遊方與佛教傳播：歷代僧傳移動與空間的數位人文研究=Religious Itineracy and the Spread of Buddhism: Digital Humanities Research on the Travel Events in the Biographs of Eminent Monks
In Buddhism as a religion based on outward spread, the practice of wandering from place to place establishes the foundation of the monks' cultivation of mind and knowledge, and is a means of propagating the Buddhist faith. It also exemplifies the meaning of "respecting the edification through wandering, not satisfied with remaining in one place", and has a significant influence on the spread of Buddhism, the founding of Buddhist schools and the cultural exchange between countries. The article, based on the website "Religious Itineracy: Travel Narratives in the Biographs of Eminent Monks", uses event extraction, text mark-up, a database of the travel events and other digital tools to complement Yan Gengwang's theory of Buddhist center, as well as Lancaster's "The Great Circle" of Buddhism, and to discuss the relation between the travel events in the Buddhist eminent monks' biographies and the spread of Chinese Buddhism. The article makes the discovery that precisely because of these two models of oscillation and ripple that the kinship bond, the dharma bond and the place bond can be related to the motivations for traveling, which makes possible the spread of Buddhism on all levels, and implements the Buddhist teaching by the establishment of secondary centers situated in the periphery.
