Wonhyo Publication Project

In 1997, the Korean Studies Program entered into a partnership with Dongguk University in Korea to create a complete scholarly translation of the works of the 7th Century Korean Buddhist thinker Wonhyo. Wonhyo is considered the most important figure in the history of Korean Buddhism, and a significant influence on East Asian Buddhism in general, yet his work is little known among Western Buddhologists, in large part because there is almost no scholarship on him available in English, and no complete, scholarly translation of his works. The translations of his 24 extant works will have the field to themselves. The critical introductions and annotations in each of the five volumes will in many cases be the only scholarship available in English. We are also planning an introductory volume on Wonhyo's philosophical system and an anthology volume suitable for the general reader and for use in undergraduate classes.

A group of two dozen translators in four countries, all of them distinguished Buddhologists, has put together for the project, and the University of Hawaii Press has agreed to publish the series. The Second Volume of the series was first published in 2007 under the title Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wonhyo's Exposition Of The Vajrasamadhi-sutra (kumgang Sammaegyong Non) and the remaining volumes are up to the process of publication currently.

1. Wonhyo's Philosophy of Mind, Edited by A. Charles Muller and Cuong T. Nguyen (2012)
2. Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wonhyo's Exposition of the Vajrasamadhi-Sutra, Translated with an introduction by Robert E. Buswell Jr. (2007)

For the information on the published volume, click here.

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