Nanjō Bun'yū (南条文雄) (1 July 1849 – 9 November 1927) was a Buddhist priest and one of the most important modern Japanese scholars of
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
. Nanjō was born to the abbot of Seiunji Temple (誓運寺), part of the Shinshu
Ōtani sect (真宗大谷派) of the
Higashi Honganji (東本願寺) branch of
Jodo Shinshu.
Biography
Nanjō studied Classical Chinese texts and Buddhist doctrine in his youth before being sent to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
in 1876 to study
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and
Indian philosophy
Indian philosophy refers to philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. A traditional Hindu classification divides āstika and nāstika schools of philosophy, depending on one of three alternate criteria: whether it believes the Veda ...
from European scholars, including
Max Müller
Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian ...
, under whom Bunyu studied in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. While there he met the Chinese Buddhist
Yang Wenhui
Yang Wenhui (; 1837-1911) was a Chinese lay Buddhist reformer who has been called "The Father of the Modern Buddhist Renaissance". His courtesy name was Rénshān (). He was a native of Shídài () county (modern Shítái 石台 county) in Anhui pr ...
, whom he helped to acquire some three hundred Chinese Buddhist texts that had been lost in China to be reprinted at Yang's printing house in Nanjing.
In September 1880, Nanjō examined and cataloged a complete edition of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist
Tripitaka that had been gifted to the India Office Library in London by the Japanese government. He determined that the India Office Library collection contained the same works as those mentioned in the oldest Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka compiled in 520 AD.
[Bunyiu Nanjio, A Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka, the Sacred Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan, Clarendon Press, 1883, xiii]
He returned to Japan in 1884 and served as a professor or head of a number of Buddhist seminaries and universities until his death.
Major publications
* (Co-editor with F. Max Müller) ''Buddhist texts from Japan.'' Oxford : Clarendon press, 1881–84.
* Nanjo Bunyu (1883)
''A catalogue of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka the Sacred Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan, compiled by order of the Secretary of State for India.'' Oxford, Clarendon Press
* ''A short history of the twelve Japanese Buddhist sects. Translated from the original Japanese by Bunyiu Nanjio.'' Tokyo, Bukkyo-Sho-ei-yaku-Shuppan-sha, 1886.
Internet Archive
* (Co-author) ''An unabridged Japanese-English dictionary, with copious illustrations, by Capt. F. Brinkley.'' Tokyo, Sanseido
896
* B. Nanjio (ed.)
The Laṅkāvatāra sūtra Kyoto, Otani University Press 1923
n Nāgarī
* H. Kern; B. Nanjio (ed.); ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīka;'' St. Pétersbourg 1908-1912 (Imprimerie de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences), XII, 507 S.; Sert.: Bibliotheca Buddhica, 10 [In Nāgarī
Vol.1Vol. 2Vol 3Vol. 4Vol. 5
References
1849 births
1927 deaths
Japanese academics
Japanese scholars of Buddhism
Japanese Buddhist clergy
Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist priests
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