Sylvie Hureau

Presentation

My work focuses on Chinese Buddhism from the Six Dynasties up to the beginning of the Tang.

My research is at the crossroads of the disciplines of history and historiography. I study canonical biographical narratives such as the Biographies of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan), in order to understand the general history, and sometimes the micro-history of beliefs, cults and practices. I am also interested in the resorts that biographers used to transfer Buddhist knowledge into the stories of monks’ lives. This aspect covers the research I am conducting at the same time on the history of the systematization of knowledge, from the Six Dynasties onwards, with regard to Buddhist rites and practices. In doing so, I am trying to understand which texts among the thousands in circulation, which passages within sometimes monumental texts, which particular ideas and expressions were then used to define a Buddhist orthopraxis that would become the reference and model for the generations, and the centuries, that followed. Finally, my work on biographies also includes a study of the biographical data in the Dunhuang manuscripts, in comparison with the canonical data.

Research thematics

• History and historiography of Chinese Buddhism during the Six Dynasties
• History of Buddhist rituals and cultic practices
• Translation and transmission of Buddhist texts
• The content of Buddhist encyclopedias and the modes of transmission of knowledge

CRCAO research programmes

• Lifes of Buddhist Actors in the Sinosphere : Forms of Extra-canonical Narrative
• Histories and Historians of Classical China
• Directory of Patronymics and Titles of Function in the Dunhuang Manuscripts
• The Dog in Ancient China and Today

Teachings

• Bouddhisme chinois
• Introduction à la lecture de textes bouddhiques chinois

Publications (HAL Archive Ouverte)

Article dans une revue

Communication dans un congrès

Chapitre d'ouvrage

Notice d’encyclopédie ou de dictionnaire