Frontiers of History in China 2015, 10(3) 515

Huang Baosheng 黄宝生 ed. Fanyu fojing duben 梵语佛经读本 ( Reader). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2014. ISBN 9787516138069. 952pp. RMB158.00. DOI 10.3868/s020-004-015-0025-5

In May of this year (2014), Sanskrit Buddhist Texts Reader, edited by Prof. Huang Baosheng, was published by China Social Sciences Press. The book has more than a million words in one volume, and is one of the most important academic achievements of the “Sanskrit Studies and the construction of Sanskrit research team,” funded by the Chinese National Fund for the Social Sciences. Prof. Huang, the very first Chinese Indologist who won both the Presidential Award (2012) and the Padma Śrī Award (2015) of India at the same time, has various interests and broad knowledge; his fields involve Indian and Chinese literature, philosophy, , and more. Prof. Huang’s contributions include the following:

1. Ancient Indian Literature (Beijing: The Zhishi chubanshe, 1988), which became a “must read” for students of Indian literature. 2. Through his work on theories of Indian poetics, Prof. Huang wrote Classical Indian Poetics (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1993), which won the “Excellent Achievement Award” from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His Selected Works of Sanskrit Poetics (Beijing: Kunlun chubanshe, 2008) is included in “The Selected Books of Oriental Cultures.” 3. Prof. Huang led the complete Chinese translation of the Indian epic Mahābhārata (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2005), which won “the National Book Award” in 2008. 4. Prof. Huang has collated and translated Sanskrit Buddhist texts and published “A Collection of Buddhist Sanskrit-Chinese Text Collations.” Four books of this collection have been published: La kāvatāra-sūtra (2011), Bodhicaryāvatāra (2011), Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa (2011), and Lalita-vistara (2012). 5. Through his leading research into Indology, Prof. Huang has expanded the influence of Sanskrit studies; furthermore, he continues to make fresh contributions. After many years of teaching and writing, Prof. Huang established the Sanskrit Research Center of CASS in 2010, and a team of Sanskrit scholars has begun to take shape. Many projects, including the above-mentioned “A Collection of Buddhist Sanskrit-Chinese Text Collations,” translated works and various kinds of Sanskrit textbooks have already made academic breakthroughs. Reader (Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui kexue chubanshe) was published in 2010, and 516 Book Reviews

Pāli Reader as well as a Chinese translation of A Practical Grammar of the Pāli Language (C. Duroiselle. Rangoon: British Burma Press, 1906) was published in 2014.

Sanskrit Buddhist Texts Reader, an academic textbook, represents a continuation and development of Prof. Ji Xianlin’s 季羡林 and Jin Kemu’s 金克 木 Sanskrit teaching principles, as well as the experiences that formed Prof. Huang’s own teaching practice. It is not a grammar book, but a treasure trove and guidebook for learners of Buddhist texts. By providing the cultural context, by analyzing word for word and sentence for sentence the Sanskrit texts, the Reader achieves an effective combination of language-learning and textual appreciation, as well as a parallel study of Sino-Indian culture. Sanskrit is one of several languages in the world that conveyed , and is the major language of the documents of Indian religion, philosophy, mythology, and literature. In short, it is essential for research in Buddhology and Indology, among other fields. Around the first century BC, Mahāyāna emerged from within the monastic centers of the Buddha’s followers at the time, who were first organizing their teachings and precepts. Based on the idea that “humans are without an ātman” 人无我 that was part of the more orthodox of these centers, Mahāyāna put forward the theory of the “ without an ātman” 法无我, or “every dharma’s nature is emptiness” 诸法性空, and underwent changes in doctrine some of which accommodated contemporary society and thought. In confronting the powerful Brahman class, Buddhism not only needed to win over believers from K atriya and Vaiśya, but also those from the Brahmans themselves. Therefore, an important feature of Mahāyāna Buddhism was to use Sanskrit, that is, the Brahmans’ language, to preach the Buddhist dharma. The language of Buddhist texts gradually transformed from to Sanskrit, and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit came into being. The prose parts of early Buddhist texts had already been Sanskritized, but various features of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit remained in a lot of verses (Preface, p. 2). Indian and Western Scholars have always paid attention to Sanskrit originals in their research. Chinese- and Tibetan-reading scholars have the unique advantage of being able to consult Chinese and Tibetan translations of these Indian Buddhist texts. China, at many times in its political and social history, was a powerful translation and research center for the earliest imported, and even partly sinic, Buddhist texts. Chinese translations began in the East Han dynasty and extended into the Song, that is for more than a thousand years, yielding more than 1,690 volumes of Chinese translations, and more than 5,900 volumes of Tibetan translations. For instance, 8,000-Line Prajñā-pāramitā Sūtra, 25,000-Line