美国的中国佛教研究

The Studies of Chinese Buddhism in America Nowadays

美国目前是西方佛教研究的学术中心 ,他们的研究成果对我们中国学者不无裨益。在中国佛教领域 ,他们与中国学者一样 ,偏重于北宋以前的佛教史 ,特别是以禅宗为主的隋唐佛教宗派。而对宋元明清的佛教史 ,他们则引入社会史、人类学等方法 ,特别是在明末清初、近现代中国佛教史研究方面 ,出现了较具启发意义的新视野。本文还关注美国学者在“佛教中国化”、“儒释道三教关系”等问题上的研究。

The USA is the center for Buddhist studies in western countries at present, and Chinese Buddhist scholars would benefit from the scholarship of American colleagues. In the field of Chinese Buddhism, most of American scholars show great interest in the history of pre-song dynasties, particularly in Chinese Buddhist schools centered by Zen Buddhism, just as their Chinese colleagues. As for the post-song dynasties, i.e. Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, they introduce various methods from social science, such as social history and anthropology, and new perspectives for further Buddhist studies take place especially in their studies of late Ming and early Qing, and modern history of Chinese Buddhism. This paper still pays attention to their studies on such problems as “Signification of Buddhism' and “Relationship between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.