While I am neither an artist nor a specialist of classical Chinese art, I am fond of "reading" Chinese paintings along with verses and colophons inscribed on them. My reading of this painting three years ago led to a painstaking research and writing about its subject matter, its historical background, and its connection with Buddhism. The end product, result of a careful perusal of hundreds of classical Chinese texts, was an article published in Chinese Culture Quarterly (Hong Kong & Shanghai: City University and Fudan University, winter 2004).

Born in a middle-class Chinese family and raised by a very stern father who was a loyal student of Confucianism, I was trained to read classical Chinese when I was a youngster. In high school and college, I developed interests in reading classical literary and historical texts and in writing stories, free verses, and essays. These interests were to determine the future of my life. After receiving a MA degree from the Institute for Research in History at National Taiwan University and a two-year preparation, I came to the United States to pursue doctorate. I soon delved into scholarly works on Tang and Song histories and found modern Chinese historical writings biased and incomplete. As I indicated in a recent shi style poem written to celebrate my new book, I wanted to emulate the two great Chinese historians, both of whom were surnamed Sima, but I ended up reading Buddhist "lamp history" most of the time in my life and became a specialist in the history of Song Buddhism. An area that had never received attention by Chinese and Western scholars before I tried to tap it, the history of Song Buddhism has since emerged as a noticeable field of Chinese studies. Many years have passed and the field has grown substantially, but I am still not a historian that I expected to be. Fortunately, I have been able to teach the two Simas' works at HWS, which always reminded me to widen my horizons and broaden my knowledge. In the past few years, I had opportunities to travel to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan a number of times. I came to realize the many benefits and rewards of "reading ten thousand volumes of books and walking ten thousand miles of roads," which was an ancient Chinese scholars' adage. I have since been in full conviction that thinking globally and seeing things in perspectives are what I want my students to learn when they come to my classes.

Although practicing calligraphy used to be my favorite pastime and I remain fond of it, I have long lost the urge to practice this art because of my busy schedule. In doing my research, however, I am very much calligraphy- sensitive. An example of this is my finding of this particular calligraphic work. It is a rare copy of one of the most popular Chinese sutras, which, strictly speaking, is a mantra. The copyist was, in my opinion, the most talented and well-rounded calligrapher in Chinese history. Want to know what the sutra is, the significance of the sutra, whereabouts of the calligraphic work, who the calligrapher was, and what the connection this work has with the painting mentioned above? Take The Golden Age of Chinese Culture, a course that I have been teaching for many years and have never failed to introduce new ideas and insights.