A Short History of Buddhism

·期刊原文
A Short History of Buddhism

Reviewed by Eric Glasgow
Contemporary Review
Vol.264 No.1536
1994.01

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Studies in Comparative Religion in Oxford are heavily dependent upon
the 'J. Estlin Carpenter' Collecton at Manchester College (chiefly
donated between 1921 and 1927) and the works donated to Lady
Margaret Hall in 1946, in memory of J. G. Jennings (1866-1941). Both
of these invaluable archives are rich in materials about Buddhism,
whose common ground with Christianity -- particularly its tenets of
pacifism, reverence for life, meditation, and monasticism -- has
over the last half-century been increasingly recognized, despite (or
perhaps because of) the consumerism of the contemporary societies of
the West. We have largely inherited from the nineteenth century our
Western understandings of Buddhism -- for example, from the poet and
orientalist, Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904), author of the pioneering
work The Light of Asia (1879) -- but it is widely acknowledged now
that before 1945, and the end of the Second World War, what we knew
in England about Buddhism was not only too academic, but it also
involved frequent misunderstandings about Buddhist terminology,
which lost a lot in its various translations. The atomic
catastrophes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, releasing
indescribable death and destruction, led to a revival of Buddhism in
Japan, organized by the influential 'Soka Gakkai', led by a
'muscular Buddhist' named Daisaku Ikeda. This movement for
reconciliation between East and West, based in Japan, was well
supported by the learning of the historian, Arnold Toynbee
(1889-1975), who visited Japan to lecture in Kyoto and Tokyo on two
separate occasions: in 1956 and 1967. Japanese Buddhism, in
particular, has thus been publicized in the West: a curious benefit,
arising out of the horrors of war. But Buddhist 'Enlightenment' in
general -- whether emanating territorially from Japan, Tibet, or
Ceylon -- has, since 1945, spread quite remarkably in the West,
fostered by such books about it as that of the English barrister,
Christmas Humphreys. It seems to have found favour in the West, in
proportion as the West has lost its spiritual bearings, obsessed by
materialism and by commercial competition, much as in Asia the
pressures on Buddhism have been those of Marxism and of Communism.
At any rate, the West in recent years has accepted, more than ever
before, the religious insights of the East; and Buddhism is by far
the most important and conspicuous of these. Although we have in
English a rich diversity of rather learned books about Buddhism, we
have hitherto lacked a brief, up-to-date and lucid description of
Buddhism for our Western purposes and insights. This is invaluable,
in order to deepen spirituality of any sort; and whether in West or
East. Edward Conze is no stranger to professed British students of
Buddhism: books by him on the subject have been coming out since the
1950s. The work now under review is a convenient and most readable
summary of this distinguished author's lifetime of knowledge and
perception on the subject.

Perhaps its most remarkable feature is its easy combination of
history and doctrine about Buddhism, minimizing the complexities of
schism and division of the true Buddhist legacy. So we may find here
in potted but reliable form an historical tradition, which is even
older than that of Christianity. Buddhism in Asia has so far
persisted for about 2,500 years; although during that long period it
has undergone profound and radical changes. Within the twentieth
century, especially, it has stood up to driving forces of modernity,
which have tested to the fullest its spiritual resources, and yet,
for the most part, these have not been found wanting: as in Tibet
under Communist China, or in Ceylon under the threat of Hindu
aggression from the Tamils.

As the strongholds of Buddhism have been destroyed one by one in
Asia, Buddhism seems to have been re-invigorated in the West. Even
Western Capitalism has become receptive to it. Comparative religion,
within the Christian ethos, has also fostered its study and
appreciation. Active Buddhist societies have sprung up in many
Western countries, including Britain. Buddhist influences in Europe
today exist on various levels: the academic, the philosophical, and
the popular. It must be chiefly for the popular that Edward Conze
has written this wholly admirable and highly instructive little
book. Its small size disguises alike its profound learning and its
comprehensive coverage. It certainly deserves a wide and observant
readership in Britain, and it helps greatly to elucidate for British
readers what may still seem to be rather a difficult and erudite
subject.