Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 2002

linguistics and Slavic linguistics as minors. He a l so t o o k u p S a n s k r i t, P a l i , R u s s i a n, Yugoslavic and Arabic. He studied under the em i n e nt Profs. Wa l d s c hm i dt a nd Sieg. But w i t h the Second Wo r ld War came the A l l i ed blockade. Destitute a nd faced w i t h a bleak future, M r. Ji never gave u p his studies. H is h a r d w o r k p a i d o f f w i t h a d o c t o r a te i n p h i l o s o p hy i n 1941. H is thesis, entitled ‘Die K o n j u g a t i o n d e f i n i t en Ve r b ums i n d en Gat has des Mahavastu', was his first publication on p r i me v al Indian languages and its impact on researchers i n that f i e ld was to last over 50 years. Because of the war, M r. Ji was forced to stay i n Ge r ma ny for some 10 years; he d i d not r e t u rn to Ch i na u n t il the s p r i ng of 1946. I n a u t u mn the same year, he accepted an a p p o i n t me nt at Peking Un i v e r s i t y, and was r e c o mm e n d ed b y the t h e n P r e s i d e nt H u Shizhi and former A c t i ng President Fu Sinian to head the n e w ly f o u n d ed D e p a r t me nt of O r i e n t al Languages. He was also s t r o n g ly s u p p o r t ed b y the t h e n d e an of arts Tang Yongtong. Since that day, Prof. Ji has remained an a c t i ve m e m b er of P e k i ng U n i v e r s i t y. T h r o u gh these years, the professor l i v ed the h a rd life of a pioneer, b l a z i ng the t r a il of Oriental language studies in China. The Cu l t u r al Re v o l u t i on b r o u g ht great agony, yet Prof. Ji's determination in educating the younger generation and pursuing language research never wa v e r e d. H i s perseverance and unrelenting effort have w o n h i m worldwide recognition as the most d i s t i n g u i s h ed scholar i n the practical l e a r n i ng of Oriental languages. The extent of his research is rare by any standard. On ly a brief s umma ry of his major achievements can be given. Prof. Ji X i a n l in is first and foremost one of the w o r l d 's leading experts i n Tocharian. He was personally t a u g ht by Prof. Sieg, one o f the f e w a u t h o r i t i es o n f r a g m e n ts o f Tocharian. The discovery and deciphering of Tocharian literature was an i mp o r t a nt milestone i n t we n t i e th century academia. Prof. Ji could rightly be called ‘the prot é g é of the first g e n e r a t i on of To c h a r i an i n t e r p r e t e r s '. H i s research on Tocharian can be d i v i d ed i n to three phases. The first phase dates back to 1943, wh en Ji Xianlin, upon the recommendation of Prof. Sieg, p u b l i s h ed an i mp o r t a nt paper i n the Journal of Oriental Studies Society in Germany, raising ma ny eyebrows i n the international academic c ommu n i t y. The second phase covers the p e r i od f r o m 1946 ( w h en Prof. Ji returned to China f r om Germany) to 1978. D u r i n g that p e r i o d, Prof. Ji o n ly h ad access to scarce r e s e a r ch r e s o u r c es a n d w o r k ed under circumstances that could only be d e s c r i b ed as e x t r e m e ly d i f f i c u l t f or intellectuals; y et he ma n a g ed to p u b l i sh a my r i ad of papers, ma ny on Tocharian. Am o n g these was the article entitled Fu Tu yu Fo ( 《 浮 屠與佛》) .‘Fu Tu' and ‘Fo’ are b o th Chinese translations of ‘Buddha' f r om Sanskrit. This article w a s actually i n s p i r ed by the debate b e t w e en the t w o scholars H u S h i z hi a n d Chen Yuan as to w h i c h of the t wo terms first a p p e a r ed i n Ch i n e se w r i t i n g . F l u e nt i n Tocharian, Prof. Ji was able to present fresh v i ews on the subject. Subsequently, i n 1989, after v e r i f y i n g these v i e w s u s i n g n e w l y discovered documents, Prof. Ji published Zai tan Fu Tu yu Fo ( 《再談「浮屠」與「佛」》)， which came to be w i d e l y read. The t h i rd phase of Prof. Ji's research on Tocharian began i n the early 1980s. One d a y, the chief c u r a t or of Xinjiang Mu s e um, Mr. L i Yuchun, brought to Prof. Ji 44 sheets of f r a gme n t ed scrolls of Maitreya-Samiti Nataka, unearthed i n 1975 i n Yinqi, X i n j i a ng A u t o n o m o us Region. M r. L i i m p l o r e d P r o f. Ji to d e c i p h er the a n c i e nt w r i t i n g . T h o u gh already i n his eighties, Prof. Ji d i d not hesitate. The end result was t w o v o l u m i n o us w o r k s : Introduction to Research on Tocharian, p u b l i s h ed i n T a i wan i n 1993; a n d Fragments of the Tocharian A Maitreya- 3 8 Chinese University Bulletin Autumn • Winter 2002