Historiography is one of the fields traditional Chinese culture excelled in.
Both the secular historiography and the Buddhist historiography of premodern China are historiographic traditions of abundant wealth. However, while
scholars did make substantial efforts investigating and translating major works
of Chinese secular historiography, Chinese Buddhist historiography received
comparatively little scholarly attention so far. This is unfortunate since a closer
investigation of Chinese Buddhist historiography would significantly enhance
our general understanding of the development of Buddhism in China. A serious beginning has however been made. A pioneering introductory work on
Buddhist historiography of the Song period was presented by Helwig SchmidtGlintzer. It is entitled Die Identität der buddhistischen Schulen und die Kompilation buddhistischer Universalgeschichten in China: Ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte der Sung-Zeit (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1982). More explicitly focusing on
the Buddhist Tiantai school, I myself have presented a study entitled Making
and Remaking of History: A Study of Tiantai Sectarian Historiography (Tokyo:
The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1999). However, in order to
gain secure footage in the study of the Buddhist historiographic tradition,
translations of the major works will be necessary. Here, too, the achievements
regarding Buddhist historiography fall short of those regarding secular historiography