Religion & Spirituality Inside

this is the greatest book, it has valuable information you wouldn’t find anywhere else, get it now.
Rating: 3 / 5

This is one of the books on the required reading list for our course at Hong Kong University on Chinese Buddhism and I would like to strongly recommend this book as a very good short introduction to the topic. The course I am taking has the distinction of being taught in both English and Chinese with reams of reading in both languages. Having read the book and much of the supplementary reading, I have to say how well this book has held up in light of the latest findings with regards to its broad arguments especially for the early chapters, despite having been written in 1959. The chapter setting out the background for early Buddhism is especially good at setting out the background of the Han Dynasty and the role of Confucianism and Taoism.

The other strength of the book is that the style is elegant and punchy (perhaps because they were originally designed as lectures) as opposed to the bland uniform academic analysis that characterizes so many books nowadays and the over proliferation of footnotes. Reading some of the modern papers makes my head spin with the hundreds of names of monks and monasteries and references, such that the key arguments and trends are sometimes lost in the detail. I do miss the days when style was just as important as content and I value this as a teaching tool in improving my own writing.

On the flip side, for a modern reader, there are references to thinkers and historians who are no longer in vogue, such as Toynbee, Satre and Maspero, and he makes pointed comparisons to the role of Christianity in Rome, but if you have an acquaintance with their work and of Roman history, these references are very illuminating and helps one look at the history from another aspect.

I have to agree that the part on Modern China is dated, but that is the danger of most books which deal with modern China and really if we are looking at Chinese Buddhism the key developments happened much much earlier so this is not a big loss. There are so many books now that seek to explain the megatrends of China that date in one or two years. This book has at least stood the test of half a century.
Rating: 5 / 5

one might wonder what relevance a book written in the late fifties could possibly have to the China of today. then, communism was consolidating its grip on the country, today it seems to be losing it.

in fact, Wright points to similarities between the Buddhist and Marxist influence. he cites the Chinese willingness to give enthusiastic support to an idea which suggests that we look carefully at the ideology developing in China today. he debunks the notion that China merely absorbs outside influences by pointing to the incredible changes that Buddhism affected in China. perhaps most importantly, he reminds us that periods of disruption have been the time when the Chinese have seemed most responsive to alien ideas. Read Wright and stay tuned.

Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine
Rating: 5 / 5