Irving Babbit: His Indology and Its Impact on Chinese Scholars

Drawing upon sources in the papers in memory of Irving Babbitt written by his teachers, friends, and students, plus some sources from diaries of several modern Chinese intellectuals, this paper discusses Babbitt's experience in learning Buddhism with Charles Lanman and Sylvain Levi in early twentieth century and its relationship with modern Chinese Buddhology. In analyzing Babbitt's paper titled “Buddhist and the Occident,” this paper argues that Babbitt's Indology and Buddhology focus on Buddhist philosophy and value system, due to his concern that Buddhist values could contribute the West in terms of new Humanism. This paper also traces the intellectual connection between Babbitt and several modern Chinese Buddhologists such like CHEN Yin-ke, TANG Yong-tong and reveals that these scholars benefited from their conversations with Babbitt. Especially, Babbitt inspires the Buddhologist interest of WU Mi, one of Babbitt's preeminent followers in China.