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Time Measurement in Tibet: a Critical Introduction to the Works on Kālacakra Astronomy by Dieter Schuh, *

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Time Measurement in Tibet: a Critical Introduction to the Works on Kālacakra Astronomy by Dieter Schuh, * 인도철학 제51집(2017.12), 213～247쪽 Time Measurement in Tibet: A Critical Introduction to the Works on Kālacakra Astronomy by Dieter Schuh, * Premier Scholar in Contemporary German Tibetology 1) ** Jo Sokhyo 1) * In May 2011, I completed a 68-page-long article [unpublished, hereafter Jo1] aiming at introducing Dieter Schuh’s works published up to that point. I have distributed it to my fellow scholars and professors. In it, I covered his works on Indo-Tibetan astronomy (skar rtsis), Sino-Tibetan astrology (nag rtsis), Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, Tibetan docu- ments, diplomatic history with a special emphasis on Tibet-Mongolia rela- tions, Tibetan law, Tibetan demography, the reconstruction of history of western Tibetan enclaves, Tibetan art and so forth. Regarding that article, I should emphasize the following three points. First, when I was working on my dissertation in 2015, I realized that some content and ideas on skar rtsis and nag rtsis presented in Jo1 were plagiarized by Janet Gyatso in her book, published in 2015 by Columbia University Press. Because she neither asked for permission to use my article nor mentioned my work in her book, her actions deserve to be condemned. Second, I slightly revised Jo1 in early 2017 and gave the new version [unpublished, hereafter Jo2] to some fellow scholars. The current article is based upon Jo2. The skar rtsis section was extracted from Jo2 and was also slightly revised to meet the criteria of the Journal of Indian Philosophy. Third, I completed my dis- sertation on Tibetan astronomy in May 2016. Because I had already com- pleted Jo1, I referred to it when I wrote my dissertation. Therefore, spora- dic sections of the text in this article may be found in my dissertation; al- so recall that Jo2 is a slight revision of Jo1. Nevertheless, I believe this ar- ticle merits publication for two reasons. First, when I cited Schuh in my PhD thesis, I did not translate German and French into English. Because Jo1 and Jo2 originally contained English translations, this article may be a help to English readers. Second, as far as skar rtsis is concerned, I did not organize Schuh’s works in a systematic and easily accessible way in my dissertation; rather, they appear sporadically in it. Thus, this article may provide the audience with a good overview of Schuh’s research on skar rtsis. ** 조석효([email protected]). Research Institute of Korean Studies, Korea University. 214 ∙ 印度哲學 제51집 Introduction. Ⅰ. Life and Works. Ⅱ. Achievements in Indo-Tibetan Astronomy (Skar rtsis). Conclusion 요약문 [주요어: 디터 슈, 깔라짜끄라딴뜨라, 인도-티벳 천문학, 사본과 판본, 비판적 검토] 현재 티벳학의 선도적 업적들은 거칠게 다음 두 전통으로 양분된다. 첫 째는 유럽의 문헌학적 전통이다. 일본 역시 불교학에 치중한 채로 대체적 으로 이 전통에 속하며, 서구식의 엄밀한 문헌학은 부재하지만 방대한 자 료를 보유하고 있으며 역사 쪽에 치우치고 있는 중국 역시 이 전통에 속한 다고 볼 수 있다. 둘째는 미국의 인문학적 전통이다. 인도학 · 티벳학 역시 인문학의 한 분야임이 강조되며, 따라서 인문학 제 분야에서 다루는 공통 의 이슈라고 할 수 있는 지식의 전수 (the transmission of knowledge), 근(현)대성 (modernity), 젠더 (gender) 등의 이슈들이 인도나 티벳의 문 맥에서 어떻게 이해될 수 있는 지의 문제들을 논쟁적 방식으로 검토한다. 후자의 전통에서 학술적이고 지적인 연구는 대중에게 다가갈 수 있는 글쓰 기 능력과 유리되어 있지 않다. 이 글에서 필자는 두 전통 중에서 첫번째 전통에 속하는 독일 학술 전통 에서 가장 탁월한 학자인 디터 슈 Dieter Schuh가 이룩한 성취들 중에서 천문학 연구에 대한 비판적 검토를 제시한다. 그의 주된 업적은 『티벳 달 력 계산의 역사에 관한 연구』 Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der tibetischen Kalenderrechnung (1973) 의 출판이다. 인도 후기 밀교 텍 스트인 Kālacakratantra 문헌에 기반하고 있는 티벳의 천문학 (인도-티 벳 천문학 Indo-Tibetan astronomy; skar rtsis) 연구는 여전히 티벳학 의 여러 분야 중에서도 가장 어려운 분야 중의 하나이지만, 그는 당시에 충격적이었고 현재도 놀라움을 던져 주는 상기 단행본을 저술했다. 또한, 그는 중국으로부터 영향을 받은 티벳의 점성술 (중국-티벳 점성술 Sino-Tibetan astrology; nag rtsis)에 대한 연구, 티벳어 사본과 판본에 대한 연구, 티벳어로 된 공식 문서들, 티벳-몽골 외교 관계에 대한 연구, 티벳 법률에 관한 연구, 인구학, 서부 티벳에 관한 지역학적 연구 등등 다 방면에 걸쳐 높은 수준의 문헌학에 기초하여 선구적인 업적들을 보여 주었 는데 필자의 후속 논문에서 나머지 저작들에 대한 소개도 예정되어 있다. Time Measurement in Tibet ∙ 215 Introduction Since the Hungarian Orientalist Alexander Csoma de Kőrös (1784-1842) began academic Tibetan studies in the European setting, a minority of excellent scholars have steadfastly fol- lowed in their predecessors’ footsteps and have increased knowledge and understanding of Tibetan philosophy, religion, history and culture. Among them, both the Italian Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984) and German Rolf Stein (1911-1999), who mostly worked in France after World War II, made great con- tributions to setting the wheels in motion to solidify the foun- dation of Tibetan studies as an academic discipline. After them, the German academic, Dieter Schuh, who is the main topic of this article, was handed the baton in the field of unique, untouched and arcane areas, and Dutch-Canadian Leonard van der Kuijp, who is doing great work at Harvard University, is continuing the time-honored tradition of European philology. Last but not least, American David Seyfort Ruegg has produced quality works on Buddhist philosophy and history, being armed with solid philology and a philosophical mindset. We owe the remarkable development of Tibetology, Tibetan Studies, Buddhist Studies and Buddhist Philosophy to the salient intellectual capacities and academic passion of these researchers. In the following, I critically examine Dieter Schuh’s works on 216 ∙ 印度哲學 제51집 Indo-Tibetan astronomy, which is based upon Kālacakratantra literature such as Mchog gi dang po'i sangs rgyas las phyung ba rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po dpal dus kyi 'khor lo1) [< S. Paramādibuddhoddhṛtaśrīkālacakranāmatantrarāja (simply Laghukālacakra), Bsdus pa'i rgyud kyi rgyal po dus kyi 'khor lo'i 'grel bshad rtsa ba'i rgyud kyi rjes su 'jug pa stong phrag bcu pa bcu gnyis pa dri ma med pa'i 'od2) [< S. Vimalaprabhā-nāma-mūlatantrānusāriṇī-dvādaśasāhasrikāla- ghukālacakratantrarājaṭīkā (simply Vimalaprabhā)], and so forth. This paper is composed of two parts: In the first part, I introduce his personal history and travel pertaining to his re- search on Indo-Tibetan astronomy; in the second section, I critically investigate his works according to the chronological order in which they were published. Ⅰ. Life and Works 1. Personal Profile Dieter Schuh was born in 1942. He studied mathematics and physics at Universität zu Köln, graduated from the Rheinische 1) See P. Bka' 'gyur No. Ōtani. 0004, rgyud, ka, 23b-141b/ D. Bka' 'gyur No. Tōh. 0362, rgyud, ka, 22b-128b./ D. Bstan 'gyur No. Tōh. 1346, rgyud, tha, 1b-107a. 2) See P. Bstan 'gyur No. Ōtani. 2064 rgyud 'grel, ka, 1b ~ kha, 297a. / D. Bka' 'gyur No. Tōh. 845, dus 'khor 'grel bshad, 1b ~ 469a / D. Bstan 'gyur No. Tōh. 1347, rgyud, tha, 107b ~ da, 297a. Time Measurement in Tibet ∙ 217 Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität in Bonn in 1972, and submitted his Habilitationsschrift in 1975.3) He had been a professor of Tibetan Studies at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität in Bonn since 1978 and retired in 2007. He is currently a man- aging director at IITB GmbH.4) 2. Travels and Academic Results Pertaining to Indo-Tibetan Astronomy (skar rtsis)5) 3) His Habilitationsschrift (habilitation thesis) at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität in Bonn in 1975 is as follows: Schuh, D. (1977). Erlass und Sendschreiben mongolischer Herrscher für tibetische Geistliche. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Urkunden des tibetischen Mittelalters und ihre Diplomatik. (MTH, Abteilung III: Diplomata et Epistolae, Bd. 1). St. Augustin: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag. 4) International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung; a limited liability company). It was founded in 1976 by a group of scholars under the name of Vereinigung für Geschichtswissenschaft Hochasiens Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH (VGH Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH; Association for Historical Sciences on High Asia Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH), and renamed to the present name in 2005. The main aim of this association is scientific research into Tibet and Buddhism and the publication of the results. It is headed by Dieter Schuh. The advisory committee consists of Peter Schwieger (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität in Bonn) and Karl-Heinz Everding (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität in Bonn). In 2010, it moved from Halle in Germany to Andiast in Switzerland. 5) For a list of Schuh’s monographs and articles published up to 2007, see Maurer, Petra & Peter Schwieger. eds. (2007). Festschrift für Dieter Schuh zum 65. Geburtstag. Bonn: Bier'sche Verlagsanstalt. Schuh himself has uploaded his articles and books to his website: https://uni-bonn.academia.edu/DieterSchuh. His most recent works can also be found there as of December 2017. 218 ∙ 印度哲學 제51집 For research purposes, Schuh traveled to Tibet and its bor- dering areas several times: In 1967, Schuh was sent by pro- fessors Walther Heissig (1913-2005) and Klaus Ludwig Janert (1922-1994) to Dharamsala to study Indo-Tibetan astronomy. In Dharamsala, he studied Indo-Tibetan astronomy and math- ematics with a Tibetan named Blo gros rgya mtsho. The result is his seminal work Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der tibeti- schen Kalenderrechnung (published in 1973) and relevant sev- eral articles. In 1968, he traveled to Sikkim and found the treatise of the rde'u rtsis written by 'Dus byung pa whose title is Mkhas dbang 'dus byung pa'i rde'u'i rtsis gzhung sarga brgyad la dag ther byas pa rab sbyang gser gyi me long. It was studied in his article Schuh (1970). During his stay in India from 1967 to 1969, especially in 1969 in Darjeeling, he collected and microfilmed Tibetan manuscripts and xylo- graphs, which are now held in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (the State Library at Berlin) together with a small por- tion of manuscripts from the Khang dkar family of Tshul khrims skal bzang in Kyoto, Japan.
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