Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t24.8

v2.c15.s2.t24.8

Ji Xianlin had a good command of English, German, Sanskrit, Pali, Tocharian, and could read French and Russian books. Initially, he was mainly engaged in the research of ancient Indian languages which he continued for nearly for five decades. In 1941, he obtained doctorate with his dissertation *Die Konjugation des finite Verbums in den Gāthās des Mahāvasthu* that comprehensively and systematically summarised various morphological changes of verbs in hybrid Sanskrit used in the Hinayana Lokottaravadin Vinaya Mahāvasthu. His work broadened the research field of hybrid Sanskrit morphology and promoted the studies on hybrid Sanskrit. In 1944 and 1949, he respectively published two essays namely *Die Umwandlung der Endung – am in – o und – u im Mittelindischen* and *Die Verwendung des Aorists als Kriterium für Alter und Ursprung buddhistischer Texte*, comparing and analysing existing ancient Buddhist scriptures by employing the method of compare comparative linguistics, determining the general location and time of these scriptures and their circulation situation in India and Central Asia based on various morphological changes of Buddhist language. This opened a new channel for studying Indian Buddhism history. Since then, he wrote *The Language Problem of Primitive Buddhism* (1956), *More Exposition on the Language Problem of Primitive Buddhism* (1958), *Two Questions of Medieval Indo-Aryan Language* (1984), *Third Exposition on the Language of Primitive Buddhism* (1984), among other academic dissertations in which he demonstrated the existence of primitive Buddhism and that its language was the ancient Ardhamagadhi, a dialect of east India. This was a breakthrough in the research of the language of primitive Buddhism. On the basis of study in literature and language, he carried out further researches on the *History of Indian Buddhism*. He wrote more than 20 dissertations including *Stupa and Buddha* (1947), *The Historical Origin of the Primitive Ruddhism* (1965), *Problems on Mahayana Sthaviravāda* (1981), *Distorted and Forgotten “Route Struggle” in Creation Period of Buddhism - Devadatta Problem* (1987) and *Backflow of Buddhism* (1991).