18. Ibid., p. 56.19. Ibid., p. 78.20. Ibid., p. 54.8. NAN-CH'UAN AND CHAO-CHOU: MASTERS OF THE IRRATIONAL1. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 153.2. Ibid., p. 178.3. According to a biographical sketch of Nan-ch'uan given by Cleary and Cleary in Blue Cliff Record, p. 262.4. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 160. This was also incorporated in the Blue Cliff Record as Case 40 (Ibid., p. 292), where the Sung-era commentary is actually more obscure than what it attempts to explain.5. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 136.6. Ibid., p. 136.7. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3, p. 57.8. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 159.9. Ibid., p. 157. This anecdote is also Case 69 of the Blue Cliff Record.10. Ibid., p. 161.11. Ibid.12. Ibid., p. 162.13. Ibid., p. 164. Translation of a T'ang text, "The Sayings of Chao-chou," is provided by Yoel Hoffman, Radical Zen (Brookline, Mass.: Autumn Press, 1978).14. Recounted by Garma C. C. Chang in The Practice of Zen (New York: Harper & Row, 1959), p. 24. This is also Case 14 of the Mumonkan and Cases 63 and 64 of the Blue Cliff Record.15. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 127. This is also Case 19 of the Mumonkan.16. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 159.17. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 129.18. Ibid., p. 133.19. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 169.20. Ibid., p. 140.21. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 136.22. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 171.23. This is Case 1 of the Mumonkan, here quoted from a very readable new translation by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan 6- Hekiganroku (New York: Weatherhill, 1977), p. 27.24. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 144-45.25. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3, p. 77.26. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 145.27. Ibid., p. 139.28. Ibid., p. 146.29.Ibid., p. 144.9. P'ANG AND HAN-SHAN: LAYMAN AND POET1. See Burton Watson, Cold Mountain (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), p. 13. This concept of the Zen layman has longbeen a part of Zen practice in Japan, and for this reason both Layman P'ang and the poet Han-shan are favorite Ch'an figures with the Japanese. In fact, the eighteenth-century Japanese master Hakuin wrote a commentary on Han-shan.2. See Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshitaka Iriya, and Dana R. Frasier, The Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang (New York: Weatherhill, 1971), p. 18.3. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 145. This story is famous and found in many sources.4. As evidenced by a common saying of the time: "In Kiangsi the Master is Ma-tsu; in Hunan the Master is Shih-t'ou. People go back and forth between them all the time, and those who do not know these two great Masters are completely ignorant." Yampolsky, Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, p. 55.5. Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang, p. 46.6. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 145.7. See Ibid., p. 175.8. Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang, p. 47.9. Luk, Transmission of the Mind Outside the Teaching, p. 42.10. Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang, p. 58.11. Ibid., p. 69.12. Ibid., p. 7113. Ibid., p.47.14. Ibid., p. 88.15. Ibid., pp. 54-55. The translators explain the last two verses as follows: "This is derived from the old Chinese proverb: 'To win by a fluke is to fall into a fluke' (and thus to lose by a fluke)." Concerning the meaning of this exchange, it would seem that water is here being used as a metaphor for the undifferentiated Void, which subsumes the temporary individuality of its parts the way the sea is undifferentiated, yet contains waves. When Tan-hsia accepts this premise a little too automatically, P'ang is forced to show him (via a splash) that water (and by extension, physical manifestations of the components of the Void) can also assume a physical reality that impinges on daily life. Tan-hsia tries feebly to respond by returning the splash, but he clearly lost the exchange.16. Ibid. p. 73.17. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 176. Also see Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Lay man P'ang, p. 75.18. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 177.19. Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang, p. 42. Watson, Cold Mountain, p. 50. Watson explains that the20. Arthur Waley, "27 Poems by Han-shan," Encounter, 3, 3 (September 1954), p. 3.21.opening line about taking along books while hoeing in the field was "From the story of an impoverished scholar of the former Han Dynasty who was so fond of learning that he carried his copies of the Confucian classics along when he went to work in the fields." The last line is "An allusion to the perch, stranded in a carriage rut in the road, who asked the philosopher Chuang Tzu for a dipperful of water so that he could go on living."22.Ibid., p. 56.23. Waley, "27 Poems by Han-shan," p. 6.24. From Wu Chi-yu, "A Study of Han Shan," T'oung Pao, 45, 4-5 (1957), p. 432.Gary Snyder, "Han-shan," In Cyril Birch, ed., Anthology of Chinese Literature, (New York: Grove Press, 1965), p. 201.See Ibid., pp. 194-96.27. See Watson, Cold Mountain, p. 14. Watson says, "Zen commentators have therefore been forced to regard Han-shan's professions of loneliness, doubt, and discouragement not as revelations of his own feelings but as vicarious recitals of the ills of unenlightened men which he can still sympathize with, though he himself has transcended them. He thus becomes the traditional Bodhisattva figure—compassionate, in the world, but not of it." Watson rejects this interpretation.28. Ibid., p. 67.29. Ibid., p. 88.30. Ibid., p. 78.31. Ibid., p. 81.32. Ibid., pp. 11-12.33. Snyder, "Han-shan," p. 202.10. HUANG-PO: MASTER OF THE UNIVERSAL MIND1. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 102.2. This probably was during the last decade of the eighth century, since Ma-tsu died in 788.3. This volume actually consists of two books, known as the Chun-chou Record (843) and the Wan-iing Record (849). They are translated and published together by John Blofeld as The Zen Teaching of Huang Po. (New York: Grove Press, 1958). This appears to have been the source for biographical and anecdotal material later included in The Transmission of the Lamp, portions of which are translated in Chang Chung-yuan. Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism. Another translation of biographical, didactic, and anecdotal material may be found in Charles Luk, Transmission of the Mind Outside the Teaching, whose source is unattributed but which possibly could be a translation of the 1602 work Records of Pointing at The Moon, a compilation of Ch'an materials.4. Blofeld, Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 28.5. Ibid., p. 27.6. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 103.7. Ibid.8. Ibid., p. 90.9. Ibid., p. 103.10. Blofeld, Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 99.11. This gesture of defeat is reported elsewhere to have been a triple prostration. Huang-po apparently claimed victory in these exchanges when he either kept silent or walked away.12. Wan-ling is reported by Chang Chung-yuan to be the modern town of Hsuan-ch'eng in southern Anhwei province (Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 123). According to The Transmission of the Lamp the prime minister built a monastery and invited Huang-po to come lecture there, which the master did. The monastery was then named after a mountain where the master had once lived.13. Ibid., p. 104.14. Ibid.15. Blofeld, Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 55.16. Ibid., p. 130.17. Ibid., pp. 81-82.18. Ibid., p. 4419. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 87.20. Blofeld, Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 53.21. Ibid., p. 39.22. Ibid., p. 46.23. Ibid., p. 37.24. Ibid.25. Ibid., p. 40.26. Ibid., p. 61.27. Ibid., p. 26.28. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 85.29. Blofeld, Zen Teachings of Huang Po, p. 50.30. See Wu, Golden Age of Zen.31. Chang Chung-yuan reports some disagreement over the actual date of Huang-po's death. It seems that he is reported to have died in 849 in Records of Buddhas and Patriarchs in Various Dynasties, whereas the year of his death is given as 855 in the General Records of Buddhas and Patriarchs.32. Excerpts from the Han Yu treatise are provided in Edwin O. Reischauer, Ennin's Travels in T'ang China (New York:Ronald Press, 1955), pp. 221 ff. This recounting of a visit by a ninth-century Japanese monk to China reveals indirectly how lacking in influence the Ch'anists actually were. In a diary of many years Ch'an is mentioned only rarely, and then in tones of other than respect. He viewed the Ch'anists warily and described them as "extremely unruly men at heart" (p. 173). However, his trip in China was severely disturbed by the sudden eruption of the Great Persecution, making him so fearful that he actually destroyed the Buddhist art he had collected throughout the country.33. See Hu Shih, "Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism in China."34. See Ibid.35.Kenneth Ch'en, in "The Economic Background of the Hui-Ch'ang Suppression of Buddhism," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 19 (1956), points out that the imperial decree required the turning in only of statues made from metals having economic value. Those made from clay, wood, and stone could remain in the temples. He uses this to support his contention that the main driving force behind the Great Persecution was the inordinate economic power of the Buddhist establishments.11. LIN-CHI: FOUNDER OF RINZAI ZEN1. A discussion of the five houses of Ch'an may be found in Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, pp. 106-22; and Dumoulin and Sasaki, Development of Chinese Zen, pp. 17-32. Useful summaries of their teachings also may be found in Chou Hsiang-kuang,DhyanaBuddhism in China.2. Accounts of Lin-chi's life are found in The Record of Lin-chi, The Transmission of the Lamp, The Five Lamps Meeting at the Source, and Finger Pointing at the Moon. The most reliable source is probably The Record of Lin-chi, since this was compiled by his follower(s). The definitive translation of this work certainly must be that by Ruth F. Sasaki, The Recorded Sayings of Ch'an Master Lin-chi Hui-chao of Chen Prefecture, (Kyoto, Japan: Institute of Zen Studies, 1975) and recently re-issued by Heian International, Inc., South San Francisco, Calif. Another version, The Zen Teachings of Rinzai, translated by Irmgard Schloegl (Berkeley, Calif.: Shambhala, 1976), is less satisfactory. The Lin-chi excerpts from The Transmission of the Lamp may be found in Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism. Excerpts from The Five Lamps Meeting at the Source and Finger Pointing at the Moon are provided in Charles Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series (Berkeley: Shambhala, 1971). Translations of his sermons, sayings, etc. together with commentary may also be found in Wu, Golden Age of Zen; Chou Hsiang-kuang,DhyanaBuddhism in China; and Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3.3. R. H. Blyth is suspicious that Lin-chi's story was enhanced somewhat for dramatic purposes, claiming (Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3, p. 151), "As in the case of the Sixth Patriarch, [Lin-chi's] enlightenment is recounted 'dramatically,' that is to say minimizing his previous understanding of Zen in order to bring out the great change after enlightenment."4. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi, pp. 24-25.5. Ibid., p. 25.6. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, pp. 117-18.7. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 194.8. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 118.9. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 195.10. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 119.11. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi, p. 43.12. Ibid., p. 45.13. Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, p. 122.14. Of Lin-chi's shout, R. H. Blyth says (Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3, p. 154): "[The shout] is a war-cry, but the fight is a sort of shadow-boxing. The universe shouts at us, we shout back. We shout at the universe, and the echo comes back in the same way. But the shouting and the echoing are continuous, and, spiritually speaking, simultaneous. Thus the [shout] is not an expression of anything; it has no (separable) meaning. It is pure energy, without cause or effect, rhyme or reason."15. After Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi, p. 47.16. See Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 201.17. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, pp. 121-22.18. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi, p. 4.19. Ibid., p. 41.20. Ibid., p. 48.21. Ibid., p. 2.22. Ibid., p. 70.23. Ibid., p. 6.24. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 98.25. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 204-05.26. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 99.27. Dumoulin, Development of Chinese Zen, p. 22.28. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 99.29. Dumoulin, Development of Chinese Zen, p. 23.30. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings ofCh'an Buddhism, p. 95.31. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings o/Lin-chi, pp. 27-28.32. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 95.33. Heinrich Dumoulin (Development of Chinese Zen, p. 22) notes that this is merely playing off the well-known "four propositions" of Ind ian Buddhist logic: existence, nonexistence, both existence and nonexistence, and neither existence nor nonexistence.34. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 202.35. Ibid., p. 203.36. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi. p. 29.37. Ibid., p. 24.38.Ibid., p. 38.12. TUNG-SHAN AND TSAO-SHAN: FOUNDERS OF SOTO ZEN1. Philip Yampolsky, in Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, alleges that Hsing-ssu was resurrected from anonymity because Shih-t'ou (700-90) was in need of a connection to the Sixth Patriarch. The mysterious master Hsing-ssu comes into prominence well over a hundred years after his death; his actual life was not chronicled by any of his contemporaries. Neither, for that matter, was the life of his pupil Shih-t'ou, although the latter left a heritage of disciples and a burgeoning movement to perpetuate his memory.2. Ibid., p. 55.3. The stories attached to Shih-t'ou are varied and questioned by most authorities. For example, there is the story that he was enlightened by reading Seng-chau's Chao-Jun (The Book of Chao) but that his philosophy came from Lao Tzu.4. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 58.5. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 171.6. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 58.7. Ibid., p. 60.8. Ibid., pp. 61-62.9. Ibid., pp. 64-65.10. Ibid., p. 76.11. This is elaborated by Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series, p. 166.12. Ibid., p. 174.13. Extended discussions of this concept are provided by Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, pp. 41-57; and by Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 177-82.14. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 179.15. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 49.16. See Luk, Chan and Zen Teaching, Second Series, p. 139.17. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 50.18. Ibid., p. 69.19. When R. H. Blyth translates this poem in Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 2, called the Hokyozammai in Japanese, he includes a grand dose of skepticism concerning its real authorship, since he believes the poem unworthy of the master (p. 152).20. Ibid., p. 157.21. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 48.22. Ibid., p. 70.23. Ibid., p. 71.24. Ibid., p. 72.25. Dumoulin, Development of Chinese Zen, p. 26.27.Eliot, Japanese Buddhism, p. 168.13. KUEI-SHAN, YUN-MEN, AND FA-YEN: THREE MINOR HOUSES1. Accounts of the lives and teachings of the masters of the Kuei-yang school can be found in a number of translations, including Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism; and Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teachings, Second Series. Both provide translations from The Transmission of the Lamp. Other sources appear to be used in Wu, Golden Age of Zen, which includes a lively discussion of Kuei-shan and the Kuei-yang sect.2. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 159.3. Charles Luk (Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series, p. 58) makes a valiant try at explication when he says, "[Huai-hai] wanted him to perceive 'that which gave the order' and 'that which obeyed it.' . . . [Huai-hai] continued to perform his great function by pressing the student hard, insisting that the latter should perceive 'that' which arose from the seat, used the poker, raised a little fire, showed it to him and said, 'Is this not fire?' . . . This time the student could actually perceive the reply by means of his self-nature. . . . Hence his enlightenment."4. See Ibid., p. 58. Ssu-ma seems to have had a good record in predicting monastic success, and he was much in demand. Although the relianceon a fortuneteller seems somewhat out of character for a Ch'an master, we should remember that fortunetelling and future prediction in China are at least as old as the I Ching.5. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 202.6. Ibid., p. 204.7. Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series, p. 67.8. Ibid., p. 78.9. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 167.10. Ibid., p. 167.11. John Wu (Golden Age of Zen, p. 165) says, "The style of the house of Kuei-yang has a charm all of its own. It is not as steep and sharp-edged as the houses of Lin-chi and Yun-men, nor as close-knit and resourceful as the house of Ts'ao-tung nor as speculative and broad as the house of Fa-yen, but it has greater depth than the others."12. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 269. Other translations of Yun-men anecdotes, as well as interpretations and appreciations, can be found in Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series; Chou,DhyanaBuddhism in China; Wu, Golden Age of Zen; and Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 2.13. He had six koans out of forty-eight in the Mumonkan and eighteen koans out of a hundred in the Hekiganroku. Perhaps his extensive representation in the second collection is attributable to the fact that its compiler, Ch'ung-hsien (980-1025), was one of the last surviving representatives of Yun-men's school.14. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism p. 284.15. Ibid., p. 286.16. Ibid., p. 229.17. Ibid., p. 228.18. Ibid., p. 229.19. Sekida, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan & Hekiganroku, p. 349. This koan is from Hekiganroku, Case 77.20. From the Mumonkan, Case 21. The Chinese term used was kan-shin chueh, which Chang Chung-yuan (Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 300) characterizes as follows: "This may be translated either of two ways: a piece of dried excrement or a bamboo stick used for cleaning as toilet tissue is today."21. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 2, p. 142.22. Those with insatiable curiosity may consult Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 244 ff.23. Translations of his teachings from The Transmission of the Lamp are provided by Chang Chung:yuan in Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism and by Charles Luk in Ch'an and Zen Teachings, Second Series. A translation of a completely different source, which varies significantly on all the major anecdotes, is provided in John Wu, Golden Age of Zen. A translation, presumably from a Japanese source, of some of his teachings is supplied by R. H. Blyth in Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 2. Heinrich Dumoulin offers a brief assessment of his influence in his two books: Development of Chinese Zen and History of Zen Buddhism.24. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 238. A completely different version may be found in Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 232-33.25.Buddhism Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an, p. 242.14. TA-HUI: MASTER OF THE KOAN1. See Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, p. 128.2. Isshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen Dust (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966), pp. 10-11.3. Ibid., p. 10. This individual is identified as Nan-yuan Hui-yang (d. 930).4. This is Case 1 in the Mumonkan, usually the first koan given to a beginning student.5. This is Case 26 of the Mumonkan. The version given here is after the translation in Sekida, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan & Hekiganroku, p. 89.6. This is Case 54 of the Hekiganroku. The version given is after Ibid., p. 296, and Cleary and Cleary, Blue Cliff Record, p. 362.7. Isshu and Sasaki, Zen Dust, p. 13.8. There are a number of translations of the Mumonkan currently available in English. The most recent is Sekida, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan & Hekiganroku; but perhaps the most authoritative is Zenkei Shibayama, Zen Comments on the Mumonkan, trans. Sumiko Kudo (New York: Harper £r Row, 1974; paperback edition, New York: New American Library, 1975). Other translations are Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps, "The Gateless Gate," in Paul Reps, ed., Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (Rutland and Tokyo: Tuttle, 1957); Sohkau Ogata, "The Mu Mon Kwan," in Zen for the West (New York: Dial, 1959); and R. H. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 4, "Mumonkan" (Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1966).Three translations of the Blue Cliff Record are currently available in English. There is the early and unsatisfactory version by R. D. M. Shaw (London: Michael Joseph, 1961). A readable version is provided in Sekida, Two Zen Classics, although this excludes some of the traditional commentary. The authoritative version is certainly that by Cleary and Cleary, Blue Cliff Record.9. This is the case with the version provided in Sekida, Two Zen Classics.10. See Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, p. 128.11. See L. Carrington Goodrich, A Short History of the Chinese People (New York: Harper & Row, 1943), p. 161.12. The most comprehensive collection of Ta-hui's writings is translated in Christopher Cleary, Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui (New York: Grove Press, 1977). Excerpts are also translated by Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, Second Series. Biographical information may also be found in Isshu and Sasaki, Zen Dust.13. Translated in Isshu and Sasaki, Zen Dust, p. 163.14. A work known today as the Cheng-fa-yen-tsang. See Isshu and Sasaki, Zen Dust, p. 163.15. See Ibid.16. See Ibid.17. Translated by Cleary, Swampland Flowers, pp. 129-30.18. See Sekida, Two Zen Classics, p. 17.19. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, Second Series, p. 103.20. Cleary, Swampland Flowers, p. 64.21. Ibid., p. 57.22. Ibid., p. 14.23.But he destroyed them in vain. Around 1300 a monk managed to assemble most of the koans and commentary from scattered sources and put the book back into print. The problem continues to this day; there is now available a book of "answers" to a number of koans—Yoel Hoffman, The Sound of One Hand Clapping (New York: Basic Books, 1975). One reviewer of this book observed sadly, "Now if only getting the 'answer' were the same as getting the point."15. EISAI: THE FIRST JAPANESE MASTER1. This anecdote is in Martin Charles Collcutt, "The Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan" (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1975).2. Although there were various attempts to introduce Ch'an into Japan prior to the twelfth century, nothing ever seemed to stick. Dumoulin (History of Zen Buddhism, pp. 138-39) summarized these efforts as follows: "The first certain information we possess regarding Zen in Japan goes back to the early period of her history. The outstanding Japanese Buddhist monk during that age, Dosho, was attracted to Zen through the influence of his Chinese teacher, Hsuan-tsang, under whom he studied the Yogacara philosophy (653). . . . Dosho thus came into immediate contact with the tradition of Bodhidharma and brought the Zen of the patriarchs to Japan. He built the first meditation hall, at a temple in Nara. . . ."A century later, for the first time in history, a Chinese Zen master came to Japan. This was Tao-hsuan, who belonged to the northern sect of Chinese Zen in the third generation after Shen-hsiu. Responding to an invitation from Japanese Buddhist monks, he took up residence in Nara and contributed to the growth of Japanese culture during the Tempyo period (729-749). . . . The contemplative element in the Tendai tradition, which held an important place from the beginning, was strengthened in both China and Japan by repeated contacts with Zen."A further step in the spread of Zen occurred in the following century when I-k'ung, a Chinese master of the Lin-chi sect, visited Japan. He came at the invitation of the Empress Tachibana Kachiko, wife of the Emperor Saga, during the early part of the Showa era (834-848), to teach Zen, first at the imperial court and later at the Danrinji temple in Kyoto, which the empress had built for him. However, these first efforts in the systematic propagation of Zen according to the Chinese pattern did not meet with lasting success. I-k'ung was unable to launch a vigorous movement. Disappointed, he returned to China, and for three centuries Zen was inactive in Japan."Another opportunity for the Japanese to learn about Ch'an was missed by the famous Japanese pilgrim Ennin, who was in China to witness the Great Persecution of 845, but who paid almost no attention to Ch'an, which he regarded as the obsession of unruly ne'er-do-wells.3. A number of books provide information concerning early Japanese history and the circumstances surrounding the introduction of Buddhism to Japan. General historical works of particular relevance include: John Whitney Hall, Japan, from Prehistory to Modern Times (New York: Delacorte, 1970); Mikiso Hane, Japan, A Historical Survey (New York: Scribner's, 1972); Edwin O. Reischauer, Japan: Past and Present, 3rd ed. (New York: Knopf, 1964); and George B. Sansom, A History of Japan, 3 vols. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1958-63).Studies of early Japanese Buddhism may be found in: Masaharu Anesaki, History of Japanese Religion (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1930: reissue, Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1963); William K. Bunce, Religions in Japan (Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1955); Ch'en, Buddhism in China; Eliot, Japanese Buddhism; Shinsho Hanayama, A History of Japanese Buddhism (Tokyo: Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1966); and E. Dale Saunders, Buddhism in Japan (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1964).4. In fact, the popularity of esoteric rituals was such that they were an important part of early Zen practice in Japan.5. This world is well described by Ivan Morris in The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan (New York: Knopf, 1964). A discussion of the relation of this aesthetic life to the formation of Japanese Zen may be found in Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture (New York: Random House, 1977; paperback edition, New York: Vintage, 1978).6. One of the most readable accounts of the rise of the Japanese military class may be found in Paul Varley, Samurai (New York: Delacorte, 1970; paperback edition, New York: Dell, 1972).7. This theory is advanced eloquently in Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan." In later years the Ch'an sect in China itself actually entered a phase of decadence, with the inclusion of esoteric rites and an ecumenical movement that advocated the chanting of the nembutsu by Ch'anists—some of whom claimed there was great similarity between the psychological aspects of this mechanical chant and those of the koan.8. Accounts of Eisai's life may be found in Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism; and in Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan."9. See Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan."10. See Saunders, Buddhism in Japan, p. 221.11. Translated in Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958), pp. 236-37.12. Ibid., p. 237.13. De Bary, Sources of Japanese Tradition, pp. 239-40.14.Again the best discussion of this intrigue is provided by Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan."15.Varley, Samurai, p. 45.16.DOGEN: FATHER OF JAPANESE SOTO ZEN1. Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, p. 151. This statement may be faint praise, for Japan has never been especially noted for its religious thinkers. As philosophers, the Japanese have been great artists and poets. Perhaps no culture can do everything.2. Biographical information on Dogen may be found in Hee-Jin Kim, Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1975); Yuho Yokoi, Zen Master Dogen (New York: Weatherhill, 1976); and Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism. Translations of his writings maybe found in Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist and Zen Master Dogen as well as in Jiyu Kennett, Zen is Eternal Life (Emeryville, Calif.: Dharma, 1976); Dogen, Record of Things Heard from the Treasury of the Eye of the True Teaching trans, by Thomas Cleary (Boulder, Colo.: Great Eastern Book Company, 1978); Francis Dojun Cook, How to Raise an Ox (Los Angeles: Center Publications, 1978); and Kosen Nishiyama and John Steven, Shobogenzo: The Eye and Treasury of the True Law (New York: Weatherhill, 1977).3. Kim, Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist, p. 25.4. Yokoi, Zen Master Dogen, p. 28.5. See Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan."6. Kim, Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist, p. 29.7. Ibid., p. 35.8. See Yokoi, Zen Master Dogen, p. 32.9. Ibid., pp. 45—46.10. Ibid., p. 46.11. Kennett, Zen Is Eternal Life, pp. 141-42.12. Ibid., p. 152.13. Ibid., pp. 150-51.14. Dogen's attitude toward women was revolutionary for his time. A sampling is provided in Kim, Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist, pp. 54-55: "Some people, foolish in the extreme, also think of woman as nothing but the object of sensual pleasures, and see her this way without ever correcting their view. A Buddhist should not do so. If man detests woman as the sexual object, she must detest him for the same reason. Both man and woman become objects, thus being equally involved in defilement. . . . What charge is there against woman? What virtue is there in man? There are wicked men in the world; there are virtuous women in the world. The desire to hear Dharma and the search for enlightenment do not necessarily rely on the difference in sex."15. Yokoi, Zen Master Dogen, pp. 35-36.16. See Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Training in Medieval Japan," p. 59.17. Translated in de Bary, Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 1., p. 247.18. See Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 62.19. See Ibid., pp. 62 ff.20.See Philip Yampolsky, trans., The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), p. 5.IKKYU: ZEN ECCENTRIC1. This view is advanced convincingly by Collcutt in "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 113 ff.2. Ibid., p. 80.3. This would seem to be one of the reasons for what became of a host of emigrating Ch'an teachers as sub-sects of the Yogi branch struggled for ascendency over each other.4. Wu-an's strength of mind is illustrated by a story related in Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 84: "Wu-an is said to have shocked the religious sensibilities of many warriors and monks when, in what has been interpreted as a deliberate attempt to sever the connection between Zen and prayer in Japanese minds, he publicly refused to worship before the statue of Jizo in the Buddha Hill of Kencho-ji on the grounds that whereas Jizo was merely a Bodhisattva, he, Wu-an, was a Buddha."5. Related in Ibid., p. 88.6. Collcutt ("Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 114) points out that the warrior interest in Zen and its Chinese cultural trappings should also be credited partly to their desire to stand up to the snobbery of the Kyoto aristocracy. By making themselves emissaries of a prestigious foreign civilization, the warrior class achieved a bit of cultural one-upmanship on the Kyoto snob set.7. Collcutt ("Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 106) reports that this conversion of temples to Zen was not always spontaneous. There is the story of one local governor who was called to Kamakura and in the course of a public assembly asked pointedly whether his family had yet built a Zen monastery in their home province. The terrified official declared he had built a monastery for a hundred Zen monks, and then raced home to start construction.8. A discussion of the contribution of Zen to Japanese civilization may be found in Hoover, Zen Culture. An older survey is D. T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1959).9. Yampolsky, Zen Master Hakuin, p. 8.10. Philip Yampolsky, "Muromachi Zen and the Gozan System," in John W. Hall and Toyoda Takeshi, eds., Japan in the Muromachi Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 319.
18. Ibid., p. 56.
19. Ibid., p. 78.
20. Ibid., p. 54.
8. NAN-CH'UAN AND CHAO-CHOU: MASTERS OF THE IRRATIONAL
1. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 153.
2. Ibid., p. 178.
3. According to a biographical sketch of Nan-ch'uan given by Cleary and Cleary in Blue Cliff Record, p. 262.
4. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 160. This was also incorporated in the Blue Cliff Record as Case 40 (Ibid., p. 292), where the Sung-era commentary is actually more obscure than what it attempts to explain.
5. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 136.
6. Ibid., p. 136.
7. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3, p. 57.
8. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 159.
9. Ibid., p. 157. This anecdote is also Case 69 of the Blue Cliff Record.
10. Ibid., p. 161.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., p. 162.
13. Ibid., p. 164. Translation of a T'ang text, "The Sayings of Chao-chou," is provided by Yoel Hoffman, Radical Zen (Brookline, Mass.: Autumn Press, 1978).
14. Recounted by Garma C. C. Chang in The Practice of Zen (New York: Harper & Row, 1959), p. 24. This is also Case 14 of the Mumonkan and Cases 63 and 64 of the Blue Cliff Record.
15. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 127. This is also Case 19 of the Mumonkan.
16. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 159.
17. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 129.
18. Ibid., p. 133.
19. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 169.
20. Ibid., p. 140.
21. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 136.
22. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 171.
23. This is Case 1 of the Mumonkan, here quoted from a very readable new translation by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan 6- Hekiganroku (New York: Weatherhill, 1977), p. 27.
24. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 144-45.
25. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3, p. 77.
26. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 145.
27. Ibid., p. 139.
28. Ibid., p. 146.
29.Ibid., p. 144.
9. P'ANG AND HAN-SHAN: LAYMAN AND POET
1. See Burton Watson, Cold Mountain (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), p. 13. This concept of the Zen layman has longbeen a part of Zen practice in Japan, and for this reason both Layman P'ang and the poet Han-shan are favorite Ch'an figures with the Japanese. In fact, the eighteenth-century Japanese master Hakuin wrote a commentary on Han-shan.
2. See Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshitaka Iriya, and Dana R. Frasier, The Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang (New York: Weatherhill, 1971), p. 18.
3. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 145. This story is famous and found in many sources.
4. As evidenced by a common saying of the time: "In Kiangsi the Master is Ma-tsu; in Hunan the Master is Shih-t'ou. People go back and forth between them all the time, and those who do not know these two great Masters are completely ignorant." Yampolsky, Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, p. 55.
5. Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang, p. 46.
6. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 145.
7. See Ibid., p. 175.
8. Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang, p. 47.
9. Luk, Transmission of the Mind Outside the Teaching, p. 42.
10. Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang, p. 58.
11. Ibid., p. 69.
12. Ibid., p. 71
13. Ibid., p.47.
14. Ibid., p. 88.
15. Ibid., pp. 54-55. The translators explain the last two verses as follows: "This is derived from the old Chinese proverb: 'To win by a fluke is to fall into a fluke' (and thus to lose by a fluke)." Concerning the meaning of this exchange, it would seem that water is here being used as a metaphor for the undifferentiated Void, which subsumes the temporary individuality of its parts the way the sea is undifferentiated, yet contains waves. When Tan-hsia accepts this premise a little too automatically, P'ang is forced to show him (via a splash) that water (and by extension, physical manifestations of the components of the Void) can also assume a physical reality that impinges on daily life. Tan-hsia tries feebly to respond by returning the splash, but he clearly lost the exchange.
16. Ibid. p. 73.
17. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 176. Also see Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Lay man P'ang, p. 75.
18. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 177.
19. Sasaki et al., Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang, p. 42. Watson, Cold Mountain, p. 50. Watson explains that the
20. Arthur Waley, "27 Poems by Han-shan," Encounter, 3, 3 (September 1954), p. 3.
21.opening line about taking along books while hoeing in the field was "From the story of an impoverished scholar of the former Han Dynasty who was so fond of learning that he carried his copies of the Confucian classics along when he went to work in the fields." The last line is "An allusion to the perch, stranded in a carriage rut in the road, who asked the philosopher Chuang Tzu for a dipperful of water so that he could go on living."
22.Ibid., p. 56.
23. Waley, "27 Poems by Han-shan," p. 6.
24. From Wu Chi-yu, "A Study of Han Shan," T'oung Pao, 45, 4-5 (1957), p. 432.
27. See Watson, Cold Mountain, p. 14. Watson says, "Zen commentators have therefore been forced to regard Han-shan's professions of loneliness, doubt, and discouragement not as revelations of his own feelings but as vicarious recitals of the ills of unenlightened men which he can still sympathize with, though he himself has transcended them. He thus becomes the traditional Bodhisattva figure—compassionate, in the world, but not of it." Watson rejects this interpretation.
28. Ibid., p. 67.
29. Ibid., p. 88.
30. Ibid., p. 78.
31. Ibid., p. 81.
32. Ibid., pp. 11-12.
33. Snyder, "Han-shan," p. 202.
10. HUANG-PO: MASTER OF THE UNIVERSAL MIND
1. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 102.
2. This probably was during the last decade of the eighth century, since Ma-tsu died in 788.
3. This volume actually consists of two books, known as the Chun-chou Record (843) and the Wan-iing Record (849). They are translated and published together by John Blofeld as The Zen Teaching of Huang Po. (New York: Grove Press, 1958). This appears to have been the source for biographical and anecdotal material later included in The Transmission of the Lamp, portions of which are translated in Chang Chung-yuan. Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism. Another translation of biographical, didactic, and anecdotal material may be found in Charles Luk, Transmission of the Mind Outside the Teaching, whose source is unattributed but which possibly could be a translation of the 1602 work Records of Pointing at The Moon, a compilation of Ch'an materials.
4. Blofeld, Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 28.
5. Ibid., p. 27.
6. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 103.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., p. 90.
9. Ibid., p. 103.
10. Blofeld, Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 99.
11. This gesture of defeat is reported elsewhere to have been a triple prostration. Huang-po apparently claimed victory in these exchanges when he either kept silent or walked away.
12. Wan-ling is reported by Chang Chung-yuan to be the modern town of Hsuan-ch'eng in southern Anhwei province (Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 123). According to The Transmission of the Lamp the prime minister built a monastery and invited Huang-po to come lecture there, which the master did. The monastery was then named after a mountain where the master had once lived.
13. Ibid., p. 104.
14. Ibid.
15. Blofeld, Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 55.
16. Ibid., p. 130.
17. Ibid., pp. 81-82.
18. Ibid., p. 44
19. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 87.
20. Blofeld, Zen Teaching of Huang Po, p. 53.
21. Ibid., p. 39.
22. Ibid., p. 46.
23. Ibid., p. 37.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid., p. 40.
26. Ibid., p. 61.
27. Ibid., p. 26.
28. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 85.
29. Blofeld, Zen Teachings of Huang Po, p. 50.
30. See Wu, Golden Age of Zen.
31. Chang Chung-yuan reports some disagreement over the actual date of Huang-po's death. It seems that he is reported to have died in 849 in Records of Buddhas and Patriarchs in Various Dynasties, whereas the year of his death is given as 855 in the General Records of Buddhas and Patriarchs.
32. Excerpts from the Han Yu treatise are provided in Edwin O. Reischauer, Ennin's Travels in T'ang China (New York:Ronald Press, 1955), pp. 221 ff. This recounting of a visit by a ninth-century Japanese monk to China reveals indirectly how lacking in influence the Ch'anists actually were. In a diary of many years Ch'an is mentioned only rarely, and then in tones of other than respect. He viewed the Ch'anists warily and described them as "extremely unruly men at heart" (p. 173). However, his trip in China was severely disturbed by the sudden eruption of the Great Persecution, making him so fearful that he actually destroyed the Buddhist art he had collected throughout the country.
33. See Hu Shih, "Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism in China."
34. See Ibid.
35.Kenneth Ch'en, in "The Economic Background of the Hui-Ch'ang Suppression of Buddhism," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 19 (1956), points out that the imperial decree required the turning in only of statues made from metals having economic value. Those made from clay, wood, and stone could remain in the temples. He uses this to support his contention that the main driving force behind the Great Persecution was the inordinate economic power of the Buddhist establishments.
11. LIN-CHI: FOUNDER OF RINZAI ZEN
1. A discussion of the five houses of Ch'an may be found in Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, pp. 106-22; and Dumoulin and Sasaki, Development of Chinese Zen, pp. 17-32. Useful summaries of their teachings also may be found in Chou Hsiang-kuang,DhyanaBuddhism in China.
2. Accounts of Lin-chi's life are found in The Record of Lin-chi, The Transmission of the Lamp, The Five Lamps Meeting at the Source, and Finger Pointing at the Moon. The most reliable source is probably The Record of Lin-chi, since this was compiled by his follower(s). The definitive translation of this work certainly must be that by Ruth F. Sasaki, The Recorded Sayings of Ch'an Master Lin-chi Hui-chao of Chen Prefecture, (Kyoto, Japan: Institute of Zen Studies, 1975) and recently re-issued by Heian International, Inc., South San Francisco, Calif. Another version, The Zen Teachings of Rinzai, translated by Irmgard Schloegl (Berkeley, Calif.: Shambhala, 1976), is less satisfactory. The Lin-chi excerpts from The Transmission of the Lamp may be found in Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism. Excerpts from The Five Lamps Meeting at the Source and Finger Pointing at the Moon are provided in Charles Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series (Berkeley: Shambhala, 1971). Translations of his sermons, sayings, etc. together with commentary may also be found in Wu, Golden Age of Zen; Chou Hsiang-kuang,DhyanaBuddhism in China; and Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3.
3. R. H. Blyth is suspicious that Lin-chi's story was enhanced somewhat for dramatic purposes, claiming (Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3, p. 151), "As in the case of the Sixth Patriarch, [Lin-chi's] enlightenment is recounted 'dramatically,' that is to say minimizing his previous understanding of Zen in order to bring out the great change after enlightenment."
4. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi, pp. 24-25.
5. Ibid., p. 25.
6. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, pp. 117-18.
7. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 194.
8. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 118.
9. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 195.
10. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 119.
11. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi, p. 43.
12. Ibid., p. 45.
13. Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, p. 122.
14. Of Lin-chi's shout, R. H. Blyth says (Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 3, p. 154): "[The shout] is a war-cry, but the fight is a sort of shadow-boxing. The universe shouts at us, we shout back. We shout at the universe, and the echo comes back in the same way. But the shouting and the echoing are continuous, and, spiritually speaking, simultaneous. Thus the [shout] is not an expression of anything; it has no (separable) meaning. It is pure energy, without cause or effect, rhyme or reason."
15. After Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi, p. 47.
16. See Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 201.
17. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, pp. 121-22.
18. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi, p. 4.
19. Ibid., p. 41.
20. Ibid., p. 48.
21. Ibid., p. 2.
22. Ibid., p. 70.
23. Ibid., p. 6.
24. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 98.
25. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 204-05.
26. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 99.
27. Dumoulin, Development of Chinese Zen, p. 22.
28. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 99.
29. Dumoulin, Development of Chinese Zen, p. 23.
30. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings ofCh'an Buddhism, p. 95.
31. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings o/Lin-chi, pp. 27-28.
32. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 95.
33. Heinrich Dumoulin (Development of Chinese Zen, p. 22) notes that this is merely playing off the well-known "four propositions" of Ind ian Buddhist logic: existence, nonexistence, both existence and nonexistence, and neither existence nor nonexistence.
34. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 202.
35. Ibid., p. 203.
36. Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Lin-chi. p. 29.
37. Ibid., p. 24.
38.Ibid., p. 38.
12. TUNG-SHAN AND TSAO-SHAN: FOUNDERS OF SOTO ZEN
1. Philip Yampolsky, in Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, alleges that Hsing-ssu was resurrected from anonymity because Shih-t'ou (700-90) was in need of a connection to the Sixth Patriarch. The mysterious master Hsing-ssu comes into prominence well over a hundred years after his death; his actual life was not chronicled by any of his contemporaries. Neither, for that matter, was the life of his pupil Shih-t'ou, although the latter left a heritage of disciples and a burgeoning movement to perpetuate his memory.
2. Ibid., p. 55.
3. The stories attached to Shih-t'ou are varied and questioned by most authorities. For example, there is the story that he was enlightened by reading Seng-chau's Chao-Jun (The Book of Chao) but that his philosophy came from Lao Tzu.
4. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 58.
5. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 171.
6. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 58.
7. Ibid., p. 60.
8. Ibid., pp. 61-62.
9. Ibid., pp. 64-65.
10. Ibid., p. 76.
11. This is elaborated by Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series, p. 166.
12. Ibid., p. 174.
13. Extended discussions of this concept are provided by Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, pp. 41-57; and by Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 177-82.
14. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 179.
15. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 49.
16. See Luk, Chan and Zen Teaching, Second Series, p. 139.
17. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 50.
18. Ibid., p. 69.
19. When R. H. Blyth translates this poem in Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 2, called the Hokyozammai in Japanese, he includes a grand dose of skepticism concerning its real authorship, since he believes the poem unworthy of the master (p. 152).
20. Ibid., p. 157.
21. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 48.
22. Ibid., p. 70.
23. Ibid., p. 71.
24. Ibid., p. 72.
25. Dumoulin, Development of Chinese Zen, p. 26.
27.Eliot, Japanese Buddhism, p. 168.
13. KUEI-SHAN, YUN-MEN, AND FA-YEN: THREE MINOR HOUSES
1. Accounts of the lives and teachings of the masters of the Kuei-yang school can be found in a number of translations, including Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism; and Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teachings, Second Series. Both provide translations from The Transmission of the Lamp. Other sources appear to be used in Wu, Golden Age of Zen, which includes a lively discussion of Kuei-shan and the Kuei-yang sect.
2. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 159.
3. Charles Luk (Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series, p. 58) makes a valiant try at explication when he says, "[Huai-hai] wanted him to perceive 'that which gave the order' and 'that which obeyed it.' . . . [Huai-hai] continued to perform his great function by pressing the student hard, insisting that the latter should perceive 'that' which arose from the seat, used the poker, raised a little fire, showed it to him and said, 'Is this not fire?' . . . This time the student could actually perceive the reply by means of his self-nature. . . . Hence his enlightenment."
4. See Ibid., p. 58. Ssu-ma seems to have had a good record in predicting monastic success, and he was much in demand. Although the reliance
on a fortuneteller seems somewhat out of character for a Ch'an master, we should remember that fortunetelling and future prediction in China are at least as old as the I Ching.
5. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 202.
6. Ibid., p. 204.
7. Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series, p. 67.
8. Ibid., p. 78.
9. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, p. 167.
10. Ibid., p. 167.
11. John Wu (Golden Age of Zen, p. 165) says, "The style of the house of Kuei-yang has a charm all of its own. It is not as steep and sharp-edged as the houses of Lin-chi and Yun-men, nor as close-knit and resourceful as the house of Ts'ao-tung nor as speculative and broad as the house of Fa-yen, but it has greater depth than the others."
12. See Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 269. Other translations of Yun-men anecdotes, as well as interpretations and appreciations, can be found in Luk, Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Second Series; Chou,DhyanaBuddhism in China; Wu, Golden Age of Zen; and Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 2.
13. He had six koans out of forty-eight in the Mumonkan and eighteen koans out of a hundred in the Hekiganroku. Perhaps his extensive representation in the second collection is attributable to the fact that its compiler, Ch'ung-hsien (980-1025), was one of the last surviving representatives of Yun-men's school.
14. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism p. 284.
15. Ibid., p. 286.
16. Ibid., p. 229.
17. Ibid., p. 228.
18. Ibid., p. 229.
19. Sekida, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan & Hekiganroku, p. 349. This koan is from Hekiganroku, Case 77.
20. From the Mumonkan, Case 21. The Chinese term used was kan-shin chueh, which Chang Chung-yuan (Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 300) characterizes as follows: "This may be translated either of two ways: a piece of dried excrement or a bamboo stick used for cleaning as toilet tissue is today."
21. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 2, p. 142.
22. Those with insatiable curiosity may consult Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 244 ff.
23. Translations of his teachings from The Transmission of the Lamp are provided by Chang Chung:yuan in Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism and by Charles Luk in Ch'an and Zen Teachings, Second Series. A translation of a completely different source, which varies significantly on all the major anecdotes, is provided in John Wu, Golden Age of Zen. A translation, presumably from a Japanese source, of some of his teachings is supplied by R. H. Blyth in Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 2. Heinrich Dumoulin offers a brief assessment of his influence in his two books: Development of Chinese Zen and History of Zen Buddhism.
24. Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism, p. 238. A completely different version may be found in Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 232-33.
25.Buddhism Chang Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch'an, p. 242.
14. TA-HUI: MASTER OF THE KOAN
1. See Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, p. 128.
2. Isshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen Dust (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966), pp. 10-11.
3. Ibid., p. 10. This individual is identified as Nan-yuan Hui-yang (d. 930).
4. This is Case 1 in the Mumonkan, usually the first koan given to a beginning student.
5. This is Case 26 of the Mumonkan. The version given here is after the translation in Sekida, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan & Hekiganroku, p. 89.
6. This is Case 54 of the Hekiganroku. The version given is after Ibid., p. 296, and Cleary and Cleary, Blue Cliff Record, p. 362.
7. Isshu and Sasaki, Zen Dust, p. 13.
8. There are a number of translations of the Mumonkan currently available in English. The most recent is Sekida, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan & Hekiganroku; but perhaps the most authoritative is Zenkei Shibayama, Zen Comments on the Mumonkan, trans. Sumiko Kudo (New York: Harper £r Row, 1974; paperback edition, New York: New American Library, 1975). Other translations are Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps, "The Gateless Gate," in Paul Reps, ed., Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (Rutland and Tokyo: Tuttle, 1957); Sohkau Ogata, "The Mu Mon Kwan," in Zen for the West (New York: Dial, 1959); and R. H. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, Vol. 4, "Mumonkan" (Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1966).
Three translations of the Blue Cliff Record are currently available in English. There is the early and unsatisfactory version by R. D. M. Shaw (London: Michael Joseph, 1961). A readable version is provided in Sekida, Two Zen Classics, although this excludes some of the traditional commentary. The authoritative version is certainly that by Cleary and Cleary, Blue Cliff Record.
9. This is the case with the version provided in Sekida, Two Zen Classics.
10. See Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, p. 128.
11. See L. Carrington Goodrich, A Short History of the Chinese People (New York: Harper & Row, 1943), p. 161.
12. The most comprehensive collection of Ta-hui's writings is translated in Christopher Cleary, Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui (New York: Grove Press, 1977). Excerpts are also translated by Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, Second Series. Biographical information may also be found in Isshu and Sasaki, Zen Dust.
13. Translated in Isshu and Sasaki, Zen Dust, p. 163.
14. A work known today as the Cheng-fa-yen-tsang. See Isshu and Sasaki, Zen Dust, p. 163.
15. See Ibid.
16. See Ibid.
17. Translated by Cleary, Swampland Flowers, pp. 129-30.
18. See Sekida, Two Zen Classics, p. 17.
19. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, Second Series, p. 103.
20. Cleary, Swampland Flowers, p. 64.
21. Ibid., p. 57.
22. Ibid., p. 14.
23.But he destroyed them in vain. Around 1300 a monk managed to assemble most of the koans and commentary from scattered sources and put the book back into print. The problem continues to this day; there is now available a book of "answers" to a number of koans—Yoel Hoffman, The Sound of One Hand Clapping (New York: Basic Books, 1975). One reviewer of this book observed sadly, "Now if only getting the 'answer' were the same as getting the point."
15. EISAI: THE FIRST JAPANESE MASTER
1. This anecdote is in Martin Charles Collcutt, "The Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan" (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1975).
2. Although there were various attempts to introduce Ch'an into Japan prior to the twelfth century, nothing ever seemed to stick. Dumoulin (History of Zen Buddhism, pp. 138-39) summarized these efforts as follows: "The first certain information we possess regarding Zen in Japan goes back to the early period of her history. The outstanding Japanese Buddhist monk during that age, Dosho, was attracted to Zen through the influence of his Chinese teacher, Hsuan-tsang, under whom he studied the Yogacara philosophy (653). . . . Dosho thus came into immediate contact with the tradition of Bodhidharma and brought the Zen of the patriarchs to Japan. He built the first meditation hall, at a temple in Nara. . . .
"A century later, for the first time in history, a Chinese Zen master came to Japan. This was Tao-hsuan, who belonged to the northern sect of Chinese Zen in the third generation after Shen-hsiu. Responding to an invitation from Japanese Buddhist monks, he took up residence in Nara and contributed to the growth of Japanese culture during the Tempyo period (729-749). . . . The contemplative element in the Tendai tradition, which held an important place from the beginning, was strengthened in both China and Japan by repeated contacts with Zen.
"A further step in the spread of Zen occurred in the following century when I-k'ung, a Chinese master of the Lin-chi sect, visited Japan. He came at the invitation of the Empress Tachibana Kachiko, wife of the Emperor Saga, during the early part of the Showa era (834-848), to teach Zen, first at the imperial court and later at the Danrinji temple in Kyoto, which the empress had built for him. However, these first efforts in the systematic propagation of Zen according to the Chinese pattern did not meet with lasting success. I-k'ung was unable to launch a vigorous movement. Disappointed, he returned to China, and for three centuries Zen was inactive in Japan."
Another opportunity for the Japanese to learn about Ch'an was missed by the famous Japanese pilgrim Ennin, who was in China to witness the Great Persecution of 845, but who paid almost no attention to Ch'an, which he regarded as the obsession of unruly ne'er-do-wells.
3. A number of books provide information concerning early Japanese history and the circumstances surrounding the introduction of Buddhism to Japan. General historical works of particular relevance include: John Whitney Hall, Japan, from Prehistory to Modern Times (New York: Delacorte, 1970); Mikiso Hane, Japan, A Historical Survey (New York: Scribner's, 1972); Edwin O. Reischauer, Japan: Past and Present, 3rd ed. (New York: Knopf, 1964); and George B. Sansom, A History of Japan, 3 vols. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1958-63).
Studies of early Japanese Buddhism may be found in: Masaharu Anesaki, History of Japanese Religion (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1930: reissue, Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1963); William K. Bunce, Religions in Japan (Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1955); Ch'en, Buddhism in China; Eliot, Japanese Buddhism; Shinsho Hanayama, A History of Japanese Buddhism (Tokyo: Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1966); and E. Dale Saunders, Buddhism in Japan (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1964).
4. In fact, the popularity of esoteric rituals was such that they were an important part of early Zen practice in Japan.
5. This world is well described by Ivan Morris in The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan (New York: Knopf, 1964). A discussion of the relation of this aesthetic life to the formation of Japanese Zen may be found in Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture (New York: Random House, 1977; paperback edition, New York: Vintage, 1978).
6. One of the most readable accounts of the rise of the Japanese military class may be found in Paul Varley, Samurai (New York: Delacorte, 1970; paperback edition, New York: Dell, 1972).
7. This theory is advanced eloquently in Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan." In later years the Ch'an sect in China itself actually entered a phase of decadence, with the inclusion of esoteric rites and an ecumenical movement that advocated the chanting of the nembutsu by Ch'anists—some of whom claimed there was great similarity between the psychological aspects of this mechanical chant and those of the koan.
8. Accounts of Eisai's life may be found in Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism; and in Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan."
9. See Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan."
10. See Saunders, Buddhism in Japan, p. 221.
11. Translated in Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958), pp. 236-37.
12. Ibid., p. 237.
13. De Bary, Sources of Japanese Tradition, pp. 239-40.
14.Again the best discussion of this intrigue is provided by Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan."
15.Varley, Samurai, p. 45.
16.DOGEN: FATHER OF JAPANESE SOTO ZEN
1. Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism, p. 151. This statement may be faint praise, for Japan has never been especially noted for its religious thinkers. As philosophers, the Japanese have been great artists and poets. Perhaps no culture can do everything.
2. Biographical information on Dogen may be found in Hee-Jin Kim, Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1975); Yuho Yokoi, Zen Master Dogen (New York: Weatherhill, 1976); and Dumoulin, History of Zen Buddhism. Translations of his writings maybe found in Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist and Zen Master Dogen as well as in Jiyu Kennett, Zen is Eternal Life (Emeryville, Calif.: Dharma, 1976); Dogen, Record of Things Heard from the Treasury of the Eye of the True Teaching trans, by Thomas Cleary (Boulder, Colo.: Great Eastern Book Company, 1978); Francis Dojun Cook, How to Raise an Ox (Los Angeles: Center Publications, 1978); and Kosen Nishiyama and John Steven, Shobogenzo: The Eye and Treasury of the True Law (New York: Weatherhill, 1977).
3. Kim, Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist, p. 25.
4. Yokoi, Zen Master Dogen, p. 28.
5. See Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan."
6. Kim, Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist, p. 29.
7. Ibid., p. 35.
8. See Yokoi, Zen Master Dogen, p. 32.
9. Ibid., pp. 45—46.
10. Ibid., p. 46.
11. Kennett, Zen Is Eternal Life, pp. 141-42.
12. Ibid., p. 152.
13. Ibid., pp. 150-51.
14. Dogen's attitude toward women was revolutionary for his time. A sampling is provided in Kim, Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist, pp. 54-55: "Some people, foolish in the extreme, also think of woman as nothing but the object of sensual pleasures, and see her this way without ever correcting their view. A Buddhist should not do so. If man detests woman as the sexual object, she must detest him for the same reason. Both man and woman become objects, thus being equally involved in defilement. . . . What charge is there against woman? What virtue is there in man? There are wicked men in the world; there are virtuous women in the world. The desire to hear Dharma and the search for enlightenment do not necessarily rely on the difference in sex."
15. Yokoi, Zen Master Dogen, pp. 35-36.
16. See Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Training in Medieval Japan," p. 59.
17. Translated in de Bary, Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 1., p. 247.
18. See Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 62.
19. See Ibid., pp. 62 ff.
20.See Philip Yampolsky, trans., The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), p. 5.
1. This view is advanced convincingly by Collcutt in "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 113 ff.
2. Ibid., p. 80.
3. This would seem to be one of the reasons for what became of a host of emigrating Ch'an teachers as sub-sects of the Yogi branch struggled for ascendency over each other.
4. Wu-an's strength of mind is illustrated by a story related in Collcutt, "Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 84: "Wu-an is said to have shocked the religious sensibilities of many warriors and monks when, in what has been interpreted as a deliberate attempt to sever the connection between Zen and prayer in Japanese minds, he publicly refused to worship before the statue of Jizo in the Buddha Hill of Kencho-ji on the grounds that whereas Jizo was merely a Bodhisattva, he, Wu-an, was a Buddha."
5. Related in Ibid., p. 88.
6. Collcutt ("Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 114) points out that the warrior interest in Zen and its Chinese cultural trappings should also be credited partly to their desire to stand up to the snobbery of the Kyoto aristocracy. By making themselves emissaries of a prestigious foreign civilization, the warrior class achieved a bit of cultural one-upmanship on the Kyoto snob set.
7. Collcutt ("Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan," p. 106) reports that this conversion of temples to Zen was not always spontaneous. There is the story of one local governor who was called to Kamakura and in the course of a public assembly asked pointedly whether his family had yet built a Zen monastery in their home province. The terrified official declared he had built a monastery for a hundred Zen monks, and then raced home to start construction.
8. A discussion of the contribution of Zen to Japanese civilization may be found in Hoover, Zen Culture. An older survey is D. T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1959).
9. Yampolsky, Zen Master Hakuin, p. 8.
10. Philip Yampolsky, "Muromachi Zen and the Gozan System," in John W. Hall and Toyoda Takeshi, eds., Japan in the Muromachi Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 319.