As times go by, we have already have some important academic books on the Taiwanese Buddhism, but, I cannot help feeling that almost all of these books focus only a few themes, few books show the readers general views on the whole history and today’s condition of the Taiwanese Buddhism! It is very happy now Dr. Jiang Canteng(江燦騰) gives us almost complete answers through this book titled ‘The History of the Taiwanese Buddhism’. As almost all of the people concerned with the Taiwanese Buddhism know and are very afraid, for these 10 years this good scholar and teacher has been against with his hard illness, but he never gives up and writes many papers on the Taiwanese Buddhism, make many people understand the history of the Taiwanese Buddhism, especially that of the priod under the rule of the Japanese Empire. The Taiwanese Buddhism of that period is very different from that of the period under the rule of the ROC government, for example, （1）many monks get married like the Rev. Martin Luther；（2）the presense of the Zhaijiao（齋教）, the syncrethism of Buddhism and the Taiwanese Taoism；（3）the Buddhist exchange between Taiwan and the Mainland China was very severely controlled under the Japanese government in Taiwan(臺灣總督府), but many Buddhists managed to continue the exchange to protect the good tradition of the Chinese Mahāyana Buddhism in Taiwan. Dr. Jiang, the author shows us many newly-found facts and explains them in details. As a Japanese Buddhist, after reading this book, I feel very sorry and pleasant that the great monastery in Dagangshan（大崗山）, located in the suburb of Kaoshiung City was broken under the order from the army of the Japanese Empire during the World War Ⅱ, but the monks, nuns and laymen of the monestry succeeded in the reconstruction and expansion in all of the South Taiwan. Because of the want of paper, I now stop my description dedicated to this most excellent work on the study of the Taiwanese Buddhism!
