Abstract

This article surveys the legacy of Hu Shih in order to assess the current state of the field of Chan studies in mainland China. Though the work of Hu Shih was long neglected in the mainland, his work has enjoyed renewed popularity since the 1980s and the dynamics of “culture fever” in Chinese intellectual communities. The article demonstrates that the strengths of Chinese scholarship today are particularly indebted to the methodological advances achieved by Hu Shih in the last century. Comparisons with Japanese and Euro-American scholarship underscore the particular contributions of Chinese scholars. The article concludes with a few prognostications regarding the field of Chan history in Chinese academia as well as a defense of Hu Shih's legacy.

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