While the Biography of Sakyamuni Buddha tells the timeless story of the Buddha, it is also a work very much of its time, and one that had a lasting impact on postwar Taiwanese Buddhist culture. However, having been first published in 1950s Taiwan, the text contains references to view on politics, class, and most especially gender, which are very different from contemporary views in much of the English-speaking world. Rather than attempt to modernize the text and abandon its historical context, the biography is presently largely as it was published in 1955 so that the details of its composition can be considered alongside the details of its subject.

The many accounts of the Buddha’s life are voluminous and exhaustive in their scope. Any composition of an contemporary biography necessarily involves choosing only a subset of what has been preserved about the Buddha’s life, and must confront the incredible amount of information that is unknown about the Buddha. Just as an author must be judicious in his or her choices, so too should we as readers remember why these stories of the Buddha have been retold and passed down for generations in the first place: Through the life of the Buddha, we hope to learn what it looks like when wisdom and compassion are lived to their fullest extent, so that we may try to apply such principles to our own lives.

In preparing this English language edition of the Biography of Sakyamuni Buddha, we hope that the reader is able to connect with the timeless quality of the Buddha’s teachings and ensure that they remain alive by bringing them into their own daily habits for the benefit of all living beings.