THE BIOGRAPHIES OF EMINENT MONKS

Above: Liwanhu Park, Guangzhou, China.

September 2019 – November 2022

This translation project sought to produce the first complete English translation of the Liang Dynasty (502 – 557 CE) Biographies of Eminent Monks (高僧傳; Gaoseng Zhuan) by Huijiao (慧皎) (497-554 CE). His book is a compilation of the lives of over 500 Buddhist figures from 67 CE to 519 CE. This 14-chapter volume became the widely accepted basis for Chinese Buddhist, historical biography literature from the 6th century onwards. It is our hope that this new English translation of Shi Huijiao’s Biographies of Eminent Monks will make these poignant stories and crucial aspects of Chinese Buddhist history widely available to the English-speaking public, practitioners, and academics.

Project Team

Translator

Tianshu Yang

Tianshu Yang, PhD from Peking University, teaches the History of Indian Buddhism and Buddhist Sociology. He participates in multiple translation projects of Buddhist classics and books, such as 50 Masters of Chinese Buddhism, Buddhist Aphorisms and Early Buddhist Teachings, involving languages of Chinese, English and French. Buddhist History is one of his interest areas for translation.

Editor

Edward A. S. Ross

He is a PhD candidate at the University of Reading. Edward is also a Research Officer and Library Evening Attendant. He edited the English text of the translation and wrote the introduction to the volume.

Outputs

Edited Translation

Shi Huijiao. The Biographies of Eminent Monks. Tianshu Yang, translator. Edward A. S. Ross, editor. Hong Kong: Centre of Buddhist Studies, University of Hong Kong, 2022. [LINK].

Encyclopaedia Entries

Ross, Edward A. S. “Biographies of Eminent Monks.” In The Database of Religious History. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, May 6, 2023. [LINK].

Conference Presentations

Ross, Edward A. S. “Journeying to the West: The Image of the Western Regions in Shi Huijiao’s Biographies of Eminent Monks.” United Kingdom Association for Buddhist Studies Summer Online Conference, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. July 2, 2020.