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On January 27, 2025, GCBS researcher Xiaoxiao Xu defended his PhD dissertation titled “The Poet–Monk Taixu and His Imagery World,” written within the framework of the joint PhD program between Ghent University (supervisor Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman) and the University of Perugia (supervisor Prof. Dr. Ester Bianchi).  The examination committee consisted of Prof. Dr. Ji Zhe (INALCO), Prof. Dr. Heng (Michael) Chen (UGent), and Dr. Mariia Lepneva (UGent).

Taixu 太虛 (1890–1947) is well-known to scholarship as an advocate of radical reforms of the Buddhist community and the author of the concept of “Buddhism of the human realm.” Xiaoxiao Xu’s dissertation revealed that, beyond these achievements, Taixu possessed yet another identity—a poet-monk. Through literature studies methodology, the author established that Taixu’s poetical creativity often went beyond presenting his religious views. Instead, the great Buddhist leader was inclined to use his verses for expressing his personal thoughts and emotions. This makes his poetry a valuable entry point for understanding his personality.

(2) “Tracing Macro-cyclical Change Through Micro-cycles in Historical Chinese”

GCBS reading group activities began on November 8 this year. PhD student Longyu Zhang presented her preliminary reading of narrative passages from Dharmaguptaka-vinaya, with a focus on the use of modal markers in these texts. Longyu began by introducing the terminological apparatus she uses for analysing necessity, possibility, and volition. During the rest of the session, we immersed ourselves in the analysis of specific examples, narrowing down our interpretations as we got acquainted with the unfolding of the story.

August Sundin is PhD candidate in Buddhist Studies within the Department of Languages and Cultures at Ghent University. He is a member of the project “Corpora in Greater Gandhāra. Tracing the development of Buddhist Textuality and Gilgit/Bamiyan manuscript networks in the first millennium of the common era” led by Professor Charles DiSimone.

August received his Bachelors in Buddhist Studies and Masters in Tibetan Translation from Kathmandu University in Nepal. His past research has focused on the role of cultural interpretation in Indo-Tibetan historiographical works as well as the issues of reading Indic materials in their Tibetan translations. August’s current research focuses on the application of philology and textual comparison to Buddhist manuscripts and the history of Buddhist textual networks centred in Gandhāra between the fourth and ninth centuries c.e.

On 10th October, Mr Saurabh Kumar, Ambassador of India to Belgium and Luxembourg, and to the European Union, accompanied by Mr Venkateswaran Narayanan, First Secretary Press, Information and Culture visited Universiteit Gent to meet the Rector, Prof Rik Van de Walle, and the members of our research group and learn more about our work, and current and future activities. GCBS’s Professors Ann Heirman, Charles DiSimone, and Daniela De Simone  attended the meeting.

Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies had a notable presence at the 25th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) held at Tallinn University, Estonia on 27-30 August, 2024. Our professors, postdocs and PhD students made nine presentations at various panels:

• Prof. Dr.  Ann Heirman (Ghent University), “Ants in Vinaya Texts: Between India and China”
• Prof. Dr. Bart Dessein (Ghent University), “‘Yi Fofa piping shehui zhuyi’ (以佛法批評社會主義; Criticizing Socialism with Buddhism)”
• Prof. Dr. Christoph Anderl (Ghent University), “Text-Image Relations in the Panels on Buddha’s Life in Mogao Cave 61”
• Dr. Anna Sokolova (Ghent University), “Invoking Deities for the Deceased: Integration of Buddhist Rituals into Mortuary Practises in Medieval China”
• Dr. Mariia Lepneva (Ghent University), “The Dynamics of Chinese Buddhism During the Ming and Qing: Social Network Analysis Based on a Combined Dataset”
• Jiahang Yu and Prof. Dr. Christoph Anderl (Ghent University), “A Linguistic Study of the Donkey Mourning Text in Or. 8210/ S.1477”
• Longyu Zhang (Ghent University), “Research on the Grammaticalisation of Níngkě 寧可 in Medieval Chinese”
• Massimiliano Portoghese (Ghent University), “Why do Śramaṇas Take the Tonsure? Perceptions and Symbolism of the Shaven Head in Ancient and Early Medieval China”
• Nguyen Khuong Hong Ngoc (Ghent University), “Practical Learning (實學) and Its Influence on Educational Transformation in Eighteenth-Century Vietnam”

In addition, GSBC’s members participated in the “Roundtable on academic publishing in the field of Chinese religions” organized by the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions (SSCR). Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman serves as moderator, and Dr. Anna Sokolova shared the experience of publishing here recent monograph, The Awakening of the Hinterland: The Formation of Regional Vinaya Traditions in Tang China.

On July 15, 2024, the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies welcomed H.E. Mrs. Kanchana Patarachoke, Ambassador of Thailand, and H.E. Mr. Chandana Weerasena, Ambassador of Sri Lanka, along with Mr. Nithi Patarachoke, the spouse of Mrs. Patarachoke, and Mr. Pathompong Singthong, Counsellor and Consul of Thailand. The delegation was received by Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman, head of the Department of Languages and Cultures and the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies of Ghent University. Prof. Dr. Daniela De Simone, Prof. Dr. Bart Dessein, Prof. Dr. Andreas Niehaus, Dr. Anna Sokolova, and Dr. Mariia Lepneva were also present at the meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, H.E. Mrs. Kanchana Patarachoke and H.E. Mr. Chandana Weerasena expressed their interest in the activities of the Ghent Centre of Buddhist Studies, as both Thailand and Sri Lanka have a large portion of the population that identify as Theravada Buddhists. Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman introduced the history, education, staff, and activities of the GCBS, stressing that it is currently broadening its research scope from the traditional focus on China, India, and Japan. The presentation was followed by a Q&A session and a general discussion. Subsequently, the esteemed guests were accompanied to visit the Indian and Buddhist Studies library.

Centre for Buddhist Studies of Fo Guang University welcomes a guest lecturer from Ghent University in Belgium, who gives a talk about his research on Śākyamuni’s Life in Mogao Cave 61 in Dunhuang. Professor Christoph Anderl is a linguist specializing in classical Chinese and an expert in Dunhuang studies, particularly in textual studies.

Mogao Cave 61 is the main subject of today’s talk. The uniqueness of this cave lies in the wall painting representing a map of Wutai Mountain (五台山) instead of the Buddhist motifs typically found in other caves. Another highlight of this cave is the depiction of Śākyamuni’s life painted on the room’s bedrock, which includes captions containing Chinese texts from the 佛本行集經 (Sūtra of Buddha’s Life).

In the presentation, Professor Anderl begins with a visual tour of Cave 61 using a 3D reconstruction from the Digital Dunhuang website and introduces the basic information about this cave. Cave 61 was commissioned by Cao Yuan Zhong (曹元忠), an official of the Dunhuang area, for family use. The donors’ figures are painted at the entrance, including Cao Yuan Zhong, his wife, and their family members, mostly female.

The panels depicting Śākyamuni’s life in the cave cover stories from Buddha’s birth to his death. Unlike the common representation of Buddha’s life through the eight junctures (八相成道), much of the content focuses on Buddha’s princely life. It appears that the donors of this cave were particularly interested in Buddha’s life in the palace.

Professor Anderl then presents the texts written in the captions alongside the 佛本行集經, using two examples from panel 13, which describes the selection of Buddha’s stepmother, and panel 28, which describes Sujata’s offering of milk porridge. Comparisons between the Chinese text in the Taisho Canon and the captions show that the authors of the captions deliberately abbreviated the text with shorter key phrases to create a condensed version for storytelling within limited space. This condensation slightly changes the emphasis of the story and alters its understanding in a different way.

This finding leads to a discussion between Professor Hsin-Yi Lin and Professor Anderl regarding whether the authors intended to manipulate the original text and create a new reading material, effectively ending the presentation with many potential research questions.

On March 27, 2024, two talks for the Research Forum were given by Ph.D. students Yu Jiahang于佳航 and Massimiliano Portoghese who presented parts of their ongoing research projects at the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies. Please find the relevant details below:

Yu Jiahang’s talk:

• Working Title: “A Linguistic Study of the Funeral Address for a Donkey in Dunhuang manuscript Or.8210/S.1477.”
• Summary: The Dunhuang manuscript Or.8210/S.1477, titled Jilüwen yishou 祭驢文一首 (Funeral Address for a Donkey), was written by a frustrated and impoverished scholar during the late Tang dynasty and served as a tribute to his recently deceased donkey. The text adopts a semi-vernacular style remarkable for this period and genre, containing many colloquial words and phrases, thereby ensuring its accessibility to contemporary readers. This study examines S.1477 from multiple linguistic perspectives, including genre features, syntactic constructions, as well as the author’s use of classical allusions.
• Context: The presentation is based on ongoing research that will eventually be presented at the EACS conference. Since Jiahang also aims to submit her paper for publication in the future, she would like to discuss aspects related to the structure of her presentation and article. In addition, she will introduce similar materials from Dunhuang to make connections with her larger research project.

Massimiliano Portoghese’s talk:

• Working Title: “Why Did Śramaņas Take the Tonsure? Perceptions and Symbolism of Hairstyles in Ancient and Early Medieval China.”
• Summary: This talk examines the symbolic and social significance of hair in pre-Buddhist China to enhance our understanding of the Buddhist-Confucian disputes during the Six Dynasties period regarding the practice of monastics shaving their heads.
• Context: The presentation is based on ongoing research that will eventually be presented at the EACS conference. However, the talk is not meant as a mock talk in preparation for the venue. Instead, Massimiliano will try to show the material that he has collected so far and the new research paths he intends to address. He also intends to submit his paper for publication in the future.