Ji Xianlin was born in 1911 in Qingping, Shandong (now incorporated into Linqing City). His grandfather Ji Laotai, his father Ji Silian, and his mother Zhao were farmers. Uncle Ji Sicheng. When he was young, he became literate with Ma Jinggong. At the age of 6, he went to Jinan to join his uncle Ji Sicheng. Entered a private school to study. After the age of 7, he studied in the Xinyu Primary School affiliated with Shandong Provincial First Normal School. At the age of 10, I started learning English. At the age of 12, he was admitted to Zhengyi Middle School and transferred to the High School Affiliated to Shandong University six months later. I started learning German in high school and became interested in foreign literature. At the age of 18, he transferred to Jinan Provincial High School. The Chinese teacher was Dong Qiufang, who was also a translator. "The reason why I have been writing and writing non-stop for fifty or sixty years, and I still can't put down my pen even when I am almost octogenarian, is all because of Teacher Dong's gift. I will never forget it." In 1930, he was admitted to the Department of Western Literature at Tsinghua University. Professional direction German. He studied comparative study of Eastern and Western poetry, English and Sanskrit under Wu Mi and Ye Gongchao, and also took elective courses on Buddhist scripture translation literature by Professor Chen Yinke, literary psychology by Zhu Guangqian, Tang and Song poetry by Yu Pingbo, and Tao Yuanming poetry by Zhu Ziqing. He became friends with his classmates Wu Zuxiang, Lin Geng and Li Changzhi, and became known as the "Four Musketeers". Among the classmates was Hu Qiaomu. I like "pure poetry", such as French Verlaine and Mallarmé. Verhaeren, Belgium, as well as parallel prose of the Six Dynasties, works by Li Yishan and Jiang Baishi. He has translated the works of Dreiser and Turgenev. During college, he received a scholarship from the Qingping County Government in his hometown for his excellent academic performance.

In September 1935, according to the postgraduate exchange agreement between the School of Liberal Arts of Tsinghua University and Germany, Tsinghua recruited graduate students to go to Germany for a period of two years. Ji Xianlin was admitted and immediately went to Germany. In Berlin, traveling with Qiao Guanhua. In October, he arrived in G?ttingen and met overseas students Zhang Yong, Tian Dewang and others. Entering the University of G?ttingen, "I dream that when I am in G?ttingen... I can read some books and read some words that have had glory in ancient times and this glory will never be extinguished." "I don't know. Can I catch this dream?" ("Ten Years in Germany")

In the spring of 1936, Ji Xianlin chose Sanskrit. He believes that "Chinese culture has been greatly influenced by Jidu culture. I want to thoroughly study the cultural relations between China and India, and maybe I can make some discoveries." Therefore, "I have to read Sanskrit." "The path I want to take in my life is finally I have found it, and I have been walking along this path for more than half a century, and I will continue to do so until now." ("Ten Years in Germany") "Fate has allowed me to strengthen my faith." Ji Xianlin. He majored in Indology at the Sanskrit Institute of the University of G?ttingen, studying Sanskrit and Pali. Select English Linguistics and Slavic Linguistics as minor departments, and add Yugoslavian Literature. Ji Xianlin studied under Professor Waldschmidt, the host of the "Sanskrit Lecture" and a famous Sanskrit scholar, and became his only lecturer. In one semester, I took more than 40 classes and learned all the extremely complicated Sanskrit grammar. Then some of the works were read. When Ji Xianlin was young, he read the original Sanskrit works, and in the fifth semester he read the fragments of Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures unearthed in Turpan. In the 6th semester, prepare a doctoral thesis: "The Changes of Finite Verbs in the Great Event Ketu". The three thick volumes of the Buddhist scripture "Major Events" were written in mixed Sanskrit. He raced against time and devoted himself to reading and writing.

From December 1940 to February 1941, Ji Xianlin received 4 "excellences" in his thesis defense and examinations in Indology, Slavic languages, and English, and received his doctorate. Due to the war in Yin, there was no way to return home, so he had to stay in Gecheng. In October, he served as a teacher at the Institute of Sinology at the University of G?ttingen, while continuing to study Buddhist mixed Sanskrit and published a number of important papers in the "Proceedings of the G?ttingen Academy of Sciences". "This was the golden period of my lifelong academic life, and it has never happened since." The years of "postdoctoral" were just before the collapse of fascism. Germany was suffering from material shortages, and the foreigner Ji Xianlin was inevitably struggling in "hungry hell". Like the German people, they suffered from the scourge of war. As an overseas traveler, I have a deep love for my hometown. I especially feel that "when the end of the world is limited, there is only endless love." The thoughts of the motherland and family love linger around me day by day. "I look at the gray sky sadly, and in the light of tears, I imagine my mother." 's face".

In October 1945, not long after the end of World War II, he hurriedly packed up his clothes and hit the road, returning eastward via Switzerland. "It was like a spring dream, and it flew by in ten years." In 1980, 35 years after leaving G?ttingen, Ji Xianlin led a Chinese social science delegation to revisit G?ttingen and visit his 83-year-old mentor Waldschmidt again, and the meeting was like a dream. Later he wrote the famous and touching essay "Return to G?ttingen".

In May 1946, he arrived in Shanghai and went to Nanjing, where he met Li Changzhi again. Through Li's introduction, he met the essayist Liang Shiqiu and the poet Zang Kejia. In Nanjing, he paid a visit to Chen Yinke, his mentor at Tsinghua University. Chen recommended him to teach at Peking University, and then he met with Fu Sinian, the acting president of Peking University, who was in Nanjing. In autumn, he returned to Peiping and visited Tang Yongtong, dean of the School of Liberal Arts of Peking University. He was hired as professor and director of the Department of Oriental Languages ??and Literature, and founded the department at Peking University. Among his colleagues are Arabic linguist Ma Jian and Indologist Jin Kemu. After liberation, he continued to serve as professor and director of the Department of Eastern Languages ??at Peking University, engaged in departmental affairs, scientific research and translation work. The German-Chinese translations published include the German "Anna Seghers Short Stories" (1955), and the Chinese-translated Sanskrit literary works include Indian Kalidasa's "Shakuntala" (play, 1956), ancient Indian works The collection of fables and stories "Five Volumes" (1959), the Indian Kalidasa "Urivashi" (script, 1962), etc., and academic works include "History of Sino-Indian Cultural Relations" (1957), " "A Brief History of India" (1957), "Indian National Uprising 1857-1859" (1985), etc. In February 1956, he was appointed as a member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1954, 1959 and 1964, he was elected as a member of the second, third and fourth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. As a Chinese cultural envoy, he has visited India, Myanmar, East Germany, the former Soviet Union, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and other countries. During the "Cultural Revolution", he was brutally persecuted by the "Gang of Four" and their minions from Peking University. He came back in 1978 and continued to serve as the chairman of the Department of Eastern Languages ??and Literatures at Peking University, and was appointed vice president of Peking University and director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at Peking University. Elected as a member of the 5th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 1983, he was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National People's Congress. In 1984, he served as deputy director of the Peking University Academic Affairs Committee. In 1988, he served as Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Chinese Culture Academy. He has visited Germany, Japan, and Thailand as a scholar. The academic positions he has held since the late 1970s include: Vice President of the Chinese Foreign Literature Society (1978), President of the Chinese South Asia Society (1979), Honorary President of the Chinese Ethnographic and Ancient Script Society (1980), Chinese Foreign Language Teaching Research President of the Association (1981), President of the Chinese Linguistic Society (1983), Vice President of the China Dunhuang Turpan Society (1983), Executive Director of the Chinese History Society (1984), Vice President of the China Higher Education Society (1984) ), director of the Chinese Writers Society (1985), honorary president of the Chinese Comparative Literature Society (1985), president of the Oriental and African Society of China (1990), etc. In April 1998, "Miscellaneous Memories of the Cowshed" was published (drafted from March 1988 to April 1989, finalized in June 1992). The publishing industry believes that "this is a book bought with blood and tears and written with tears. This is the best gift left to future generations by a great master." Ji Xianlin's academic research, in his own words: "The research on Sanskrit, Buddhism, and Tocharian literature are simultaneously carried out, and the research on Chinese literature, comparative literature, and literary theory are flying at the same time.

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According to Professor Zhang Guanglin and Mr. Ling Ke from the Department of Oriental Studies at Peking University, Ji Xianlin's academic achievements include roughly the following 10 aspects: (1) Research on ancient Indian languages ??- doctoral thesis "Major Events" Papers such as "The Changes of Finite Verbs in Ketu", "The Transformation of the Final -am to -o and -u in Medieval Indian Languages", "Using the Aorist Tense as a Criterion for Determining the Age and Origin of Buddhist Scriptures", etc., were published at that time. He has made pioneering contributions in the field of research; (2) Research on the history of Buddhism - he is one of the few Buddhist scholars at home and abroad who can truly use the original Buddhist scriptures for research, and combines the study of the changing laws of medieval Indian languages ??with the study of the history of Buddhism , to find out the emergence, evolution and spread of major Buddhist classics, so as to determine the emergence and spread of important sects of Buddhism; (3) Tocharian language research - the early representative work "The Sutra of Prince Fuli's Karma" This Parallel Translation" created a successful method for the semantic study of Tocharian. In 1948, it began to translate the Tocharian script "The Meeting with Maitreya" collected by the Xinjiang Museum. In 1980, it also translated and interpreted the Tocharian script "The Meeting with Maitreya" in Turpan, Xinjiang in the 1970s. A number of research papers have been published on the newly discovered Tocharian language A "Meetings of Maitreya" in the region, breaking the myth that "Tocharian language was discovered in China but studied abroad"; (4) History of Sino-Indian cultural exchanges Research - "The Time and Place of the Importation of Chinese Paper and Papermaking Methods to India", "Preliminary Research on the Importation of Chinese Silk to India" and other articles, as well as the argument that some elements of "Journey to the West" originated from India, indicating that Sino-Indian culture" They learn from each other, each has his or her own innovations, interact with each other, and penetrate each other"; (5) Research on the history of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries--in the 1980s, he edited "Records of the Western Regions in the Tang Dynasty" and "Modern Translation of the Records of the Western Regions in the Tang Dynasty", and wrote a 100,000-word book The "Foreword to the Collector's Notes" is an important result of decades of domestic research on the history of the Western Regions. The "History of Sugar" completed in 1996 also shows ancient China, India, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Southeast Asia, as well as Europe, the United States, and Africa. The historical picture of cultural exchanges in these regions has important historical and practical significance; (6) Translation and introduction of Indian literary works and research on Indian literature - "Ramayana" is one of the two ancient epics in India, with more than 20,000 verses , translated into Chinese with more than 90,000 lines, Ji Xianlin finally completed the translation after 10 years of perseverance, which is an unprecedented event in the history of translation in my country; (7) Comparative Literature Research - In the early 1980s, he first advocated the resumption of comparative literature research. He called for the establishment of a Chinese school of comparative literature and made great contributions to the revival of comparative literature in our country; (8) Oriental culture research - starting from the late 1980s, he strongly advocated the study of Oriental culture and edited a large-scale cultural series "Oriental Culture Integration". About 500 kinds and 800 volumes are expected to be completed in 15 years; (9) Preservation and rescue of ancient classics of the motherland - in the 1990s, he served as the chief editor of two giant series, "Sikuquanshu Catalog Series" and "Books handed down from ancient times"; (10) Prose creation--I have been writing prose since I was 17 years old and have been writing for decades, with more than 800,000 words. When Zhong Jingwen celebrated Ji Xianlin's 88th birthday, he said: "The highest state of literature is simplicity, Mr. Ji The works have reached this level. He is simple because he is sincere. ""I love that Mr. Wang's writing is good, just like the old sayings in the wild. "

Since the late 1980s, Ji Xianlin has put forward many personal opinions in articles and speeches on important issues such as culture, Chinese culture, Eastern and Western cultural systems, Eastern and Western cultural exchanges, and human culture in the 21st century. and judgments, which have attracted widespread attention at home and abroad.

Ji Xianlin is a famous Chinese paleographer, historian, and writer. He once served as a member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Vice President of Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Director of the Institute of South Asia

Ji Xianlin was born in 1911 in Qingping County, Shandong Province (now merged into Linqing City). In 1930, he was admitted to the Department of Western Literature of Tsinghua University. In 1935, he was admitted to the exchange postgraduate program between Tsinghua University and Germany. He went to Germany to study Sanskrit, Pali and Tocharian literature, and received a doctorate in philosophy in 1941. In 1946, he returned to China and served as professor and director of the Department of Oriental Languages ??and Literature at Peking University. In 1978, he was elected as a member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he served as vice president of Peking University and director of the Institute of South Asia jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Peking University. In 1984, the institute was separated and became director of the Institute of South Asia and Southeast Asia at Peking University. .

He has successively served as the president of the China Foreign Literature Society, the president of the China South Asia Society, the honorary president of the Chinese Ethnology and Ancient Writing Society, the president of the Chinese Language Society, the president of the China Foreign Language Teaching Research Association, the vice president of the China Higher Education Society and the China Dunhuang Turpan Society. Chairman etc. His works have been compiled into the "Collected Works of Ji Xianlin", which has 24 volumes. The contents include ancient Indian language, Sino-Indian cultural relations, Indian history and culture, Chinese culture and oriental culture, Buddhism, comparative literature and folk literature, sugar history, leaves Translation of Horan, prose, prefaces and postscripts, and literary works in Sanskrit and other languages.

Studying in Germany was a turning point in Ji Xianlin’s academic career. After studying in Germany, Ji Xianlin embarked on the path of Oriental studies. In 1945, as soon as the Second World War ended, Ji Xianlin returned to the embrace of his motherland after 10 years of absence. In the autumn of the same year, on the recommendation of Chen Yinke, Ji Xianlin was hired as a professor at Peking University and established the Department of Oriental Languages. After Ji Xianlin returned to China, he focused on studying the history of Buddhism and the history of Sino-Indian cultural relations, and published a series of academically original papers.

"Buddha and Buddha" (1947) reveals that the Sanskrit word Buddha (Buddha), translated as "Buddha" in early Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, is derived from an ancient common saying, and the word "Buddha" is derived from Since the Tocharian language, it has corrected the long-standing popular misconception that Buddha is the transliteration of the Sanskrit word Buddha (Buddha). By the way, I would like to point out that Ji Xianlin wrote "Rediscussing Buddha and Buddha" in 1989, further demonstrating that the Chinese transliteration of "Buddha" originated from the Bactrian language.

"On the Transliteration of Sanskrit ··td" (1948) reveals that the top sounds ·t and ·d used to translate Sanskrit from Chinese Buddhist scriptures have gone through a stage of ·l, and t· ·＞·d＞l This phonetic transformation phenomenon does not belong to Sanskrit, but to common language. Therefore, based on the transliteration of Sanskrit ··td in the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures, the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures can be divided into three periods from the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui Dynasty and after the Sui Dynasty. Most of the original texts in the early Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures were not in Sanskrit, but in colloquial or mixed Sanskrit; in the middle period, many of the original texts were in vulgar and mixed Sanskrit, but the level of Sanskrit literacy had improved; in the later period, the original texts were pure Sanskrit.

Ji Xianlin’s two papers are unique in the field of research on the history of Chinese Buddhism. They use comparative language research methods to convincingly prove that the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures was not originally directly translated from Sanskrit, but translated from ancient Western Regions. language. Ji Xianlin also reminded domestic phonologists who use transliteration of Sanskrit characters to study ancient Chinese pronunciation. When conducting "Chinese-Sanskrit comparison", they must pay attention to the premise of whether the original text is Sanskrit.

In the study of the history of Sino-Indian cultural relations, in the past, most domestic and foreign scholars focused on studying the impact of Buddhism on Chinese culture. Some commentators even believed that Sino-Indian cultural relations were a "one-way trade"

(one-way-traffic). Ji Xianlin believes that this view is inconsistent with the historical reality of cultural exchanges. Therefore, in his research, Ji Xianlin, on the one hand, paid attention to the influence of Buddhism on Chinese culture, and on the other hand, he focused on exploring the issue of Chinese culture imported into India that had been ignored by previous generations. He successively wrote "The Time and Place of the Importation of Chinese Paper and Papermaking Methods into India" (1954), "A Preliminary Study on the Importation of Chinese Silk Silk to India" (1955), and "Whether Chinese Paper and Papermaking Methods were initially spread to India by sea" of? "(1957)" and other papers used detailed historical materials to examine the process of the introduction of Chinese paper, papermaking methods and silk into India.

At the same time, Ji Xianlin also worked on Sanskrit literature, translating and publishing the collection of ancient Indian fables "Five Volumes" (1959), Kalidasa's play "Shakundala" (1956) and " "Urivashi" (1962), and wrote "Indian Literature in China", "Travel" in the World of Indian Fables and Fairy Tales", "Preface to the Translation of "Five Volumes"", and "About "Urivashi" and "A Brief Discussion of "Ten Princes"" and other papers.

Ji Xianlin entered his seventies in the 1980s, but his academic life seemed to have entered a golden age. Although he was entangled in administrative affairs and social activities, he still remained true to his original self, "holding firm on the green hills and never letting go", seizing all available time, concentrating on research, and writing diligently.

Ji Xianlin believes that "Cultural exchanges are one of the main driving forces of human progress. Human beings must learn from each other and learn from each other's strengths in order to continue to advance, and the ultimate goal of human progress must be some form of great harmony." . In fact, Ji Xianlin has actively participated in domestic discussions on Eastern and Western cultural issues in the past 10 years and has also implemented this idea.

Ji Xianlin divided human culture into four systems: Chinese cultural system. The Indian cultural system, the Arab Islamic cultural system, and the European and American cultural systems from ancient Greece and Rome to the present day, the first three together constitute the Eastern cultural system, and the latter is the Western cultural system. Ji Xianlin advocated for the revitalization of Eastern nations and the revival of Eastern culture, and proposed that the changes in Eastern and Western cultures are "thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi", which aroused strong repercussions in the country. What Ji Xianlin expresses is a historical and macro view, and it is also a positive counterattack against the "Eurocentrism" that has dominated the world for a long time.

Ji Xianlin returned from Germany in 1946 and was employed by Peking University, where he established the Department of Oriental Languages ??and opened up the academic field of Oriental Studies in China. In the fields of Buddhist language, history of Sino-Indian cultural relations, history of Buddhism, Indian history, Indian literature and comparative literature, he has made many achievements and written many books, becoming a master of Oriental studies well-known at home and abroad. Having an academic master like Ji Xianlin in Chinese Oriental Studies is indeed a blessing to Chinese Oriental Studies