Dr John Jorgensen

BA (Hons), MA, PhD

Senior Lecturer

Contact details for Dr John Jorgensen

Research expertise

• Chinese and Korean Buddhism
• Korean and Japanese new religious movements
• Tokugawa Buddhological and Indological scholarship
• Organ transplantation in Japan

Current teaching areas

• Japanese studies

Publications

Books

• Inventing Hui-neng: Hagiography and Biography in Early Ch’an, vol. 68 Sinica Leidensia, Brill: Leiden, Boston, 2005, 862 pp.
• The Essential Passages that Directly Point at the Essence of the Mind, Reverend Baegun (1299-1375), translated by John Jorgensen and Eun-su Cho, Jogye Order Publishing: Seoul, 2005

Book chapters

• “Problems in the Comparison of Korean and Chinese Buddhism: From the 16th Century to the 19th Century,” in Geumgang Center for Buddhist Studies, Geumgang University, comp., Korean Buddhism in East Asian Perspectives, Jimoondang: Seoul, 2007, pp. 119-158.
• “Korea as a Source for the Regeneration of Chinese Buddhism: The Evidence of Ch’an and Sŏn Literature,” in Robert E.  Buswell, Jr, ed., Currents and Countercurrents: Korean Influences on the East Asian Buddhist Traditions, University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu, 2005, pp. 73-152.
• “Representing Wŏnch’ŭk,” in Benjamin Penny, ed., Religion and biography in China and Tibet, Curzon Press: Richmond, 2002, pp. 74-131.
• “The Sulmong swaeon by Layman Wolchang,” in Ch’ŏn Ŭndŏk Ch’ongmuwŏnjang hwagap ki’nyŏm nonchong kanhaeng wiwŏnhoe, eds, Ch’ŏntaejong Ch’ŏn Ŭndŏk Ch’ongmuwŏnjang hwagap ki’nyŏm Pulgyohak nonchong [Essays on Buddhism presented to Venerable Jeon Un-deok on his Sixtieth Birthday] The Research Institute for Ch’ont’ae Buddhist Culture Kwanmunsa Temple, Puljisa: Seoul, 1999, pp. 515-552 (plus Korean translation pp. 490-514).
• “Who was the author of the Tan’gun Myth?” in Sang-Oak Lee and Duk-Soo Park, eds, Perspectives on Korea, Wild Peony: Sydney, 1998, pp. 222-255.
• “A social analysis of Korean Buddhism and its future prospects,” in Nog’wŏn Sŭnim kohŭi ki’nyŏm haksul nonch’ong kanhaeng wiwŏnhoe, eds (1997), Han’guk Pulgyo ŭi chwap’yo [The Direction of Korean Buddhism: Festschrift in honour of the Rev. Nog’wŏn, Chancellor, Dongguk University], Pulgyosidaesa, Kimch’on city, pp. 321-372 (Korean translation, pp. 278-320).
  

Book chapters (under review):

• “Marginalized and Silenced: Buddhist Nuns of the Chosŏn Period,” in Eunsu Cho, ed., More than Women: Historical Illuminations – Korean Nuns within the Context of East Asian Tradition.
• Translation from Korean of chapter by Heo Heung-sik, “Two Female Masters of Two Eras: Differences and Commonalities in Roles,” for Eunsu Cho, ed. (as above).
• Translation from Korean of book preface by Eunsu Cho for Eunsu Cho, ed. (as above).
• “Minjung Buddhism: History, Thought and Critique,” in Jin Y. Park, ed., Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism, proposed for SUNYPress (contract signed).

Articles in refereed journals

• “Mujaku Dōchū (1653-1744) and Seventeenth Century Chinese Buddhist Scholarship,” East Asian History 31, (in press).
• “Trends in Japanese Research on Korean Buddhism 2000-2005,” The Review of Korean Studies vol. 9 no. 1 March 2006, pp. 9-25.
• “Linguistic Nationalism and Kabbalistic Scripts in Nativist Korean New Religious Movements,” International Review of Korean Studies vol. 1 no. 1, 2004, pp. 9-48.
• “Conflicts between Buddhism and Confucianism in the Choson Dynasty,” Bulgyo Yongu 15, March 1998, pp. 189-242 (plus Korean translation)
• “Korean Buddhist historiography - lessons from the past for the future,” Bulgyo Yongu (Korean Institute for Buddhist Studies), 14, August 1997, pp. 219-260
• “Tan’gun and the Legitimization of a Threatened Dynasty: North Korea’s Rediscovery of Tan’gun,” Korea Observer, XXVII no. 2, Summer 1996, Institute of Korean Studies, Seoul, pp. 273-306
• “The ‘Imperial’ Lineage of Ch’an Buddhism: The Role of Confucian Ritual and Ancestor Worship in Ch’an’s Search for Legitimation in the mid-T’ang Dynasty,” Papers on Far Eastern History, 35, March 1987, pp. 89-132
• “Two Themes in Korean Buddhist Thought,” Hanguk Bulkyo Hak [The Journal of the Korean Association of Buddhist Studies], no. 7, Dec. 1982, Dongguk University, Seoul, pp. 207-223
  

Articles in non-refereed journals

• “Mujaku and his family,” Zen bunka kenkyūsho kiyō [Annual Report for the Institute of Zen Studies] 29 (Jan. 2008), pp. 1-35
• “Zen scholarship: Mujaku Dōchū and his contemporaries,” Zen bunka kenkyūsho kiyō [Annual Report for the Institute of Zen Studies] 27 (Dec. 2004), pp. 1-60
• “The rebirth of a marginalised knowledge: alternate histories and symbolic analysis in nativist Korean new religious movements,” Tan’gunhak yŏn’gu [Journal of the Tan’gun Research Society]  2004.  (copy not sighted by me, but has been seen by a number of people from Korea at KSAA Conference, 2005)
• “The Platform Sūtra and the corpus of Shenhui: Recent critical text editions and studies,” Revue Bibliographique de Sinologie, 2002, pp. 399-438

Addresses and public lectures

• “The Buddhism of Sui Dynasty China (561-618) and beyond: Reunification and Systematisation,” Queensland Art Gallery, 4th of April 2007 (lecture and illustrations in explanation of an exhibition).
• “Barking up the wrong tree in search of Korea’s spiritual roots: Tan’gun, the ten lost tribes of Israel, Hermann the German and the Druids,” 4th Korean Studies Postgraduate Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, 30th January 2007.

Review article

• “Trends in Japanese Research on Korean Buddhism, 2000-2005,” The Review of Korean Studies, vol. 9 no. 1 (March 2006), pp. 9-25.
• Review of Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History, 2 vols (vol. 1, India and China; vol. 2, Japan), in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, Dec. 1991, pp. 376-400.
  

Encyclopedia entries

• “Chan School” and “Hakuin Ekaku,” in Robert E. Buswell, Jr., ed., Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2 vols, Macmillan Reference USA, 1: 130-137 and 1: 313-314.
• Entries in William M. Johnston, ed, Encyclopedia of Monasticism, 2 vols, Fitzroy Dearborn: Chicago, 2000, on “Bodhidharma” (1: 158-162), “Chan/Zen: China” (1:269-272), “Chan/Zen: Vietnam” (1: 276-277), “China” (1: 279-285), “Hagiography: Buddhist perspectives” (1:563-564), “Huineng” (1: 614-615), “Korea: Recent changes” (1:719-720), “Mount Wutai, China” (2: 904-905), “Shaolin, China” (2: 1159-1161).