Otani University Academic Repository / 大谷大学学術情報リポジトリ

磯部,美紀

イソベ,ミキ

ISOBE,Miki

阿部,友香

アベ,ユカ

ABE,Yuka

Japanese

A Preliminary Study on the Role of Religions Institutions in a Declining Population Area: Base on a Questionnaire Survey Performed in Kasuga Mitsuka, Ibigawa-chō,Gifu Prefecture

渡辺, 啓真

ワタナベ,ヒロマサ

WATANABE, Hiromasa

A Moral Implication of Contemporary Free-Will Debates: Beyond the Intuitive Conflict about Retributivism

野村, 明宏

ノムラ, アキヒロ

NOMURA, Akihiro

Multiplicity and Communality among Associated Lives:Rethinking Nature-Culture Relations

J. A. Vajira Nalinda Jayathilaka

English

ARTICLES Representations of Queen Victoria in Sri Lankan Buddhist Monastic Art and Their Transformation

Cover, colophon, Contents

Reports

Dennis Gira

B O O K  R E V I E W S 83
(such as Dōgen 道元 [1200–1253]) uses the idea of dependent arising to proclaim 
the perfect buddhahood of animals, plants, and rocks, such voices have a tendency to 
place equal value upon everything—toxic waste and oil spills just as much as elephants 
and plants. As Capper notes, “a clean environment requires difficult choices, and a 
worldview that values all existents equally provides an unsteady platform for making 
these value-laden choices” (p. 219). The overall conclusion reached—as one might have 
predicted from the beginning—is that Buddhism contains ample resources that might 
support a sustainable biosphere, but without adaptation it is incapable of offering a full 
environmental ethic that can deal with our contemporary ecological crisis.
The conclusion also summarizes the book’s findings on each of its “three touch-
points for ecological comparison.” With regard to Buddhist views on vegetarianism, 
Capper concludes (as expected) that such views are complex and multifaceted, with a 
general divide between the Theravada and Mahayana worlds—the former often taking 
meat-eating for granted and the latter having a significant body of scriptural sources 
that promote vegetarianism, although nowhere in the Buddhist world is this ideal fully 
realized. With regard to the practice of religion by animals and other natural phenom-
ena, Capper finds that although “the mainstream of the tradition denies the ability 
of any being other than a human to practice Buddhism” (p. 222), stories from across 
the Buddhist world suggesting otherwise are frequent and easy to find. Finally, with 
regard to nature mysticism Capper finds that although it does exist in many places in 
the Buddhist world, “it does so at best on the margins” (p. 223) and is most likely to 
appear in either Chinese or Vajrayana contexts.
Overall, Roaming Free Like a Deer offers a cohesive and accessible account of Bud-
dhism’s relationship to the natural world. Its coverage of multiple cultural contexts and 
diverse phenomena, together with a consistent interpretive framework used throughout, 
makes the book a unique contribution to a burgeoning field. That being said, although 
it has much to offer to professional scholars of Buddhism and graduate students in 
Buddhist studies, it is perhaps best suited for an undergraduate or general audience.
Tanluan: “Commentaire au Traité de la Naissance dans la Terre Pure” de Vasubandhu. 
Chinese text compiled, translated, and annotated by Jérôme Ducor. Paris: Les Belles 
Lettres, 2021. cii + 474 pages. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-2-251-45089-6.
Dennis Gira
Readers who have conducted research on East Asian Buddhism, and especially on the 
Pure Land tradition, will know that Tanluan 曇鸞 (Jp. Donran; 476–542) is the first 
T H E  E A S T E R N  B U D D H I S T  3 ,  284
of the five patriarchs of the Jōdoshū 淨土宗 (Pure Land School) and the second of 
the seven patriarchs of the Jōdo Shinshū 淨土眞宗 (True Pure Land School) in Japan. 
Among these patriarchs we find some of the most renowned Buddhist thinkers and 
spiritual leaders of India, China, and Japan. The seven patriarchs of the Jōdo Shinshū 
school, for example, are Nāgārjuna (fl. ca. 2nd–3rd c.) and Vasubandhu (Ch. Posou- 
pantu 婆藪般頭, Jp. Basobanzu; fl. ca. mid-4th–mid-5th c.) in India; Tanluan, Daochuo 
道綽 (562–645; Jp. Dōshaku), and Shandao 善導 (613–681; Jp. Zendō) in China; and 
Genshin 源信 (942–1017) and Hōnen 法然 (1133–1212) in Japan. 
The fact that both Vasubandhu and Tanluan are venerated as patriarchs by one of 
the most important schools of Buddhism in Japan today would in itself have justified 
Jérôme Ducor’s interest in translating Tanluan’s Wuliangshoujing youpotishe yuanshengjie 
zhu 無量壽經優婆提舍願生偈註 (Jp. Muryōjukyō ubadaisha ganshōge chū; Commentary 
on the Treatise on Birth in the Pure Land by Vasubandhu; hereafter Commentary)—
which is also known by the alternate titles Wangshenglun zhu 往生論註 (Jp. Ōjōron 
chū) and Jingtulun zhu 浄土論註 (Jp. Jōdoron chū). In his foreword, Ducor states that 
his goal in undertaking this translation is first to enable people “to read this work of 
Tanluan’s for what it is, namely, a sixth-century Chinese text, referring systematically 
neither to the Indian presuppositions of Vasubandhu’s treatise nor to the oceanic exe-
gesis of which the Commentary has been the object in Japan” (p. x). While recognizing 
the value of these two tendencies, Ducor concentrates resolutely on the Commentary. 
In other words, he is more interested in helping us understand what Vasubandhu and 
Tanluan themselves say about birth in the Pure Land, and through that, about them-
selves, than what is said about them and their thought in the hundreds of books and 
articles that have treated Tanluan’s Commentary. While not compromising his primary 
interest, Ducor does provide much valuable background information about Vasu- 
bandhu’s and Tanluan’s contributions to the development of the Pure Land tradition. 
He also indicates what forms of Buddhism (and in the case of Tanluan, of Taoism as 
well) had attracted these figures in the earlier stages of their respective religious and 
philosophical trajectories. 
The limits inherent in a translation of Tanluan’s Commentary are considerable, 
which explains why there are not many comprehensive translations available. The 
translator has to deal with the very complicated structure of the Commentary. First 
there is Vasubandhu’s Treatise on Birth in the Pure Land, which is actually an abbrevia-
tion of the more complex and rich title Teaching (Upadeśa) on the Canon of Infinite 
Life with the Poem of the Vow of Birth in the Pure Land (hereafter Teaching). This work 
consists of a twenty-four stanza poem that, in the words of Vasubandhu, is an “overall 
presentation of the text of the Sutra of Infinite Life” (p. 7), followed by his own com-
mentary, in prose, on this poem. In Ducor’s volume, Vasubandhu’s text, in Chinese 
and French, precedes Tanluan’s Commentary, which explicates both the poem and 
B O O K  R E V I E W S 85
Vasubandhu’s auto-commentary on it. And then there are the languages—in Ducor’s 
case Chinese and French—with which translators have to struggle constantly to find 
ways to “translate” words that have no equivalent in their own language, and this is 
especially true of technical terms. Ducor’s translation shows that he has embraced the 
demands of this task successfully. 
Tanluan begins his Commentary with a brief but very significant introduction in 
which he draws attention to Nāgārjuna’s distinction between the “path of the diffi-
cult practice” (nanxing dao 難行道, Jp. nangyōdō) and the “path of the easy practice” 
( yixing dao 易行道, Jp. igyōdō ) in the context of the progression of bodhisattvas toward 
the stage of nonregression (butui 不退, Jp. futai ). Roughly speaking, this distinction 
at first concerned the difference between the practices called for in the Hinayana and 
those demanded of those who followed the “path of the bodhisattva” proposed in the 
Mahayana. In time it referred to distinguishing Pure Land Buddhist practices from 
other Buddhist practices. The Pure Land practices include the “five gates of com-
memoration” mentioned by Vasubandhu in his poem, described in his treatise, and 
commented upon by Tanluan. The five gates include the gate of veneration, or wor-
ship; the gate of praise; the gate of resolution; the gate of contemplation, or visualiza-
tion; and the gate of the transfer of merit. Much later, in Japan, this distinction was 
used to differentiate the commemoration of Amida’s name, especially in the nenbutsu 
念仏 (Ch. nianfo) formula “Namu Amida Butsu” 南無阿彌陀佛 (Reverence to the 
Buddha Amida), from all other Pure Land practices. In this way, the “difficult prac-
tice” became in reality an impracticable and therefore useless practice. This evolution 
came with the insights and orientations of later patriarchs of the Pure Land tradition 
across the centuries. Tanluan goes on to explain that Vasubandhu’s work is more than 
a simple treatise on a sutra, or jing 經 (Jp. kyō). For him, this teaching (upadeśa) on the 
Canon of Infinite Life is the culmination of the most important of Mahayana teachings. 
He concludes this brief introduction with an explanation of each term used in the title 
of Vasubandhu’s Teaching, including that of the term “canon.” All this prepares the way 
for Tanluan’s Commentary, which comprises his interpretations of both the poem (part 
1, pp. 30–93) and the treatise (part 2, pp. 94–163).
This volume, the fruit of Ducor’s many years of research, contains a wealth of valu-
able detail. The publisher, Les Belles Lettres, has more than a century of experience 
editing works such as this. The rigorous requirements for texts and translations pub-
lished in its Bibliothèque chinoise series call for a long introduction, and in the work 
under review, the author provides us with ninety-four pages (ix–cii) consisting of a 
foreword in which he announces his project (pp. ix–xii), the introduction itself (pp. 
xiii–xcvii), a map, a chronology, and an explanation of why the author has chosen 
to prioritize French sources in his notes and commentaries wherever possible. Also 
required by the publisher for volumes in this collection are a well-developed critical 
T H E  E A S T E R N  B U D D H I S T  3 ,  286
apparatus, ample footnotes, and a thorough bibliography. Ducor offers a forty-three-
page bibliography with references to French, English, and Japanese works dealing with 
the essential aspects of Buddhism, especially Pure Land Buddhism. An exhaustive 
index is also a must in the Bibliothèque chinoise series, and the reader will find twenty-
five pages of names, titles of important texts, and technical terms in Sanskrit, Chinese, 
and Japanese. The author also adds forty-seven pages of complementary notes that give 
further explanations about some of the more complex elements provided in the 535 
footnotes to the translation and thirty-two pages of “notices” (more detailed notes) on 
more important, and often lesser-known, technical terms. 
The most important part of the book is, of course, the bilingual presentation: the 
Chinese text on the left-hand side and the corresponding French translation on the 
right. This presentation allows readers having knowledge of Chinese and/or kanbun-
style Japanese to more easily navigate the Chinese text. The footnote references are 
indicated in the French translation, and the notes themselves run across the bottom of 
each of the 163 double pages of the translation. It should be noted that, including the 
long introduction, there are in fact 576 pages in the volume, more than the 307 pages 
often found in online descriptions of the book. This is due to the fact that the smaller 
total page number does not take into consideration the fact that each double page is 
counted as a single one. 
The key that allows readers to enter into Tanluan’s Commentary is Ducor’s intro-
duction. It is divided into several sections containing his comments on Tanluan’s life, 
Vasubandhu’s treatise, Tanluan’s Commentary, Tanluan’s other works on Buddhism, 
Tanluan’s place in Chinese Buddhist history, and ancient and modern commentaries 
on both Vasubandhu and Tanluan. The most immediately useful are Ducor’s discus-
sions of Vasubandhu’s treatise (pp. xlii–li) and of Tanluan’s Commentary (pp. lii–lxxv). 
The latter, for example, provides a very useful doctrinal overview in which Ducor 
highlights some of Tanluan’s most original contributions and includes the three-
point summary of his teaching developed in Japan that has become axiomatic in the 
context of modern academic studies of Tanluan (Donran kyōgaku 曇鸞教学). The first 
point affirms that being born in Amida’s Pure Land is a realization of a superior order. 
According to the second, all beings, even the most ordinary, can attain rebirth there. 
The third explains that the apparent contradiction between the first two points is 
resolved by the excellent but nevertheless easy practice of commemorating Buddha (p. 
lvi). Keeping these three points constantly in mind will help the reader enter into Tan-
luan’s very challenging text, which reveals several essential qualities of his approach to 
Buddhism and to the Pure Land and its buddha, Amida. Ducor sums up two of these 
qualities in the very first sentence of his foreword: “If we had only two words to qualify 
Tanluan’s Commentary, they would be ‘originality’ and ‘freedom’” (p. ix). He empha-
sizes that Tanluan did not claim to belong to any formal lineage, his thought being free 
B O O K  R E V I E W S 87
of “preestablished doctrinal constraints” (p. ix). His intention is to help people better 
understand the nature of the Pure Land (also known as the Land of Ultimate Bliss, or 
Supreme Happiness [Jile 極楽, Jp. Gokuraku]), to show how and why it is important 
to seek rebirth there, and to explain the practice that will assure that rebirth.
In choosing to compile, translate, and comment on Tanluan’s work, Jérôme Ducor 
renders a great service to the French-speaking world, which is much less familiar with 
the works of Tanluan and of Pure Land Buddhism in general than the English-speak-
ing world. This is especially important because in France the lack of any institutional 
presence (temple, center, school, etc.) of this tradition considerably distorts the percep-
tion that French people have of Buddhism in Japan, where it is the largest current of 
Buddhism. This book should contribute to correcting this distortion and help French-
speaking Buddhists see more clearly the real diversity that exists in the Buddhist world. 
Ducor also renders service to the English-speaking world because his French transla-
tion and commentary necessarily express nuances of terms found in the Chinese trans-
lation of Vasubandhu’s Teaching and in the original Chinese of Tanluan’s Commentary 
that simply have no equivalent in either of these two languages. The efforts that are 
made in French and English to translate such terms sometimes lead to solutions that 
approximate the original meanings of the Chinese terms with varying degrees of suc-
cess. It is seldom that the translation in one of these languages is right and the other 
wrong. In fact, thanks to these differences those capable of reading the two languages 
should be able to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the terms in question. 
Keeping this in mind while reading this French translation and one of the English 
translations listed in the bibliography side by side would certainly be a very profitable 
experience for researchers interested in Chinese and/or Japanese Buddhism, especially 
as expressed within the Pure Land tradition. The principal virtue of Jérôme Ducor’s 
translation and commentary is that they make this type of “adventure” possible by 
offering a real treasure of information from which any researcher in the field who has a 
working knowledge of French will be able to benefit.
One final note: the author has provided a useful supplement to the book on his 
personal website. The pdf provides additional bibliographical references as well as a 
list of errata. It can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.pitaka.ch 
/Sanlunxuanyi_sup


BOOK REVIEWS Jérôme Ducor. Tanluan: “Commentaire au Traité de la Naissance dans la Terre Pure” de Vasubandhu

鈴木,善幸

スズキ,ヨシユキ

SUZUKI,Yoshiyuki

（ 15 ）大谷大学図書館・博物館報（第41号）
大谷大学図書館
　仏教書
し ょ し
肆（書店、出版社）として有名な法藏館は、東本願寺の門前、京都下京上珠数屋町東洞院
西入ルにあり、その精力的な出版事業は、仏教書だけでなく多岐にわたります。また、近年は「法
藏館文庫」として、仏教学、歴史学、民俗学、宗教学といった分野における一読すべき名著を、文
庫版で次々と刊行していることでも有名です。
　法藏館の歴史は、本家である丁子屋が慶長 7 年（1602）に仏教書肆を創業したことに始まります。
嘉永３年（1850）に初代西村七兵衛 ( 23 歳 ) が、分家独立して丁子屋七兵衛を名乗り、仏教書肆
を開業しました。明治 18 年（1885）頃より「法藏館」の店名が見えます。（以上、法藏館 HP「法
藏館のあゆみ」より）
　この歴史ある法藏館の社屋南側の蔵には、江戸期以来の版木が、約１万枚が収蔵されています。
この版
はんぎぐら
木蔵も併せて、版木がこれほど残されていることは、たいへん稀少であり、また法藏館の出
版の歴史を現代に伝える証言者たりえます。
　その貴重な版木蔵より、明治から昭和期に実際の出版に使用されてい
た書名や表紙の模様、挿絵等の版木・金板を提供いただき、オリジナルブッ
クカバーやポストカードを作成するワークショップを開催しました。
　このワークショップ自体は、法藏館営業部の方（本学卒業生）が発案
されたもので、既に東本願寺で開催された伝統技術のワークショップや、
一般書店のイベント等で実施されてきました。そして今回は当館での実
施についてご相談させていただき、開催に至りました。
　実施日もCOVID-19 の感染法上の位置づけの 5 類引き下げに伴い、2019 年
以来、一般来場も可能となった学園祭を少しでも盛り上げようと、その期間
中で図書館が唯一休館日であった 11月12日（日）
でした。会場には図書館入口すぐのスペースを利
用しました。当初は 4 人分の作業スペース（長机 2
台）を準備していましたが、開始直後から徐々に参
加者が増え、最終的には12人分の作業スペース（長
机 6 台）を出し、のべ 169名の参加者を得ました。
　また、親鸞聖人の生涯を記した絵入りの『御
伝絵略解』の江戸時代の版木とそれを使った版
本等も法藏館様にご準備いただき、出版の歴史
の一端をお示しいただきましたことも、ワーク
ショップを盛り上げる展示となりました。
　本イベントは 2024 年度以降も学祭期間中の開催を検討しています。開催が決定しましたら大谷
大学 OPAC 等で発信いたしますので、ご参加いただければ幸いです。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　〈文責：図書・博物館課　課長　鈴木　善幸〉
版木・金板ワークショップの開催
News Source 4
版木と版本の展示
ワークショップの様子


〈News Source 4〉版木・金板ワークショップの開催

西本, 祐攝

ニシモト, ユウセツ

NISHIMOTO, Yusetsu

Résumés of Papers Presented at the Otani Society Annual Meeting 2023

上野 牧生

ウエノ, マキオ

UENO, Makio

李, 学竹

リ, ガクチク

LI, Xuezhu

The Beginning of the Bhadracaryā: Two Sanskrit Manuscripts on the First Section of Bhadracaryāpraṇidhāna Commentary

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