Erik Zürcher (1928-2008), studied Sinology and Buddhology in Leiden and Paris and received his Ph.D. in 1959. From 1962 to 1993, Zürcher was Professor of History of East Asia at Leiden University and was Director of the Sinological Institute, between 1975 and 1990. He published extensively on early Chinese Buddhism, Daoism, and the reception of Christianity in seventeenth-century China.Jonathan A. Silk, PhD (1994), University of Michigan, is Professor in the study of Buddhism at Leiden University. He publishes primarily on Mahāyāna Buddhism, especially its textual traditions from India onward to China and Tibet.