Disputes and Doctrines of the Threefold Middle Way in the Early Sanlun School

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

good

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is an impressive piece of scholarship of an old-fashioned, detailed, "in the weeds" type. I mean that as a compliment. But that also raises difficulties for potential readers who are not specialists in the specific issues under discussion.

In that vein, I have one major suggestion for improvement, which is the reason I selected "can be improved" in relation to the question regarding "content succinctly described...": it would be helpful for the reader if the introduction was a bit more general and gave a bit more context. One specific issue is that there is reference to Hyegyun, who appears to be Korean, but there is no explanation about this person, nor are his dates given. At the very least, his approximate time (e.g., "ca ?? century) should be given, and if that is impossible, some explanation is required. A related issue is what precisely is the Korean connection here. Was Hyegyun a Korean immigrant to China? More explanation on this point is necessary.

Other Points 

--Must provide dates for each person mentioned in the text (e.g., no dates for Kumarajiva, Senglang [especially problematic since there were two men named Senglang, etc. Must provide dates and Chinese characters the first time every person is mentioned. 

--Consistency: Why give Korean Romanization for Senglang? Also, the Romanization is wrong: should be Sŭngnang (n, not r)

--Foreign Names: Author/s incorrectly insert commas into foreign names (e.g., Muranaka, Yusyo 村中祐生). There should not be a comma there; moreover, the Romanization is incorrect; the given name is Yūshō (I'm pretty sure...). Authors must remove commas for all foreign names.

--Must be careful with style/presentation. For example, Causes and Conditions 因緣品 . This is a chapter, and so should be in parentheses, I think: i.e., "Causes and Conditions"; also, must include the Romanization for the Characters.

--Line 235: Combination of Emendation+Taesŭng saron hyŏnŭigi is weird; must give the original title; i.e., cannot insert English unless that actually is the real title.

--Line 516, February 2nd: I assume this means the second day of the second month. The problem is that, I assume, the lunar calendar is used here, and therefore, you cannot simply convert lunar to the western calendar. Indeed, the calendar problems are mind boggling if you really think about it. The best approach is to say "in the early months of 528 C.E."

--Line 533, Chengshi lun: If talking about a school, this should not be in italics and simply capitalized (i.e., Chengshi lun)

--Line 791 and down: Dialect as translation for fangyan: It is true that fangyan means dialect, but it is impossible to make sense of that translation in this context. I suspect that it really means something closer to "utterances" and would therefore use: The Three Types of Utterance (lit., dialect).

--lines 816-817, "In the First Dialect,...word'". This explanation is very confusing and must be rewritten much more clearly. The problem is that the authors refer to the "word", etc., but there is no explicit mention of "word", etc. in the quoted passage.

--line 1299, Emendation...: Inconsistent Korean Romanization, using McCune- Reischauer in places and other system/s [or M-R incorrectly] elsewhere; i.e., if this book is in Korean, then author's name is Ch'oe Yŏnsik; Bulkwang should be Pulgwang; Publishing, I suspect, should be in Korean, Ch'ulp'anbu, etc.

--Final point: The author/s must scrupulously go through the manuscript and correct all Korean Romanizations and use the McCune-Reischauer system accurately and consistently.

 

 

Overall, this article's English is good, but will require some small work from the journal's editor/s; the main problem, as noted above, is consistency and accuracy with respect to certain styles of English presentation (e.g., the incorrect use of commas in foreign names).

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

I think it is an excellent study. I read it with great interest. it is in my opinion very clear and wellstructured. Only one sentence I could not follow: it is line 182/183 'while the monks were asked not to approach [the new teachings] superficially... etc. '

This sentence was not clear to me. For the rest I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks!

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf