胡海燕=Haiyan Hu-von Hinüber; 德籍佛教歷史與語言學家=German scholar of Buddhist history and philology; 法顯=Faxien; 佛國記=A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms Foguoji; 跨文化詮釋學=Transcultural Hermeneutics
This translation is composed of three articles from Dr. Haiyan Hu- von Hinüber（胡海燕-封興伯）, German scholar of Buddhist history and philology in Freiburg University. The first German paper attempts to determine Faxien‘s plentiful concepts of ―boundary‖ and ―cross-boundary‖ in Foguoji（《佛國記》）. It exemplifies the ―Transcultural Hermeneutics‖. The second English paper suggests some new interpretations for several ambiguous terms and passages. Managing new and various materials, such as early Indian texts, a relief from Bhārhut, Vinaya-Piṭak as well as Jaina literature, Prof. Hu Haiyan discusses whether bangti（傍梯）meansthe Sanskrit term śaṅkupatha; whether certain words such as zhongguo（中國）and biandi（邊地）could be traced back to the Buddhist Vinaya- Piṭaka; whether the play, Faxian appearing to have seen, corresponds to Aśvaghosa‘s Śāriputraprakaraṇa-- the fragments of Sanskrit manuscript found in Turfan by the German expeditions? The third paper focuses on the anonymous epilogue. By analyzing the structure and style, the missing author could be related to the civil servant Meng Yi.
