetics and Politics of Hereseology