Patriarchs on paper : a critical history of medieval Chan literature
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Patriarchs on paper : a critical history of medieval Chan literature
University of California Press, c2016
- : cloth
- : pbk
Available at 4 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-297) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The 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 facade 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.
Table of Contents
Preface A Note on References to the Chinese Buddhist Canon Introduction: Chan-What Is It? 1. Making History: Chan as an Art Form 2. Plans for the Past: Early Accounts of How Perfect Truth Came to China 3. Portable Ancestors: Bodhidharma Gets Two New Families 4. More Local Buddhas Appear: Jingjue, Huineng, Shenhui 5. Truth, Conspiracy, and Careful Writing: A New Version of Huineng 6. The Platform Sutra and Other Conspiracy Theories 7. Chan "Dialogues" from the Tang Dynasty 8. Chan Compendiums from the Song Dynasty 9. Rules for Purity: Handbooks for Running Chan Monasteries 10. Koans and Being There Conclusions: Chan, a Buddhist Beauty Bibliography Glossary Index
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