TANG YONGTONG (1893–1964) was an eminent scholar of the history of Chinese Buddhism. A native of Huangmei County in Hubei Province, China, Tang studied in Beijing and graduated from Quinghua University in 1917. In order to pursue his studies he went to the United States in the following year, where he specialized in philosophy, Sanskrit, and Pali at Harvard University. Tang received his master's degree in 1922 and returned to China, where he began a teaching career that spanned four decades.

By the 1940s, Tang was already well established in the philosophy department of Beijing University, becoming its chairman and eventually being named dean of the College of Humanities. In addition to his research on Buddhism and Indian philosophy, Tang was an expert on the school of thought known as xuanxue ("dark learning"), which flourished during the Wei and Jin dynasties (third and fourth centuries CE). He also lectured...