Michael Radich

Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Faculty Member

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Books by Michael Radich

Radich, Michael, and Rong Zhao, eds. Buddhist Stone Sutras in China. Shaanxi Province, Volume 2. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag/Hangzhou: China Academy of Art Press, 2024.

Silk, Jonathan A., editor-in chief. Richard Bowring, Vincent Eltschinger, and Michael Radich, editors. Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Volume II: Lives. Leiden, Brill, 2019.

Corrigenda to Radich 2015

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Michael Radich. The Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra and the Emergence of Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine. Hamburg Buddhist Studies 5. Edited by Michael Zimmermann. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, 2015. 978-3-943423-20-4.

Famously, tathāgatagarbha doctrine holds that every sentient being has within the body a womb for... more Famously, tathāgatagarbha doctrine holds that every sentient being has within the body a womb for Buddhas, or an embryonic Buddha – the potential for full buddhahood. Previous scholars have seen this doctrine as originating in the Tathāgatagarbha-sūtra. In this book, Michael Radich argues that rather, the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra is most likely our earliest extant tathāgatagarbha text. Radich then argues that tathāgatagarbha ideas originated as part of a wider pattern of docetic Buddhology – ideas holding that Buddhas are not really as they appear. Buddhist docetic texts are clearly troubled by the notion that Buddhas could have flesh-and-blood human mothers. The Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra is one such text, and tathāgatagarbha functions as a better substitute for imperfect human maternity: rather than a putrid, painful human womb, buddhahood springs from a “womb” inherent in every sentient being, which promises final liberation from flesh altogether. This book should interest readers concerned with the history of Buddhist ideas, gender in Buddhism, the early Mahāyāna, the cult of the Buddha’s relics, and relations between Buddhist ideas and practice.

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Lin, Chen-kuo and Michael Radich, eds. A Distant Mirror: Articulating Indic Ideas in Sixth and Seventh Century Chinese Buddhism. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, 2014. 978-3-943423-19-8.

In this book, an international team of fourteen scholars investigates the Chinese reception of In... more In this book, an international team of fourteen scholars investigates the Chinese reception of Indian Buddhist ideas, especially in the sixth and seventh centuries. Topics include Buddhist logic and epistemology (pramāṇa, yinming); commentaries on Indian Buddhist texts; Chinese readings of systems as diverse as Madhyamaka, Yogācāra and tathāgatagarbha; the working out of Indian concepts and problematics in new Chinese works; and previously under-studied Chinese evidence for developments in India. The authors aim to consider the ways that these Chinese materials might furnish evidence of broader Buddhist trends, thereby problematizing a prevalent notion of “sinification”, which has led scholars to consider such materials predominantly in terms of trends ostensibly distinctive to China. The volume also tries to go beyond seeing sixth- and seventh-century China primarily as the age of the formation and establishment of the Chinese Buddhist “schools”. The authors attempt to view the ideas under study on their own terms, as valid Buddhist ideas engendered in a rich, “liminal” space of interchange between two large traditions.

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How Ajātaśatru Was Reformed: The Domestication of "Ajase" and Stories in Buddhist History.

Ajātaśatru is famous in Buddhist literature for having killed his father, Bimbisāra, in order to ... more Ajātaśatru is famous in Buddhist literature for having killed his father, Bimbisāra, in order to come to the throne. This study traces the development of this story in Indian, Chinese and Japanese sources, from canonical Mainstream Buddhism to the modern era. Over the course of that long history, this story was transformed many times, a process that culminated in perhaps the most startling transformation of all – the elaboration of the modern psychoanalytic theory of a psychological complex named after Ajātaśatru by Kosawa Heisaku and Okonogi Keigo (the "Ajase Complex"), and the attendant reinvention of Ajātaśatru as "Ajase". Particular attention is given in this study to connecting transformations in the Ajātaśatru narrative to features of the cultural context at two key junctures in its history – in China in the fifth and sixth centuries, and in modern Japan. The study is also presented as an attempt to model ways of using narrative materials as windows into the historical Buddhist worlds they traveled through, and that shaped them. Another dimension of the study that should be of particular interests to Buddhologists is the links between certain texts in Buddhist literature revealed by the narrative and its transformations, particularly among members of a group of texts related to the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra. More generally, the book should be relevant to readers in Buddhist Studies, medieval Chinese studies, Japanese cultural studies, and psychoanalytic theory and its history.

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Being Irrational: Lacan, the Objet a, and the Golden Mean.

Papers by Michael Radich

Radich and Norrish (2025): Supplementary materials

International Journal of Asian Studies , 2025

Radich and Norrish (2025) was based upon computer-assisted analysis of a rather vast quantity of ... more Radich and Norrish (2025) was based upon computer-assisted analysis of a rather vast quantity of phraseological evidence. This supplementary material presents all the phraseological evidence in question, alongside summary tables of some other types of evidence. See the body of the paper for details.

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What happened to the Ekottarikāgama 增壹阿含經 T125 after the death of Dao'an

International Journal of Asian Studies , 2025

The only extant complete Ekottarikāgama, viz. Zengyi ahan jing 增壹阿含經 T125, has presented modern s... more The only extant complete Ekottarikāgama, viz. Zengyi ahan jing 增壹阿含經 T125, has presented modern scholarship with significant challenges. This study departs from the assumption, demonstrated in prior work, that the extant collection is due to *Dharmanandin and Zhu Fonian (and not Saṅghadeva, as wrongly held by tradition and the Taishō). The study first systematically reviews and coordinates prior scholarship on a number of possible anomalous features of T125, such as possible Mahāyāna-ish elements, Sarvāstivādin elements, merged discourses, and material found only late in Pāli and other mainstream canonical parallels. We show that these anomalies are not evenly distributed, but cluster in certain patches of the collection. The second part of the study then presents new, internal (stylistic) evidence that shows that these anomalies tend to be correlated with evidence that associates some discourses in the collection with Zhu Fonian's style in original works, and with later texts. On this basis, we argue that the collection underwent modification after the death of Dao'an 道安 in 385, and suggest, more speculatively, that some of these modifications likely stemmed from the hand of Zhu Fonian.

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"Appendix: Computer-Assisted Analysis of Internal Stylistic Evidence for the Composition Scenario of the Shi'er toutuo jing."

Ratnakūṭa Studies, Volume I,, 2025

Radich, Michael. "Appendix: Computer-Assisted Analysis of Internal Stylistic Evidence for the Com... more Radich, Michael. "Appendix: Computer-Assisted Analysis of Internal Stylistic Evidence for the Composition Scenario of the Shi'er toutuo jing." Appendix to Jonathan A. Silk, "Assembled in China: A Study of the Shi'er toutuo jing 十二頭陀經," in Ratnakūṭa Studies, Volume I, edited by Rafal Felbur, 122–197; Radich Appendix, 190–195. Leiden: Brill, 2025.

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Radich, Michael. "Two Ways of Sitting." In Buddhakṣetrapariśodhana: A Festschrift for Paul Harrison, edited by Charles DiSimone and Nicholas Witkowski, 419–440. Indica et Tibetica 63. Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 2024.

Buddhakṣetrapariśodhana: A Festschrift for Paul Harrison, 2024

This paper considers two words for modes of sitting, both associated with meditation, in early Ch... more

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Xuanzang's Rājāvavādaka

Radich, Michael. "Xuanzang's Rājāvavādaka-sūtra." In Buddhist Stone Sutras in China. Shaanxi Prov... more

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"The Sūtra in which the Thus-Come One Exposes a Teaching for King Prasenajit."

Radich, Michael, Claudia Wenzel, et al., trans. "The Sūtra in which the Thus-Come One Exposes a T... more Radich, Michael, Claudia Wenzel, et al., trans. "The Sūtra in which the Thus-Come One Exposes a Teaching for King Prasenajit." In Buddhist Stone Sutras in China. Shaanxi Province, Volume 2, edited by Michael Radich and Rong Zhao, 363–370. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag/Hangzhou: China Academy of Art Press, 2024.

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Lin Qian and Michael Radich. "Notes on the Fo yi jing 佛醫經 T793." Journal of the American Oriental Society 143, no. 4 (2023): 881–902.

The Fo yi jing 佛醫經 T793, a short text, discusses physical and mental health, presenting its conte... more The Fo yi jing 佛醫經 T793, a short text, discusses physical and mental health, presenting its content as the teachings of the Buddha. The Taishō presents the text as translated by Zhu Lüyan 竺律炎 and Zhi Qian 支謙 . We survey bibliographic records to propose that this attribution is unreliable. Using computer assisted analysis, we locate passages in the text possibly borrowed from early Chinese sources, among them most notably An Shigao’s 安世高 Jiu heng jing 九橫經 T150A(31) . These findings indicate that T793 was probably compiled in China on the basis of various sources . We also find that some basic early Buddhist teach-
ings, such as the four nutriments (āhāra) and rules regarding the eating of meat, are misunderstood or misrepresented in T793 . Taking into account some terms and phrases in T793 that occur more frequently in translations in the Western Jin period, we suggest that T793 is likely a compilation made between the late third and early fourth centuries. It is thus probably one of the earliest extant Chinese compositions of this kind.

Radich, Michael = He Shuqun 何書群, “Wofuyuan ben Jin guangming jing” 卧佛院本《金光明經》, In Buddhist Stone Sutras in China. Sichuan Province, Volume 5: Wofoyuan Section E-F, edited by Manuel Sassmann and Sun Hua 孫華, 42-63. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag/Hangzhou: China Academy of Art Press, 2021.

Chinese translation of English paper in same volume.

Radich, Michael. "The *Suvarṇabhāsottama-sūtra." In Buddhist Stone Sutras in China. Sichuan Province, Volume 5: Wofoyuan Section E-F, edited by Manuel Sassmann and Sun Hua 孫華, 64-91. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag/Hangzhou: China Academy of Art Press, 2021.

Campbell, Duncan, Stephen McDowall and Michael Radich, trans. “Yellow Mountain Travels: Four Accounts.” New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 23, no. 2 (2021): 1-22.

New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 2021

Lin Qian and Michael Radich. “A Computer-assisted Analysis of Zhu Fonian’s Original Mahāyāna Sutras.” Buddhist Studies Review 38, no. 2 (2021): 145-168.

by Lin Qian and Michael Radich

Buddhist Studies Review, 2021

In her 2010 study of the Shi zhu duan jie jing 十住斷結經 T309, Jan Nattier found that several passage... more In her 2010 study of the Shi zhu duan jie jing 十住斷結經 T309, Jan Nattier found that several passages in T309 were copied from earlier Chinese Buddhist texts. She thus proposed that T309 is not a translation from an Indian text, but a “forgery” by Zhu Fonian. Extending Nattier’s analysis with the help of TACL, a tool for computational textual analysis, we conducted a more thorough analysis of Zhu Fonian’s four Mahāyāna texts, namely, T309, the Pusa chu tai jing 菩薩處胎經 T384, the Zhongyin jin 中陰經 T385, and the Pusa yingluo jing 菩薩瓔珞經 T656, and found in T309 and T656 additional content deriving from earlier Chinese texts. On the basis of this analysis of these features of the texts, we propose that all four were likely compiled by Zhu Fonian himself.

Lin Qian 林乾 and He Shuqun 何书群 [Michael Radich]. "Zhu Fonian suo 'yi' dasheng jingdian de jisuanji fuzhu wenben fenxi yanjiu" 竺佛念所"译"大乘经典的计算机辅助文本分析研究. Shijie zongjiao wenhua 世界宗教文化 (2020), no. 6: 16-22.

Shijie zongjiao wenhua 世界宗教文化, 2020

本文通过计算机文本分析工具TACL全面地分析了竺佛念的《十住断结经》《菩萨处胎经》《中阴经》和《菩萨璎珞经》，在《十住断结经》和《菩萨璎珞经》中发现较多的抄袭内容，并通过分析这几部经文中的不同寻... more 本文通过计算机文本分析工具TACL全面地分析了竺佛念的《十住断结经》《菩萨处胎经》《中阴经》和《菩萨璎珞经》，在《十住断结经》和《菩萨璎珞经》中发现较多的抄袭内容，并通过分析这几部经文中的不同寻常之处，认为这四部经有可能都是竺佛念自己编写而不是翻译的。

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Radich, Michael. “Reading the Writing on the Wall: 'Sengchou’s' Cave at Xiaonanhai, Early Chinese Buddhist Meditation, and Unique Portions of *Dharmakṣema’s Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 42 (2019 [2020]): 515-632.

He wanted … just to know how it would be, Just to know how it would feel, released from destructi... more He wanted … just to know how it would be, Just to know how it would feel, released from destruction, To be a bronze man breathing under archaic lapis, Without the oscillation of planetary pass-pass, Breathing his bronzen breath at the azury centre of time. 2 1 I here record my gratitude to Eric Greene, Paul Harrison, Lothar Ledderose, Yamabe Nobuyoshi, Claudia Wenzel, Stefano Zacchetti, and two anonymous reviewers for JIABS, who generously lent their time and learning to give numerous criticisms and suggestions for improvement on earlier drafts of this work, and saved me from more than one embarrassing error. I am also grateful to Hanno Lecher for helping me obtain materials at the eleventh hour. I was fortunate enough to present this work at the University of Vienna on December 7 2018, on a visit funded by the Erasmus+ Programme and hosted by Karin Preisendanz. I benefitted on that occasion from discussion with colleagues in attendance. Of course, I alone am responsible for the mistakes that undoubtedly remain.

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Michael Radich

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