Jan Nattier

She earned her PhD in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies from Harvard University (1988), and subsequently taught at the University of Hawaii (1988-1990), Stanford University (1990-1992), and Indiana University (1992–2005). She then worked as a research professor at the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University (2006–2010) before retiring from her position there and beginning a series of visiting professorships at various universities in the U.S.Academia.edu profile. https://berkeley.academia.edu/JanNattier

Nattier is one of a group of scholars who have substantially revised views of the early development of Mahāyana Buddhism in the last 20 years. They have in common their attention to and re-evaluation of early Chinese translations of texts.{{sfn|Drewes|2010}}

Her first notable contribution was a book based on her PhD thesis which looked at the Chinese Doctrine of the Three Ages with a focus on the third i.e. Mofa ({{zh|s=末法|t=末法||p=Mò Fǎ}}) or Age of Dharma Decline. She showed that the latter was a Chinese development with no India parallel. The translation and study of the Ugraparipṛcca published as A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā){{sfn|Drewes|2010|p=59}}{{sfn|Kapstein|2005|pp=528-530}} in 2003 also contained an extended essay on working with ancient Buddhist texts, particularly in Chinese.{{sfn|Nattier|2003}}

Nattier's notable articles include a study of the Akṣobhyavūhya Pure Land texts,{{sfn|Nattier|2000}} which asserts the early importance of this strand of Mahāyāna ideology; an evaluation of early Chinese Translations of Buddhist texts and the issue of attribution (which summarises several earlier articles on the subject); and a detailed re-examination of the origins of the Heart Sutra (1992), which demonstrates that the text was likely compiled in China.{{sfn|Nattier|1992}}

Nattier was married to John R. McRae (1947-2011),{{sfn|Lion's Roar Staff|2011}} a professor and researcher who specialized in the study of Chinese Chan Buddhism and was the author of The Northern School and the Formation of Early Chan Buddhism (University of Hawai`i Press, 1986) and Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (University of California Press, 2003).

Works in addition to those mentioned below in the "Sources" section.

• {{citation|last=Nattier|first=Jan|year=1990|title=Once Upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline|publisher=Asian Humanities Press|isbn=978-0895819260}}
• {{citation|last=Nattier|first=Jan|year=2006|title=A Greater Awakening|url=https://tricycle.org/magazine/greater-awakening/|publisher=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review|accessdate=August 2, 2019}}
• {{citation|last=Nattier|first=Jan|year=2008|title="A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms Periods"|url=http://iriab.soka.ac.jp/orc/Publications/BPPB/pdf/BPPB-10.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023055957/http://iriab.soka.ac.jp/orc/Publications/BPPB/pdf/BPPB-10.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-10-23|publisher=Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica, IRIAB|volume=X|pages=73–88|isbn=978-4-904234-00-6}}
• {{citation|last=Nattier|first=Jan|year=2014|title=Now You Hear It, Now You Don't: The Phrase 'Thus Have I Heard' in Early Chinese Buddhist Translations (Chapter 3, in Buddhism Across Asia: Networks of Material, Intellectual and Cultural Exchange. Edited by Tansen Sen. Volume 1)|publisher=ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore|pages=39–64|isbn=9789814519328|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_ZXBgAAQBAJ&pg=PR7|access-date=11 November 2021}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{citation|last=Drewes|first=David|year=2010|title=Early Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism I: Recent Scholarship|journal=Religion Compass|volume=4|issue=2|pages=55–65|doi=10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00195.x| jstor =j.1749-8171.2009.00195.x |url=https://www.academia.edu/9226456}}
• {{citation|author=Lion's Roar Staff|title=John R. McRae, Buddhist scholar, dies at 64|url=https://www.lionsroar.com/john-r-mcrae-buddhist-scholar-dies-at-64/|date=October 26, 2011|accessdate=August 2, 2019}}
• {{citation|last=Kapstein|first=Matthew|title=Jan Nattier, A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to the Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā)|journal=The Journal of Religion |volume=85|issue=3|date=July 2005|pages=528–530|doi=10.1086/447737}}
• {{citation|last=Nattier|first=Jan|year=1992|title=The Heart Sūtra: a Chinese apocryphal text?|journal=Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies|volume=15|issue=2|pages=153–223|url=http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8800/2707}}
• {{citation|last=Nattier|first=Jan|year=2000|title=The Realm of Akṣobhya: A Missing Piece in the History of Pure Land Buddhism|journal=Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies|volume=23|issue=1|pages=71–102}}
• {{citation|last=Nattier|first=Jan|year=2003|title=A Few Good Men : The Bodhisattva Path According to the Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā)|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|isbn=978-0824830038}}
• {{citation|last=Nattier|first=Jan|year=2006|title=A Greater Awakening|url=https://tricycle.org/magazine/greater-awakening/|publisher=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review|accessdate=August 2, 2019}}
• {{citation|last=Richter|first=Antje|year=2017|title=Professor Emerita Jan Nattier Explores Narratives of Gender and Transformation in Her April 27 Talk|url=https://www.colorado.edu/cas/2017/06/05/professor-emerita-jan-nattier-explores-narratives-gender-and-transformation-her-april-27|publisher=University of Colorado Boulder|accessdate=August 2, 2019}}

• [https://berkeley.academia.edu/JanNattier Jan Nattier] at Academia.edu

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Category:American Buddhist studies scholars

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty

Category:Stanford University faculty

Category:Indiana University Bloomington faculty