Since its first apperance in China in the third century CE, the "Lotus Sutura" has been the object of intense veration among generations of Buddhists in China, Japan and Korea, as well as other parts of the world. It is often considered the fundamental Mahayana Buddhist sutra, has attracted more commentary than any other Buddhist scripture, and has had a profound impact on Chinese and Japanese literature. This abridged edition condenses the sutra from the most authoratative version, translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in 406 by the great Central Asian scholar Kumarajiva.
Author Biography
Burton Watson is one of the world's best-known translators from the Chinese and Japanese and has taught at Columbia, Stanford, and Kyoto universities. In 1981 he received the PEN Translation Prize. His translations include The Vimalakirti Sutra, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, Records of the Grand Historian, Ryokan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, Saigyo: Poems of a Mountain Home, and The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century, all published by Columbia.
