View source for Samuel Beal

{{Short description|British oriental scholar (1825–1889)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{More footnotes|date=April 2008}}
'''Samuel Beal''' (27 November 1825, in [[Devonport, Devon]] – 20 August 1889, in [[Greens Norton]], Northamptonshire) was an [[The Orient|Oriental]] scholar, and the first [[Englishman]] to translate directly from the [[Chinese language|Chinese]] the early records of [[Buddhism]], thus illuminating [[Indian history]].

==Life ==
Samuel Beal was born in [[Devonport, Devon]], and went to [[Kingswood School]] and Devonport. He graduated from [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] in 1847.<ref>{{acad|id=BL843S|name=Beal, Samuel}}</ref> He was the son of a Wesleyan minister, reverend [[William Beal (reverend)|William Beal]]; and brother of [[William Beal (writer)|William Beal]] and Philip Beal who survived a shipwreck in [[Kenn Reef]].

From 1848 to 1850 he was headmaster of [[Bramham College]], Yorkshire. He was ordained [[deacon]] in 1850, and priest in the following year. 
After serving as curate at [[Brooke, Norfolk|Brooke]] in [[Norfolk]] and [[Sopley]] in [[Hampshire]], he applied for the office of naval chaplain, and was appointed to [[HMS Sybille|H.M.S. ''Sybille'' (1847)]] during the [[Second Opium War|China War of 1856–58]].{{sfn|Douglas|1901}} He was chaplain to the Marine Artillery and later to Pembroke and Devonport dockyards 1873–77.

In 1857, he printed for private circulation a pamphlet showing that the [[Taikun|Tycoon of Yedo]] (i.e. Tokugawa ''[[shōgun]]'' of Edo), with whom foreigners had made treaties, was not the real [[Emperor of Japan]].

In 1861 he married Martha Ann Paris, 1836–81.

In September 1872 he was appointed to examine the Buddhist Chinese books in the India Office Library, London. Of the Chinese language books held by the library, Beale found 72 Buddhist compilations across 112 volumes. His research illustrated key philosophical differences between Indian and Chinese Buddhism. An example was the Chinese version of the Indian [[Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta]]. Beale's exegesis of the Chinese narrative revealed a key doctrinal divergence from the Indian version, and therefore between Northern and Southern Asian Buddhism, namely that Nirvana is not the cessation of Being but its perfection.<ref>Samuel Beal, 'Results of an Examination of Chinese Buddhist Books in the Library of the India Office', Transactions of the Second Session of the International Congress of Orientalists held in London in September 1874, Trübner & Company, 1876, 132-134</ref>
  
He retired from the navy in 1877, when he was appointed Professor of Chinese at [[University College, London]].{{sfn|Douglas|1901}} He was Rector of [[Falstone, Northumberland]] 1877–80; Rector of [[Wark on Tyne|Wark, Northumberland]] 1880–88; and of [[Greens Norton]], Northamptonshire, 1888–89. He was awarded DCL (Durham) in 1885 "in recognition of the value of his researches into Chinese Buddhism."

Beale's reputation was established by his series of works which traced the travels of the Chinese Buddhists in India from the fifth to the seventh centuries AD, and by his books on Buddhism, which have become classics.

===The Buddhist Tripitaka===

In 1874, Beale requested a Japanese copy of the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka, the sacred books of Chinese and Japanese Buddhists, from Japanese ambassador Iwakura Tomomi. The copy was deposited at the India Office Library in 1875. This was the first time that the work became available in the West.  Beal finished cataloging the books in June 1876.<ref>Bunyiu Nanjio, A Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka, the Sacred Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan, Clarendon Press, 1883, xi</ref>

== Works ==
{{incomplete list|date=June 2024}}
* {{citation |author=Faxian |author-link=Faxian |author2=Huisheng |author2-link=Huisheng (monk) |author3=Songyun |author3-link=Songyun (monk) |display-authors=0 |editor-first=Samuel |editor-last=Beal |editor-link=Samuel Beal |display-editors=0 |date=1869 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.4774/page/n1/mode/2up |title=Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist Pilgrims, from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.) |ref={{harvid|Beal|1869}} |location=London |publisher=Trübner & Co. }}.
** {{citation |author=Faxian |author-link=Faxian |title=Records of Buddhist Countries by Chi Fah Hian of the Sung Dynasty (Date 400 {{sc|a.d.}}) |date=1869 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.4774/page/n71/mode/2up |pages=1–174 }}.
** {{citation |author=Huisheng |author-link=Huisheng (monk) |author2=Songyun |author2-link=Songyun (monk) |author3-last=Yang |author3-first=Xuanzhi |author3-mask=Yang Xuanzhi |author3-link=Yang Xuanzhi |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.4774/page/n245/mode/2up |title=The Mission of Hwui Seng and Sung Yun to Obtain Buddhist Books in the West (518 {{sc|a.d.}}) |date=1869 |pages=175–208 }}.
* ''The Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese'' (1872)
* ''The Romantic Legend of Buddha'' (1876)
* ''Texts from the Buddhist Canon, Dhammapada'' (1878)
* ''Buddhism in China'' (1884)
* {{citation |author=Xuanzang |author-link=Xuanzang |author2=Faxian |author2-link=Faxian |author3=Songyun |author3-link=Songyun (monk) |author4=Huizheng |author4-link=Hui Zheng |author5-last=Yang |author5-first=Xuanzhi |author5-mask=Yang Xuanzhi |author5-link=Yang Xuanzhi  |display-authors=1 |date=1884 |ref={{harvid|Beal|1884}} |editor-last=Beal |editor-first=Samuel |editor-link=Samuel Beal |display-editors=0 |title=Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World by Hiuen Tsiang |location=London |publisher=Trübner & Co. |volume=I & II |url=https://archive.org/details/siyukibuddhistre01hsua/page/n25/mode/2up |series=Trübner's Oriental Series }}.
** {{citation |author=Faxian |author-link=Faxian |url=https://archive.org/details/siyukibuddhistre01hsua/page/n47/mode/2up |title=The Travels of Fa-hian or ''Fo-kwŏ-ki'', Buddhist-Country-Records |date=1884 |pages=xxiii-lxxxiii |volume=I }}.
** {{citation |author=Songyun |author-link=Songyun (monk) |author2=Huisheng |author2-link=Huisheng (monk) |author3-last=Yang |author3-first=Xuanzhi |author3-mask=Yang Xuanzhi |author3-link=Yang Xuanzhi |title=The Mission of Sung-Yun and Hwei Sǎng to Obtain Buddhist Books in the West (518 {{sc|a.d.}}) |date=1884 |url=https://archive.org/details/siyukibuddhistre01hsua/page/n109/mode/2up |pages=lxxxiv–cviii |volume=I }}.
* ''The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang. Translated from the Chinese of Shaman Hwui Li'' (1911)

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{DNBSupp |wstitle=Beal, Samuel |first=Robert Kennaway |last=Douglas |display-editors=0 |prescript= |noicon=1 }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commonscat}}
* [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/xuanzang.html Xuanzang's Record of the Western Regions Book 1] from Buddhist Records of the Western World, by Hiuen Tsiang ([[Xuanzang]])
* {{Gutenberg author |id=35288| name=Samuel Beal}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Samuel Beal}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beal, Samuel}}
[[Category:1825 births]]
[[Category:1889 deaths]]
[[Category:English religious writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Devonport, Plymouth]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Chinese–English translators]]
[[Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Second Opium War]]
[[Category:Clergy from Plymouth, Devon]]
[[Category:Royal Navy chaplains]]
[[Category:Second Opium War chaplains]]
[[Category:19th-century British translators]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Devonport, Plymouth]]
[[Category:British scholars of Buddhism]]
[[Category:Historians of India]]
[[Category:People educated at Kingswood School, Bath]]