Zen Buddhism: A History, India & China (Volume 1) [Paperback]

Heinrich Dumoulin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2005

Unparalleled in scope and detail, this classic history of Zen covers all important ideas and developments in the tradition from its beginnings in India through the Sung period in China.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Upon its initial publication in 1988, the English translation of Heinrich Dumoulin's Zen Buddhism: A History, India and China, instantly became an indispensable resource for both specialists and the audience of general readers interested in Zen Buddhism. A number of laudable features ensured the book's immediate success. First, especially in tandem with the second volume in the set treating Zen in Japan, the book's coverage was rewardingly comprehensive. For the first time English readers could trace the history of the school from its earliest conceptual and practical beginnings in India, through its formation and evolution as an innovative religious movement in China, and on to its efflorescence in Japan. The comprehensive nature of Dumoulin's coverage derived from his own intellectual vision, his determination to address all aspects of his chosen subject matter, from beginning to end.

About the Author

Heinrich Dumoulin was one of the world’s foremost Zen scholars. He was the first director of the Nanzan Institute of Religion and Culture in Japan. He died in 1995 at the age of 90.

John R. McRae is Associate Professor of East Asian Buddhism in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University. He is also the author of Seeing Through Zen.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: World Wisdom (August 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941532895
• ISBN-13: 978-0941532891
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful introduction to the history of Zen, January 21, 2006

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Wyote (Seoul) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zen Buddhism: A History, India & China (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Basically the book is just what it claims to be: a history of Zen Buddhism in China (it says "India" because it discusses the precursors to Zen in the Mahayana tradition and yoga). It is perfect for students interested in the topic.

I've heard from a few people (and the preface of the book admits it as well) that this book is somewhat dated because scholarship in this field has ballooned in the past decade or two. However, there is no equivalent introduction to all of Zen history. Thus, if you plan to study Zen history in depth, this is still the best place to start and you can move on to more recent books covering more specific movements and time periods. On the other hand, if you're not going to study in depth, then the new developments are not so radical as to render this unhelpful. Within ten years a better, up to date history of Zen is bound to come out. If you can wait...

On the other hand, I believe that a background in Chinese religion would be helpful, since Dumoulin really doesn't provide the background that a student needs in that area. But he does refer to them--Taoism and other strands of Chinese Buddhism--enough that perhaps he ought to have given a bit of introduction to them. He does give an interesting coverage of Neo-Confucianism, although not in much depth and only discussing their relationship to Zen. I was glad I had some familiarity with Taoism, but I found myself wishing I'd had more familiarity with Chinese Buddhism.

For that reason, if you are a beginning student, I'd strongly recommend some other books first.

If you're new to Zen, start with "An Introduction to Zen Buddhism" by D. T. Suzuki.

If you don't know much about Taoism, I recommend Livia Kohn's "Daoism and Chinese Culture."

If you don't know much about Chinese Buddhism, I recommend "Buddhism in China" by Kenneth Ch'en.

I think, at that point, if you want to get into the history of Zen Buddhism in greater depth, then you'll be ready to get a lot out of Dumoulin's fine book.

Of course, if the history of Zen really is the ONLY thing you're interested in, not how it interacted with Taoism or other kinds of Chinese Buddhism, then go ahead and just jump straight into this one.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Zen bones, August 23, 2009

By 

Jai "Yoga.Twobirds" (Tularosa Basin, NM USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Zen Buddhism: A History, India & China (Volume 1) (Paperback)

I name this review after Paul Reps' book, "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones."
The flesh can be found in Suzuki (DT or Shonru), or Cleary's koan collections, or the contemporary works of Red Pine, Thich Nhat Hanh, John Daido Loori etc etc. Herein are the bones--a Zen shorn of life, a dead imitation of living Ch'an, a merely historical collection of names and lineages.
Throughout, DT Suzuki is the authors' foil, as he argues that it *is* feasible to study and understand Zen from the outside--that is, historically--rather than from the inside, which is the view of a scholar/practitioner like Suzuki.
The book itself was first published in German in 1959; this text is a 2005 reprint. It is an idealized history of teachers and lineages and philosophical perspectives, but with unfortunately little real feel for the subject matter. He did seem to be genuinely interested in Zen. But he wrote from the perspective of a Jesuit theologian confronting an alien, even "pagan" religion, from which only so much sympathy--let alone understanding--should be expected. His goal was to ascertain the facts of what happened and put them in proper context, to understand the phenomenon of Zen by exploring its origins and historical roots [p. xx]. According to John McRae, a contemporary scholar of Zen (who wrote the 2005 Preface) even this historical study is only of historical interest, a record of how academics *used* to study Zen: As he quips. "By reading this book, we may be able to learn how the field of Zen studies developed over the course of the 20th century [p, xl]." But (and I quote): "it is actually *not* a guide to the historical development of Zen...[and] *not* a reliable source for understanding Zen Buddhism in India and China [p. xxxix]."

I offer this rather negative review because anyone who comes to this text expecting something other than what it is may, like me, be sorely disappointed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Formidable, November 11, 2007

By 

calmly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zen Buddhism: A History, India & China (Volume 1) (Paperback)

A detailed survey that begins in India with the historic Buddha, Sakyamuni, and finishes with the decline of Zen in China. The amount of detail would be overwhelming if Dumoulin hadn't digested it so well and hadn't written so well. Packed no only with historical events and persons, there are many observations and insights that reveal not only how Zen developed but the extent of diversity and challenges within it.

There were some highlights for me: the roots of Zen in yoga (hence the emphasis on the lotus pose for zazen), the importance of the Mahayana sutras with all the work to translate them into Chinese, the interplay of Buddhism with Taoism in China that led to Zen, the persecution of Buddhism in China that only Zen and Pure Land survived, and the settling down into the methods of regular zazen and koan practice. The differing views on enlightenment and other key Buddhist concepts as well as on meditation practice reveals that Zen was ever exploratory and many things to many of its masters and those who followed them.

Remarkably NeoConfucianism eventually gathered strength so as to be able to successfully challenge Zen for the Chinese heart. This volume closes with Chinese Zen in a decline from which it never recovered. Dumoulin explains how NeoConfucianist scholars were able to weaken the hold of Zen upon the Chinese such that Zen only was able to progress outside of China. Thar Zen later prospered in Japan did not lead to its rehabiilation within China so one is left wondering if Japanese Zen largely succeeded due to not facing a NeoConfucian challenge within Japan: all the more reason to read carefully Dumoulin's history of why Zen declined in China. I find it impossible to wonder if Japanese Zen, however much it flourished there, did so to some extent by avoiding the challenges that Zen faced in China. Any such questions may be answered by a careful reading of both this Volume 1 and the companion but consensus seem less to be found than a struggle by many that shaped the tradition without bringing it closure.

Zen Buddhism, Volume 2: A History (Japan) (Treasures of the World's Religions)