The English translation project of the book Buddhism and Literature in the Southern Dynasties 南朝佛教与文学 by Pu Hui普慧 is funded by the Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences (grant no.23WZWB021) and will be conducted from 2024 to 2027. Members of this project include three translators: Dr. Pan Lifei from Sichuan University (also applicant and supervisor of this project), Dr. Janine Nicol from SOAS, University College London, and Dr. Oliver Hargrave from Oxford University, and two experts Prof.Christoph Anderl from Ghent University and Prof. Pu Hui from Zhejiang Normal University.
This work by Prof. Pu Hui, published by Jiangsu People's Publishing House in 2019 is a systematic study of the relationship between Buddhism and the literature of the Southern Dynasties, a highly qualified and representative study in the field of Chinese Buddhist literature. The first six chapters study the relationship between the development of Buddhism and that of the literature in the Eastern Jin, Liu Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen Dynasties, including "The Development of Buddhism and the Peculiarities of Thought and Culture of the Jin and Liu Song Dynasties", "Buddhist Philosophy and Writings on the Landscape of the Jin and Liu Song Dynasties", "Buddhist Activities of Literati and Their Buddhist Thoughts in the Qi and Liang Dynasties", "Composition of Buddhist Poetry by Literati in the Qi and Liang Dynasties", "Poetic Rhymes and Metres and Buddhism", "Court Literature and Buddhism in the Liang and Chen Dynasties". The remaining three chapters are titled "Buddhism, Narrative Fictions, Anecdotes and Historical and Biographical Literature in Five Dynasties", "Buddhism, Literary Groups and Literary Schools", and "Literary Theory and Thought and Buddhism".
The project will be accomplished in 3 years, with the translation to be published by Springer Nature.