Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t7: Tang Yongtong
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t7
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Tang Yongtong
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Tang Yongtong (August 2, 1893 - May 1, 1964) was a Chinese modern philosophical historian and Buddhist historian. His style name was Xi Yu. His family origin was Huang Mei, Hubei Province, and he was born in Weiyuan County, Gansu Province.
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Tang Yongtong was keenly interested in history since he was a child. He was admitted to Beijing Shuntian School before the Revolution of 1911 and moved on to Tsinghua University in 1912. In 1917, he graduated from the university and passed an entrance examination for being a state-financed student to study in the United States of America. But, he failed to go to because he fell ill and stayed at Tsinghua University to teach Chinese. At the same time, he also served as the Editor-in-Chief of Tsinghua Weekly. In 1918, he went to Hamline University for further studies. In 1920, he studied philosophy, Sanskrit and Pali at Harvard University. In 1922, he obtained the Masters of Philosophy Degree from Harvard University and returned to China. He successively worked as a Professor at the National Southeast University (Nanjing University today), Nankai University, Peking University and Southwest Associated University. The curriculums he taught include history of Chinese Buddhism, Wei Jin metaphysics, history of Indian philosophy and general philosophy. During his tenure as the President of the School of Literature, Peking University, he actively facilitated the establishment of the Department of Oriental Languages and Literature. In 1947, he went to the University of California to give lectures. After returning home, he was selected as Academician and Councilor of Academia Sinica and Concurrent Director of the former Institute of History and Language of Academia Sinica Peiping Office. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, he successively served as the Chairman of the School Administration Committee of Peking University and Vice Principle of the university. He also held a concurrent post of academic member for Historical Archaeology, committee member of the Philosophy and Sociology Division of Chinese Academy of Sciences and editorial board member of Philosophical Researches and A Study of History.
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He knew many foreign languages, including
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Tang Yongtong
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Sanskrit and Pali, and was familiar with Chinese philosophy, Indian philosophy and western philosophy. He mainly devoted himself to researches on history of Chinese Buddhism, Wei Jin metaphysics and ancient Indian philosophical history. His works include *Buddhism History in Ancient Chinese Dynasties of Han, Wei, Eastern and Western Jin, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties* (1938), *A Brief History of Indian Philosophy* (1945), *History Manuscript of Buddhism in Sui and Tang Dynasties* (1982) and *Collected Academic Papers of* Tang Yongtong (1983). A Brief History of Indian Philosophy draws the outline of Indian philosophy and introduces the development and theories of the schools of philosophy. Buddhism History in Ancient Chinese Dynasties of Han, Wei, Eastern and Western Jin, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties and History Manuscript of Buddhism in Sui and Tang Dynasties give a systematic elaboration of the historical developing process and characteristics of Buddhism from India to China of the Tang Dynasty, the mutual relations
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A Collection of Tang Yongtong's academic papers
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between Buddhist thought and Chinese traditional thought, and make a detailed observation of rising and falling process, and all the details of all schools and sects of Chinese Buddhism. They also have verifications and explanations of the time Buddhism from India was introduced to the regions inhabited by Han nationality, major Buddhism historical events, interpretation of sutras, important works, lifetime of famous monks, relations between sects and schools, relations between Buddhism and politics in historical records of Chinese Buddhism
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(Qiao Anquan)