Patriarchs on Paper: A Critical History of Medieval Chan LiteratureThe truth of Chan Buddhism--better known as "Zen"--is regularly said to be beyond language, and yet Chan authors--medieval and modern--produced an enormous quantity of literature over the centuries. To make sense of this well-known paradox, Patriarchs on Paper explores several genres of Chan literature that appeared during the Tang and Song dynasties (c. 600-1300), including genealogies, biographies, dialogues, poems, monastic handbooks, and koans. Working through this diverse body of literature, Alan Cole details how Chan authors developed several strategies to evoke images of a perfect Buddhism in which wonderfully simple masters transmitted Buddhism's final truth to one another, suddenly and easily, and, of course, independent of literature and the complexities of the Buddhist monastic system. Chan literature, then, reveled in staging delightful images of a Buddhism free of Buddhism, tempting the reader, over and over, with the possibility of finding behind the thick façade of real Buddhism--with all its rules, texts, doctrines, and institutional solidity--an ethereal world of pure spirit. Patriarchs on Paper charts the emergence of this kind of "fantasy Buddhism" and details how it interacted with more traditional forms of Chinese Buddhism in order to show how Chan's illustrious ancestors were created in literature in order to further a wide range of real-world agendas. |
Contents
Chan as an Art Form | 11 |
Early Accounts of How Perfect | 20 |
Bodhidharma Gets Two New Families | 55 |
Jingjue Huineng Shenhui | 84 |
Chan Compendiums from the Song Dynasty | 195 |
252 | 275 |
Bibliography | 285 |
Glossary | 299 |
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Common terms and phrases
abbot appears Baizhang biography Bodhi Bodhidharma family Bodhidharma lineage Buddha buddhahood Buddhist tradition Buddhist truth Caoqi century Ch'an Chan authors Chan Buddhism Chan literature Chan master Chan texts Chan writing Chan's chapter China Chinese Buddhism Chongyuan claims Confucian conspiracy Daoist Daoxuan's dharma dharma-transmission dhism dialogue disciples discourse discussion Dunhuang dynasty early Chan enlightenment Entrances essence explain fact Faru Faru's Fei's final form of Buddhism Foulk genealogies Guanding Hongren Huike Huike's Huineng Ibid Indian invented Jingjue Jingjue's kind koan language Lankāvatāra Sūtra Lotus Sūtra Mahāyāna Mazu McRae meditation monastic monks Mount Song narrative negation nirvana no-mind Northern School passage patriarch perfect Platform Sūtra poem practice present Puji reader reading rhetoric ritual robe Rules for Purity seems Sengcan sense Shaolin Monastery Shenhui Shenxiu Song story supposedly sutras Tang teachings Tiantai tion translation transmission truth-fathers University Press Vimalakīrti Wendeng Wumen Wuzhu Xinxing Zhiyi Zhuangzi Zongze Zongze's