Urs App is a historian of ideas, religions, and philosophies with a special interest in the history and modes of interaction between East and West.

Biography

Urs App was born in 1949 in Rorschach

Rorschach

Rorschach is a municipality, in the District of Rorschach in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It is on the south side of Lake Constance .-History:...

 on the Swiss shore of the Lake of Constance and studied in Freiburg

Freiburg

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...

, Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

 and Philadelphia psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

, philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and religious studies

Religious studies

Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...

. In 1989 he obtained a Ph. D. in Religious Studies (Chinese Buddhism) from Temple University

Temple University

Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

 in Philadelphia.
From 1989 to 1999 he was full professor of Buddhism at Hanazono University in Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

 and Associate Director of the International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism at Hanazono University (Director Seizan YANAGIDA). He has since devoted himself to full-time research at various academic institutions in Asia and Europe, most recently at the Research Institute for Zen Culture (Zenbunka kenkyujo, Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

; 2005–2007), the Swiss National Science Foundation

Swiss National Science Foundation

The Swiss National Science Foundation is a science research support organization mandated by the Swiss Federal Government. The SNSF was established in 1952 as a foundation under private law. Its secretariat is based in Bern....

  (SNSF; 2007–2010), and the Scuola Italiana di Studi sull'Asia Orientale (Italian School of East Asian Studies, ISEAS; 2010-)

Focuses of research are Buddhist studies

Buddhist Studies

Buddhist studies, also known as Buddhology , is the academic study of Buddhism. The term applies especially to the modern academic field, which is a subset of Religious Studies, and is distinct from Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist theology...

 (especially Zen Buddhism), the history of orientalism

Orientalism

Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...

, the history of the European discovery of Asian religions, the history of philosophy in East and West (in particular also Schopenhauer's reception of Asian religions and philosophies), and the exchange of ideas between Asia and the West.

Books

• The Birth of Orientalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010 (ISBN 978-0-8122-4261-4)
• Arthur Schopenhauer and China. Sino-Platonic Papers Nr. 200 (April 2010) (8,7 Mb PDF, 172 p.)
• William Jones's Ancient Theology. Sino-Platonic Papers Nr. 191 (September 2009) (3.7 Mb PDF, 125 p.)
• Over twenty volumes of concordances of Chinese Zen texts.
• Richard Wagner und der Buddhismus: Liebe – Tragik. Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 1997.
• Zen-Worte vom Wolkentor-Berg. Darlegungen und Gespräche des Zen-Meisters Yunmen Wenyan (864–949). Bern / München: Barth, 1994 (ISBN 3-502-64640-6)
• Master Yunmen. New York: Kodansha International, 1994. (ISBN 1-56836-004-5).
• Facets of the Life and Teaching of Chan Master Yunmen Wenyan (864-949). Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 342 pp. (Ph. D. Dissertation, Temple University, 1989)

Documentary films

• Der Teebesen. 20-minute documentary film for the Japanese Bamboo objects exhibition in the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich
  University of Zurich
  The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
  
  , Switzerland (2003) and at the Ethnological Museum Munich (Völkerkundemuseum München, 2006) (in collaboration with Monica Esposito)
• On the Way to Tōhaku's Pine Forest. 20-minute documentary film for the Hasegawa Tōhaku art exhibition (2002) at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich
  Zürich
  Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
  
   (in collaboration with Monica Esposito)
• Dangki – Les chamanes de la Chine. 51-minute documentary shown in 2001 on France 2 (in collaboration with Monica Esposito).
• Oracles in China. 11-minute documentary shown at the Oracle exhibition 2000 at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich
  Zürich
  Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
  
   (in collaboration with Monica Esposito).
• Oracles in Japan. 10—minute documentary shown at the Oracle exhibition 2000 at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich
  Zürich
  Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
  
   (in collaboration with Monica Esposito).
• Dangki: Chinese Oracle Kids. 12-minute documentary shown at the Oracle exhibition 2000 at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich
  Zürich
  Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
  
  (in collaboration with Monica Esposito).

CD-Rom

• ZenBase CD1. Kyoto: International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism, 1995 (ISBN 4-938796-18-X; pioneering CD-ROM with over eighty Chinese Zen texts).

Selection of papers

• "The Tibet of Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer." In: Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries, ed. by Monica Esposito. Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2008, pp. 11–70.
• "How Amida got into the Upanishads: An Orientalist’s Nightmare". In Essays on East Asian Religion and Culture, ed. by Christian Wittern und Lishan Shi. Kyoto: Editorial Committee for the Festschrift in Honour of Nishiwaki Tsuneki, 2007, pp. 11–33.
• "OUM – Das erste Wort von Schopenhauers Lieblingsbuch." In: Das Tier, das du jetzt tötest, bist du selbst ... Arthur Schopenhauer und Indien, ed. by Jochen Stollberg. Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann, 2006, pp. 36–50.
• "NICHTS. Das letzte Wort von Schopenhauers Hauptwerk." In: Das Tier, das du jetzt tötest, bist du selbst ... Arthur Schopenhauer und Indien, ed. by Jochen Stollberg. Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann, 2006, pp. 51–60.
• "Schopenhauer's India Notes of 1811." Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 87 (2006), pp. 15–31.
• "Schopenhauer's Initial Encounter with Indian Thought." Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 87 (2006), pp. 35–76.
• "Notizen Schopenhauers zu Ost-, Nord- und Südostasien vom Sommersemester 1811." Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 84 (2003), pp. 13–39.
• "Die Entdeckung des Zen." In Homo Medietas. Aufsätze zu Religiosität, Literatur und Denkformen des Menschen vom Mittelalter bis in die Neuzeit, ed. by Claudia Brinker-von der Heyde. Bern: Peter Lang, 1999, pp. 13–26.
• "Notes and Excerpts by Schopenhauer Related to Volumes 1 - 9 of the Asiatick Researches." Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 79 (1998), pp. 11–33.
• "Schopenhauers Begegnung mit dem Buddhismus." Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 79 (1998), pp. 35-58.
• "St. Francis Xavier's Discovery of Japanese Buddhism. Part 1: Before the Arrival in Japan, 1547-1549". Eastern Buddhist 30, no. 1 (1997), pp. 53–78. "Part 2: From Kagoshima to Yamaguchi, 1549-1551.” Eastern Buddhist 30, no. 2 (1997), pp. 214–44. "Part 3: From Yamaguchi to India, 1551-1552.” Eastern Buddhist 31, no. 1 (1998), pp. 40–71.
• "Wuxinlun -- The Treatise on No-Mind." Zenbunka kenkyūsho kiyō 21 (1995): pp. 1–68.
• "Dun: A Chinese Concept as a Key to 'Mysticism' in East and West." The Eastern Buddhist Bd. XXVI No. 2 (Fall 1993), pp. 31–72.
• "Reference Works for Chan Research. A selective annotated survey." Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 7 (1993–94), pp. 357–409.
• "The Making of a Chan Record" Zenbunka kenkyūjo kiyō (Annual Report from the Institute of Zen Studies) No. 17 (May 1991): 1–90.

External links