Acknowledgements
In working on the translations presented in the present volume I was repeatedly confronted with difficult textual passages, which I could not come to terms with alone. I was privileged in receiving insightful advice from many scholars, to whom I am deeply grateful for their help. In particular I wish to point out that the present volume would not have been possible without the immense help I received from Huang Chi-chiang (Hobart and William Smith Colleges), who kindly provided his precious advice in tireless manner throughout the research process. For further invaluable support I wish to thank James A. Benn (McMaster University), Fujii Jun (Komazawa University), Timothy Wai Keung Chan (Hong Kong Baptist University), Jun Fang (Huron College), Edmund Lien (University of Washington), Li Wen-chao (San Francisco State University), Lin Pei-ying (University of California at Berkeley), Luo Manling (Indiana University), Richard John Lynn (University of Toronto), Sun Yingying (University of Washington), Paul L. Swanson (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture), Sem Vermeersch (Seoul National University), Albert Welter (The University of Arizona), Wu Jiang (The University of Arizona), Xiong Cunrui (Western Michigan University), and Yü Chün-fang (Columbia University). I also thank John Kieschnick (Stanford University) for the kind donation of his esteemed book Buddhist Historiography in China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2022).