(英文版) 長阿含經研究論文集 Research on the Dīrgha-āgama

This is the second volume of proceedings of the ?gama seminars convened by the ?gama Research Group at the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (formerly Dharma Drum Buddhist College).

On this occasion, the ?gama Research Group met to discuss the early collections of long discourses transmitted by the different Buddhist schools. Thanks to the discovery and ongoing publication of the incomplete Sanskrit D?rgha-?gama manu-script from Gilgit, three different versions of the Collection of Long Discourses are now available for comparative study: the Pali D?gha-nik?ya transmitted within the Therav?da tradition, the just-mentioned D?rgha-?gama in Sanskrit, identified as Sar-v?stiv?da or M?lasarv?stiv?da, and the Chinese translation of an Indic D?rgha-?gama (長阿含經), generally considered to be affiliated with the Dharmaguptakas.

The seminar, "The Chinese Translation of the D?rgha-?gama (長阿含經, Taish? 1)", took place on 18 and 19 October, 2013. It was organised in collaboration with the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies at Dharma Drum Mountain and the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies at Hamburg University. The event was generously funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange.

In this volume, we publish most of the papers that were presented and discussed at the seminar, with the chapters - six in total - arranged according to the authors' names in alphabetical order.

Bhikkhu An?layo opens the volume with a study of "Three Chinese D?rgha-?gama Discourses without Parallels", concluding that the three discourses examined in his study are very likely later additions to the collection.

Roderick S. Bucknell studies "The structure of the Sanskrit D?rgha-?gama from Gilgit vis-?-vis the Pali D?gha-nik?ya", giving evidence that both of these versions of the Long Collection underwent a process of expansion through transfer of material from the corresponding version of the Middle-Length Collection.

With the third contribution to this volume, "The Suma?galavil?sin? and the D?gha-bh??akas", Endo Toshiichi (遠藤敏一) summarises his research on the bh??aka tradition, in particular on the transmitters of the Pali commentary to the D?gha-nik?ya, the Suma?galavil?sini. His investigations point to the possibility that there may have been different groups of d?gha-bh??akas within the d?gha-bh??aka tradition itself. He shows that the Chinese D?rgha-?gama contains some apparently 'extraneous' textual material, the counterpart of which is not found in the D?gha-nik?ya, but only in the Suma?galavil?sin?.
Jens-Uwe Hartmann, in his paper "The D?rgha-?gama of the (M?la-)Sarv?stiv?dins: What Was the Purpose of this Collection?", reflects on a number of peculiarities in the D?rgha-?gama from Gilgit. He discusses the overall purpose of the collection, and considers whether certain passages might have been intended to be entertaining, if not even humorous.

In the following chapter, Hung Jen-jou (洪振洲) approaches the last discourse in the Chinese D?rgha-?gama with the tools of digital stylometrics, producing "A Textual Analysis of the Last Discourse in the Chinese D?rgha-?gama Based on a Trans-latorship Attribution Algorithm", an analysis that detects no significant differences in the translation style as against the rest of the collection.

The volume closes with a study by Karashima Seishi (辛?靜志) on "The Sarv?stiv?dins' 'encroachment' into the Chinese translation of the Da?ottara-s?tra in the D?rgha-?gama of the Dharmaguptakas", demonstrating that a number of readings in some editions and manuscripts agree completely with the readings in the Sarv?stiv?da versions of the same discourse. He explains this as the product of a re-translation done on the basis of a newly arrived Sanskrit manuscript belonging to a Sarv?stiv?da lineage.

A by-product of the seminar is that under the supervision of Karashima Seishi we have digitised, edited and supplemented an unpublished index to the footnotes to the Japanese translation of the D?rgha-?gama that was originally published in monthly in-stalments in Gekkan ?gama (月刊????), the magazine of Agonsh? (阿含宗), the ?gama revivalist movement founded in 1978 by Kiriyama Seiy? (桐山靖雄), and then republished in six volumes (Tokyo, 1996-2005). This large translation project was the joint effort of sinologically trained linguists and philologists trained in Indology and Buddhist studies. Their combined expertise resulted in rich research footnotes that deal with problematic terminology and readings from a perspective that takes into account both linguistic and content aspects of this collection. The index home page is http://dev.ddbc.edu.tw/t1index and all data is freely available for inclusion and (re-)use in other digital projects.
My gratitude goes to the many friends and colleagues who have contributed to the production of this volume: bhik?u Hui-min (釋惠敏), President of the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, and Hung Jen-jou (洪振洲), Director of the Library and Information Center of the same institution, for having allowed me the space and the support needed to conceive and organise the event; bhik?u?? Guojing (釋果鏡), director of the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, for supplying extra funding when needed, and Chen Hsiu-lan (陳秀蘭) at the same institute for kindly liaising on our behalf; the staff and volunteers of the Li-brary and Information Center for their continuous selfless help; Zhang Zhen-hwa (張振華), our chief accountant, for being flexible with us; our students and especially my assistants Hung Peiying (洪佩英), Ke Chunyu (柯春玉) and Ge Xianmin (葛賢敏) for prodigious support; all the students, scholars and auditors who attended the workshop for participating and engaging; Chuang Kuo-ping (莊國彬), responsible for our publications, who readily endorsed the volume proposal; Lo Pei-shin (羅珮心) of the publications section for her gentle coordination of the workflow with Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation; the authors for their trust and patience; the reviewers for their feedback; Adam Clarke and Geraint Evans for editorial help; bhikkhu Aggacitta, Petra Kieffer-P?lz and Peter Skilling for advice; and, finally, bhikkhu An?layo, co-director with me of the ?gama Research Group, for having been always ready to offer his support throughout the organisational and editorial pro-cess.
Neither a Sinologist nor an ?gama specialist by training, I am not, perhaps, qualified to edit a specialised volume such as this. I am happy, however, to have had the opportunity to help make the seminar results available to the wider academic community within a short span of time. This is in keeping with our local ?gama Research Group effort to publish in English so as to enable easy access to the field of ?gama studies for students and scholars beyond East Asia.

s?ma?er? Dhammadinn?
Director, ?gama Research Group
Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts