Lecture by Antonello Palumbo (Yale): Immigrants and Missionaries in the Early History of Buddhism in China

It is a lingering assumption that, ever since the Eastern Han 漢 (AD 25–220), Buddhism spread to China through the agency of Indian and Central Asian missionaries. However, only from the late fourth century does a cultural confrontation emerge around the perceived foreignness of Buddhism. This may depend less on a gradual build-up of Buddhist presence in the early centuries of the Common Era than on radical shifts in the nature of that presence: until the end of the Western Jin 晉 (266–316), notable Buddhists are found chiefly among communities of foreign immigrants, which had settled within Han territory since the second century AD. The scene does change towards AD 400, when bona fide missionaries start coming in droves, and spark vigorous cultural reactions that would endure until the Tang. This talk will assess what may change in our understanding of the early history of Buddhism in China, once room is duly made for a prominent role of Sinophone diasporas in its making.

Antonello Palumbo is a historian of religions focusing on China, and with a particular interest in Buddhism as a pan-Asian culture in Late Antiquity. He holds a PhD in East Asian Studies from the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples, with further studies in China (Peking University) and Japan (Kyoto University). Until 2020 he was Senior Lecturer in the Religions of China at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is currently an Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer in East Asian Studies at Yale University. He is the author of An Early Chinese Commentary on the Ekottarika-āgama: The Fenbie gongde lun 分別功德論 and the History of the Translation of the Zengyi ahan jing 增一阿含經 (Taipei: Fagu Wenhua, 2013) and of many articles and essays.

The event is sponsored by the Department of Religion and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Studies

Photo credit: Images of donors from the pedestal of a seated Buddha statue from Shijiazhuang, Hebei. Gilt bronze. c. 2nd–3rd AD? Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums