Eric M Greene

This project is an edition, translation, and study of the "Commentary to the Scripture on the Skandhas, Dhatus, and Ayatanas," the only fully extant Chinese-authored scriptural commentary composed during the first two hundred years of Chinese Buddhism. My translation and study of this long-ignored text will allow us to understand how the earliest Chinese readers of Buddhist literature grappled with the first Chinese translations of the basic doctrinal formula and modes of systematic analysis typical of Indian Buddhist exegesis. This will enable a new perspective on the earliest history of Chinese Buddhism that highlights translation, exegesis, and commentary as a transcultural contact zone for new modes of thought in China in the wake of the collapse of the Han dynasty.