Journal Open Access

Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques

Zeitschrift der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft - Revue de la Société Suisse-Asie

Editor-in-Chief: Rafael Suter

Language: German

First published: February 26, 2014

Publication Frequency: 4 issues per year

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About this journal

Starting 2025, Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques will be transferred to Gold Open Access on a year-by-year basis. All articles will thus immediately appear under the Creative Commons license CC-BY. There will be no publication costs for the authors. The Open Access transformation is based on Subscribe-to-Open, an alternative model that enables the full Open Access transformation of journals through the continuation of existing subscriptions. The prerequisite for successful transformation is that subscriptions are continued to the same extent as before. The editors of Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques and the publisher De Gruyter would therefore like to thank all subscribers for their support, which has made the transformation to Open Access possible.　

The journal Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques provides a forum for the publication of research articles dedicated to past and present cultures and societies of Asia and the Orient. The quarterly journal presents, in a fixed schedule, regional issues on China, the Islamic World, Japan, South or Central Asia as well as general and special issues. All articles are peer-reviewed. The languages of publication are German, English and French.

The journal addresses not only the academic public, but a public generally interested in Asian studies.It is published by the Swiss Asia Society (www.sagw.ch/asiengesellschaft) with the support of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (www.sagw.ch).

In addition to the De Gruyter Repository Policy, Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques have adopted the green route to open access (OA). All articles in the published version are freely accessible in the ZORA repository (https://www.zora.uzh.ch/view/subjectsnew/A3.html) three months after publication. After three months authors are allowed to make their articles freely available in the published version on non-commercial websites and in non-commercial repositories of their choice. In addition, complete issues of Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatique are available at e-periodica (https://www.e-periodica.ch/) with a moving wall of 24 months.

ASIA allows green Open Access via ZORA and e-periodica.

Information sur la revue

Études Asiatiques se veut une plate-forme pour la publication de contributions scientifiques à la recherche dans le domaine des cultures et sociétés, présentes ou passées, de l'Asie et de l'Orient. La revue, trimestrielle, propose des numéros consacrés à tour de rôle à des régions spécifiques (la Chine, le monde musulman, le Japon, l'Asie du Sud et centrale), ainsi que des numéros généraux et thématiques. Tous les articles soumis sont examinés par un comité de lecture. Les langues de publication sont l'allemand, l'anglais et le français.

Études Asiatiques s'adresse, au-delà des cercles académiques, au grand public cultivé. La revue est publiée par la Société Suisse-Asie (www.sagw.ch/asiengesellschaft) avec le soutien de l'Académie suisse des sciences humaines et sociales (www.sagw.ch).

En plus de la De Gruyter Repository Policy, les Études Asiatiques ont choisi la "voie verte" pour le libre accès à ses publications. Des copies de tous les articles dans leur forme publiée sont déposées sur l’archive ouverte ZORA, qui est libre d’accès (https://www.zora.uzh.ch/view/subjectsnew/A3.html). Les auteurs ont le droit de mettre librement à disposition des copies de leurs contributions, dans leur forme publiée, sur des sites Web et des archives de nature non-commerciale. En outre, les numéros complets de la revue sont mis à disposition libre sur l’archive e-periodica (https://www.e-periodica.ch/) après un délai de 24 mois.

Open Access
Dharmakīrti and the Madhyamaka: Perspectives from a Tantric Author (Or: Of Missing Links in the History of Buddhist Thought)

November 5, 2025

Margherita Serena Saccone

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As is well known, Steinkellner (Steinkellner, Ernst. 1990. “Is Dharmakīrti a Mādhyamika?” In: David Seyfort Ruegg and Lambert Schmithausen (eds.), Earliest Buddhism and Madhyamaka . Panels of the VIIth World Sanskrit Conference. Leiden: Brill, 72–90) addresses the topic of a Mādhyamika Dharmakīrti in critical engagement with Shirasaki (Shirasaki, Kenjō [白崎顕成]. 1986. “Dharmakīrti wa chiiganronsha de aru” [Dharmakīrti is a Mādhyamika], Bukkyō Ronsō 30: 110–114). In fact, in an earlier paper (1978), the Japanese scholar argues that Jitāri (ca. 10th cent.) presents Dharmakīrti as being ultimately a Mādhyamika. Shirasaki maintains that Jitāri does so in the *Sugatamatavibhaṅgabhāṣya , specifically based on references to some kārikā s from Dharmakīrti’s major work, the Pramāṇavārttika . Indeed, in that work, Jitāri copies verbatim very long portions from the Sāramañjarī by Samantabhadra (mid-9th cent.), a tantric work that serves as a commentary on the Samantabhadrasādhana by Jñānapāda (8th–9th cent.), a manual for meditation within the Guhyasamāja system. In this article, I shall provide some glimpses on the evolution of the theme of a Mādhyamika Dharmakīrti from the 8th to the 10th centuries based on the analysis of some works by Śāntarakṣita, Kamalaśīla, Jñānapāda and Samantabhadra. These authors belong to different traditions; however, there is a “red thread,” a legacy, that they all share in viewing Dharmakīrti’s argumentations as a useful tool for the logical justification of Buddhist doctrines. I shall also show a missing link in the history of the concept of a “Mādhyamika Dharmakīrti”, namely, a tantric author that elaborates on the materials of Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, and is subsequently copied by Jitāri. In this regard, I shall present materials that are being edited and translated here for the first time.
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Beyond Phonetics: Xu Kai’s Conception of Jiajie in the Shuowen Jiezi Xizhuan

December 23, 2024

Rickard Gustavsson

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In the tenth century, the Southern Tang court official Xu Kai 徐鍇 (920–974) wrote the Shuowen jiezi xizhuan 説文解字繫傳, which is the first known commentary on the Shuowen jiezi 説文解字. In his commentary, we find the first elaborate discussion of the liushu 六書 (“six scripts”) categories in Chinese lexicography. From the vantage point of the jiajie 假借 (lit. “borrowing and lending”), this paper explores Xu Kai’s study of the Chinese script. Specifically, it examines how Xu Kai expands upon Xu Shen’s work in the Shuowen by providing a more comprehensive account of the Chinese script beyond its formative stage. Furthermore, this paper argues that Xu Kai’s understanding and handling of the jiajie are closely linked to his notion of the Chinese script as imbued with moral and cosmological meaning. This emphasis on the Chinese script’s philosophical significance – which derives from the close relationship between character structures and natural patterns – leads Xu Kai to highlight the Chinese characters’ semantic aspects and downplay phonetic borrowing. Therefore, Xu Kai draws a sharp distinction between two types of jiajie : one which corresponds to semantic extension, which he associates with “men of wisdom”, and another which corresponds to phonetic borrowing, which he associates with “men of shallow understanding”. Throughout his analysis of individual characters, Xu Kai attempts to show how new meanings can develop in a logical fashion without reliance on phonetic borrowing. At the same time, he demonstrates how borrowing based only on phonetic connections typically leads to confusion and textual distortion.

Issue 0

Issue 4

Special Issue: Representations of Self and Other in Asia: Ancient and Modern “Mirrors”; Edited by Alessandro Achilli, Giuliano Mion and Tiziana Pontillo

Issue 3

Special Issue: Author, Narrator, and Character in Japanese Literature to 1900 – Autor, Erzähler und Figur in der Literatur Japans bis 1900; Edited by Sebastian Balmes

Issue 2

Special Issue: Japanese Theoretical Approaches in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Issue 1

Issue 4

Issue 3

Special Issue: Intertextuality, Transtextuality, and Rewriting in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic Literary and Legal Traditions; Editors of this Issue: Hakkı Arslan, Nicola Kramp-Seidel and Luca Rizzo

Issue 2

Issue 1

Special Issue: Shaping the norm: social and doctrinal development of the Mālikī maḏhab; Editor of this Issue: Clément Salah

Issue 3-4

Issue 2

Special Issue: Borders, Thresholds, Barriers in Japan

Issue 1

Special Issue: Kamalaśīla and His Place in the Intellectual History of Buddhism

Issue 4

Issue 3

Special Issue: Literary Commentaries and the Intellectual Life of South Asia; Edited by Daniele Cuneo and Elisa Ganser

Issue 2

Issue 1

Special Issue: Digital Society in China; Edited by Jessica Imbach and Justyna Jaguścik

Issue 4

Issue 3

Special Issue: Modern Muslim Subjectivities; Edited by: Sebastian Elsässer and Kirstine Sinclair

Issue 2

Special Issue: Alchemy in the Islamicate World; Edited by Regula Forster

Issue 1

Zeit in der vormodernen japanischen Literatur / Time in Premodern Japanese Literature; Edited by Raji C. Steineck, Simone Müller and Sebastian Balmes

Issue 4

Special Issue: Vision and Visuality in Buddhism and Beyond; Edited by Polina Lukicheva, Rafael Suter, Wolfgang Behr

Issue 3

Special Section: Power Rhetoric and the Rhetoric of Power of the Han Feizi 韓非子; Edited by Federico Brusadelli and Lisa Indraccolo

Special Section: "Meanings out of Rules Definitions, Functions and Uses of paribhāṣās in Śrautasūtras, Gṛhyasūtras, Vyākaraṇa, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta" Edited by Gianni Pellegrini

Issue 1

Issue 4

Special Section In the Service of the Khans: Elites in Transition in Mongol Eurasia, Edited by Michal Biran

Issue 3

Special Issue: Putting the House of Wisdom in Order: the fourth Islamic century and the impulse to classify, arrange and inventory Edited by James Weaver, Letizia Osti and Ulrich Rudolph

Issue 2

Issue 1

Issue 4

Special Section: Visual Modernity in the Arab World, Turkey and Iran: Reintroducing the “Missing Modern”, Edited by Silvia Naef and Elahe Helbig

Histories of Mercury in Medicine across Asia and Beyond

Special Issue: Masters of Disguise? – Conceptions and Misconceptions of ‘Rhetoric’ in Chinese Antiquity

Issue 3

Issue 2

Issue 1

Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques publishes special and thematic issues focussed on important and emerging topics in the field of study. The journal has established a rigorous process to ensure that any special issue manuscripts follow the same high-quality standards and peer review processes as regular manuscripts. For further information on the journal’s peer review policy please see the "Instructions for Authors".

Recent Special Issues

Manuscript submission:

Please submit your manuscript online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/asia

Style Sheet:
Please consider the style sheet which can be found under Supplementary Information.

Published by: Swiss Asia Society / Société Suisse-Asie

Editor-in-Chief: Rafael Suter (University of Zurich, Switzerland)

Editorial Board:
Blain Auer (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
Wolfgang Behr (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Daria Berg (University of St.Gallen, Switzerland)
Claire-Akiko Brisset (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
David Chiavacci (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Bettina Dennerlein (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Bruce Fudge (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
Francine Giese (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Samuel Guex (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
Wissam Halawi (Université de Lausanne, Suisse)
Michael Kemper (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Richard King (University of Bern, Switzerland)
Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz (University of Bern, Switzerland)
Angelika Malinar (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Nicolas Martin (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Simone Müller (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Silvia Naef (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
Maurus Reinkowski (University of Basel, Switzerland)
Rebecca Sauer (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Raji C. Steineck (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Ingo Strauch (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
Serena Tolino (Universität Bern, Schweiz)
Ralph Weber (University of Basel, Switzerland)
Nicolas Zufferey, (University of Geneva, Switzerland)

Advisory Board:

Islamic studies:
Bernard Heyberger, Paris
Birgitt Hoffmann, Bamberg
Albrecht Hofheinz, Oslo
James Montgomery, Cambridge

Japan:
Hugo Dobson, Sheffield
Lisette Gebhardt, Frankfurt
Wolfram Manzenreiter, Vienna
Annick Horiuchi, Paris

China:
Vincent Gossaert, Paris
Achim Mittag, Tübingen
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Vienna
Stephen West, Tucson

South Asia:
Rosalind OʼHanlon, Oxford
Denis Matringe, Paris
Thomas Oberlies, Göttingen
Leslie Orr, Montreal

Central Asia:
Daniel Berounsky, Prague
Michael Kemper, Amsterdam
Jürgen Paul, Halle-Wittenberg
Ines Stolpe, Bonn

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Additional information

eISSN:

2235-5871

ISSN:

0004-4717

Language:

German

Publisher:

De Gruyter

Additional information

First published:

February 26, 2014

Publication Frequency:

4 issues per year

eISSN: 2235-5871

ISSN: 0004-4717

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