Robert H. Scott & James McRae 
Introduction to Buddhist East Asia [EPUB ebook] 

This anthology provides an accessible introduction to East Asian Buddhism, focusing specifically on China, Korea, and Japan. It begins with a detailed historical introduction that includes an overview of the development of the various schools of Buddhism in East Asia and traces the transmission of Buddhism from Northwest India to China in the first century CE, and then to Korea and Japan in the fourth and sixth centuries CE. The first part of the book contains five chapters that offer creative pedagogies that can help college professors infuse East Asian Buddhism into their courses. The second part includes six interdisciplinary chapters that explore thematic links between East Asian Buddhism and religious studies, philosophy, film studies, literature, and environmental studies.

Table of Content

Foreword


Peter D. Hershock

Acknowledgments

Introduction to Buddhist East Asia: Origins, Core Doctrines, Transmission, and Schools


Robert H. Scott and James Mc Rae



Part 1: Creative Pedagogies for Teaching Buddhist East Asia



1. Three Common Misconceptions about East Asian Buddhisms: On Women and Gender, Violence and Nonviolence, and Philosophy and Religion


Sarah A. Mattice



2. “Meditation Is the Embodiment of Wisdom”: Chan and Zen Buddhism in the Philosophy Classroom


Elizabeth Schiltz



3. The Possibility and Costs of Responsibly Teaching East Asian and Buddhist Philosophy


Mark Wells



4. Brains, Blades, and Buddhists: Pedagogical Skirmishes at the Intersection of Philosophy of Mind, the Way of the Sword, and Buddhism


Jesus Ilundain‑Agurruza



5. Revitalizing the Familiar: A Practical Application of Dōgen’s Transformative Zen


George Wrisley



Part 2: East Asian Buddhisms and the Humanities: Ethics, Art, and Politics



6. The Finger that Points to the Earth: East Asian Buddhism as a Conceptual Resource for Environmental Philosophy


James Mc Rae



7. Ecological Self-understanding in Chinese Buddhism: Investigating an Epistemic Virtue


Jesse Butler



8. Wisdom and Compassion in Chinul, Korean Seon Buddhism, and Postmodern Ethics


Robert H. Scott



9. The Lovelorn Lady and the Stony Monk: Women, Sexuality, and Imagination in the
Kegon Engi Emaki


Sujung Kim



10. The Spirit of Shaolin on Screen: Buddhism and Cultural Politics in Chinese Cinema


Melissa Croteau and Xin Zhang



11. A Century of Critical Buddhism in Japan


James Mark Shields



Glossary of East Asian Buddhist Terms

List of Contributors

Index

About the author

Robert H. Scott is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Georgia. His previous books include
The Significance of Indeterminacy: Perspectives from Asian and Continental Philosophy (coedited with Gregory Moss).
James Mc Rae is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Westminster College. His previous books include
Japanese Environmental Philosophy (coedited with J. Baird Callicott);
Environmental Philosophy in Asian Traditions of Thought (coedited with J. Baird Callicott), also published by SUNY Press; and
The Philosophy of Ang Lee (coedited with Robert Arp and Adam Barkman).