Laurent Van Cutsem 方洛杭, Ph.D.
BOF Postdoctoral Fellow, Ghent University
(Department of Languages and Cultures; Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies)

I am a scholar of Buddhism in medieval China, specializing in Chan (Zen) 禪 literature from the mid-Tang 唐 to the early Song 宋 dynasties (ca. 750–1050). My research focuses on the formation, transmission, and canonization of Chan texts, with particular attention to manuscripts from the northwestern Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang 敦煌 and to woodblock printed editions of the Chinese Buddhist canon, beginning with the Kaibao Canon 開寶藏 in the late tenth-century.

My doctoral dissertation, entitled "The Zutang ji 祖堂集: Aspects of Textual History, Genealogy, and Intertextuality" (2023, Ghent University) examined the compilation history, genealogical structure, and textual sources of the Zutang ji (Collection of the Patriarchal Hall; ca. 952). Preserved only in a woodblock edition of the second Goryeo 高麗 Buddhist canon, this important mid-tenth-century Chan work is the earliest extant anthology of bio-hagiographic narratives and recorded dialogues of the thirty-three Chan patriarchs of the “southern Chan” tradition and over two hundred masters, structured within a complex, multi-branched genealogical framework. It is also a crucial source for the study of colloquial Middle Chinese. My dissertation reassessed long-standing assumptions concerning the text’s textual history and lineage model and clarified its relationship to earlier Chan literature.

My current monograph project investigates the formation of Chan historiography during the Tang-Song transition period (ca. 750–1050). It examines how Chan historians conceptualized, wrote, and transmitted their own history, focusing on “lamp records” (denglu 燈錄) and their incorporation into state-sponsored Buddhist canons. Focusing on the five earliest extant Chan historiographical anthologies—the Baolin zhuan 寶林傳 (Chronicle of the Baolin [Monastery]; ca. 801), the Shengzhou ji 聖冑集 (Collection of the Sagely Descendant [i.e., Bodhidharma]; ca. 899), the Zutang ji (ca. 952), and the Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄 (Jingde-Era Record of the Transmission of the Lamp; ca. 1004/1009)—I analyze how Chan historians shaped and refined bio-hagiographies of patriarchs and early masters, as well as the historiographical tools and narrative strategies they employed. Further details are available in the “Research” section.

I am also a contributor to the Database of Medieval Chinese Texts (DMCT), where I am responsible for the collection and encoding of variant characters (yitizi 異體字) and for producing XML-based, TEI-compliant scholarly editions of portions of the Zutang ji and related Dunhuang manuscripts, including the Quanzhou Qianfo xinzhu zhuzushi song 泉州千佛新著諸祖師頌 (Or.8210/S.1635) and the Shengzhou ji (Or.8210/S.4478).

My research interests include premodern Chan/Zen literature; Chinese Buddhism through the Song; Dunhuang manuscripts; East Asian manuscript and print culture; Chinese writing systems and variant characters; and Digital Humanities methodologies for East Asian studies, including TEI-based scholarly digital editions and historical social network analysis.

Links:
Curriculum Vitae
Ghent University Research Portal & Database of Medieval Chinese Texts
Google Scholar
Orchid ID
Academia.edu

Contact Information:
Dr. Laurent Van Cutsem
Email: laurent.vancutsem[at}ugent.be (replace {at} with @)
Ghent University, Department of Languages and Cultures
Blandijnberg 2, 5th Floor, Office 150.008, B-9000 Gent, Belgium