The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts [Paperback]

Dale S. Wright (Author), Steven Heine (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2004

Bodhidharma, its first patriarch, reputedly said that Zen Buddhism represents "a special transmission outside the teaching/Without reliance on words and letters." This saying, along with the often perplexing use of language (and silence) by Zen masters, gave rise to the notion that Zen is a "lived religion," based strictly on non-linguistic practice and lacking a substantial canon of sacred texts. Even those who recognize the importance of Zen texts commonly limit their focus to a few select texts without recognizing the wide variety of Zen literature. This collection of previously unpublished essays argues that Zen actually has a rich and varied literary heritage. Among the most significant textual genres are hagiographic accounts and recorded sayings of individual Zen masters, koan collections and commentaries, and rules for monastic life. During times of political turmoil in China and Japan, these texts were crucial to the survival and success of Zen, and they have for centuries been valued by practitioners as vital expressions of the truth of Zen. This volume offers learned yet accessible studies of some of the most important classical Zen texts, including some that have received little scholarly attention (and many of which are accessible only to specialists). Each essay provides historical, literary, and philosophical commentary on a particular text or genre. Together, they offer a critique of the "de facto canon" that has been created by the limited approach of Western scholarship, and demonstrate that literature is a diverse and essential part of Zen Buddhism.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven Heine is at Florida International University. Dale S. Wright is at Occidental College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195150686
• ISBN-13: 978-0195150681
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #605,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Hawai'i, Wendi L. Adamek teaches East Asian Buddhism at the University of Sydney, supports native forest restoration on her home island of Maui, and lives part-time in London. She has spent years living in China, Japan, and India, studying and practicing Buddhism. Her award-winning first book, The Mystique of Transmission, is an in-depth exploration of an 8th century Chan/Zen community in Sichuan. Just out, The Teachings of Master Wuzhu: Zen and Religion of No-Religion takes up provocative themes from her first book and presents her translation of a little-known Chan/Zen text in an accessible manner. Her interests include Daoism, Buddhist art, watershed restoration, and environmental literature. She also writes fiction influenced by her immersion in Asian and Pacific cultures. Coming soon: Kunlun (a YA novel), and Practicescape at Baoshan (research and translations revealing the world of a fascinating 7th century community of Buddhist practitioners in Henan).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting source, June 10, 2005

By 

Hakuyu "Ikeda" (Kyoto, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts (Paperback)

Like its companion volume 'The Koan: Texts and Contexts' (eds.Heine, Wright), this book was not intended as a guide to Zen practice, but it should prove interesting to those who feel an affinity with Zen and wish to know more about its background.

It may seem a contradiction in terms that a spiritual tradition allegedly 'not depending upon words and letters' should yet lay claim to a collection of texts holding 'canonical' status. The contributors understand the irony involved. As the cover-blurb' states:

"during times of political turmoil in China and Japan,
these texts were crucial to the survival and success
of Zen, and they have for centuries been valued by
practioners as vital expressions of the truth of Zen.
This volume offers learned yet accessible studies of
some of the most important classical Zen texts,
including some that have received little scholarly
attention (and many of which are accessible only to
specialists).Each essay provides historical, literary
and philosophical commentary on a particular text or
genre. Together, they offer a critique of the 'de
facto canon' that has been created by the limited
approach of Western scholarship, and demonstrate
that literature is a diverse and essential part of
Zen Buddhism. "

Self-effacing remarks from the academic world - perhaps, but they also constitute a kind of sideways swipe at Zen Buddhists -reluctant to acknowledge the role that language and literature per has played in shaping their tradition. A list of chapter headings give an idea of the material at hand:

(Introduction by the eds. Heine, Wright)

1.Tsung-mi's Zen Prolegomenon. Introduction to an Exemplary
Zen Canon. - Jeff Broughton.

2. Mazu Yu-lu and the Creation of the Chan Records of Sayings.
- Mario Poceski.

3. The Lidai fabao ji (Record of the Dharma Jewel Through the
Ages. - Wendi Adamek

4. The Huang-po Literature. - Dale S. Wright.

5. Lineage and Context in the Patriarch's Hall Collection and
the Transmission of the Lamp. - Albert Welter.

6. The Record of Hongzhi and the Recorded Sayings Literature
of Sung Dynasty Chan. - Morten Schlutter.

7. The Wu Men Kuan (J.Mumonkan): The Formation, Propagation
and Characteristics of a Classic Zen text. - Isshi Shudo.

8. The Eihei Koruku: The Record of Dogen's Later Period at
Eihei-ji Temple. - Steven Heine.

9. Chanyuan Qinggui and Other 'Rules of Purity' in Chinese
Buddhism. - T. Griffith Foulk.

Fittingly, this study opens with Broughton's essay dealing with Tsung-mi. (The use of 'prolegomenon' in the title seems heavy, but as Broughton notes, with 25,000 Chinese characters, Tsung-mi's text hardly constitutes a 'preface'). As a contemporary with the emerging Ch'an schools in T'ang China, Tsung-mi was in a privileged position to assess their characteristics. Though a member of mainstream Chan (through the Ho-tse/Shen-hui line), Tsung-mi was also a Hua-yen master with a solid grounding in the Teaching school/scriptures. As such, he was critical of the extreme edge of the emerging Ch'an/Zen tradition, namely, the 'Hung-chou' school shaped by Ma-tsu Tao-yi and his followers, who had allegedly pushed anti-scripturalism and iconoclastic behaviour to extremes. Though Broughton looks at Tsung-mi's perception of all the proto-typical Ch'an sources, Tsung-mi's remarks about the Hung-chou school are likely to attract the most attention, for this school shaped much that we find in Rinzai(Lin-chi) Zen today.

So far as the reviewer is concerned, the 'jury is still out' on the question of Ma-tsu's alleged extremism. Some adherents of the Hung-chou school may have advocated the extremes noted - but, uncomfortably, Tsung-mi more or less paraphrased Ma-tsu's remarks, in his critique. In this respect, Broughton notes the concern of Pei-hsiu, a chancellor and eminent lay-Buddhist who enjoyed close ties with Huang-po Hsi-yun, a successor of the Hung-chou school. It is apparent that Pei-hsiu entered into correpondence with Tsung-mi over this matter. I draw attention to this topic, because it helps to explain why Ch'an Buddhists felt the need to define (or redefine) their orthodoxy - in written sources. Being charged with heterodoxy would have meant a loss of patronage.

Mario Poceski's essay looks at the formation of texts like Ma-tsu yu lu (Mazu yulu in pinyin) and the 'Yu-lu' (Recorded sayings) genre in general. Comparing variants of text material dealing with Ma-tsu, he shows how it has been tightened up and added to in various ways, by different editors. This does not necessarily invalidate texts (though some would aver that it does), but it does show how texts have been used to exemplify certain teaching characteristics.

Given Broughton's lead essay - touching on the controversy over Ma-tsu and the Hung-chou school, one wonders why Poceski didn't focus on the characteristic idioms and phrases that Tsung-mi had singled out for blame. Collating these and exploring them alongside more accommodating language, would have yielded a better perspective on Ma-tsu's legacy. That texts can be added to - is not, in itself, of intrinsic interest. It is what they say - that counts.

While interesting, it would have been better if Wendi Adamek's essay dealing with the 'Lidai Fabao ji' (Record of the Dharma Jewel through the ages')had been placed elsewhere in the book, for the following essay, dealing with the 'Huang-po literature' had direct bearing on the issues raised in the previous chapters. Wright's essay is probably the single, most important contribution to this joint study of Ch'an/Zen literature. As he observes, the Huang-po material is valuable because (unlike some other texts)- it is "precisely dateable, providing a crucial historical marker in the Zen tradition" and constitutes a bridge between the legacy of Ma-tsu - and Lin-chi (Rinzai). Wright notes the great care and attention Pei-hsiu brought to the task of organising a definitive written account of his master's teaching. He also notes Pei-hsiu's initial reluctance to undertake anything of the sort - for fear of creating a distorted or inadequate account of Huang-po's teaching. But after the master's passing, Pei-hsiu rose to the occasion, conferring with Huang-po's immediate successors to this end.

While isolated passages found in the Huang-po material could be seen or misconstrued as instances of the iconoclastic/anti-scripturalist position often identified with the Hung-chou school, Wright notes plentiful passages where Huang-po's 'orthodoxy' vis-a-vis the Teaching school, seems more certain.

Albert Welter's essay is basically an analysis of the role played by the two earliest 'Ch'an histories' - the Tsu Tang Chi (Records of the Ancestors Hall) and the Chuan Teng Lu (Records of the Transmission of the Lamp).' The former had been lost for centuries, until its re-discovery in Korea, in the 1930's. Like the texts discovered at Tun Huang, scholars were curious to see whether the Tsu Tang Chi - presumably free from editorial tamperings found in the extant sources, would throw fresh light on the origins of the tradition. Welter suggests that these texts reflect the interests of different Ch'an factions. For their own part, the editors of the Tsu Tang Chi acknowledged that their sources were incomplete. About 256 monks are listed in the Tsu-tang Chi, against 1,700 in the Chuan Teng Lu. As such, it seems perverse to compare them. Still, judged against the Chuan Teng Lu, the Tsu Tang Chi yields nothing radically different about the origins of the well known Ch'an lineages. There are minor discrepancies - in listings of Dharma successors in certain transmission lines (Welter provides careful analyses of such things) but, these were merely the anomaly of the situation, reflecting the material available to the compilers at the time, much of it stemming from their own transmission (Ts'ao-tung)line. Still, as Welter concedes, they honoured and recognised Ma-tsu etc.

Like the Tsu Tang Chi, the Chuang Teng Lu documents the earlier, formative stage, of the two main Ch'an schools in the Nan-yeuh and Ching-yuan lines. It shows masters such as Ma-tsu and Shih-t'ou sending their followers back and forth between one another's temples. As these lines flourished, they blossomed into the 'Five Ch'an schools' (wu-chia) - all of which are given attention in the Chuan Teng Lu. It includes a few T'ien-t'ai masters, besides. As such, one might question the extent to which the Chuan Teng Lu reflects 'factional' interests. That said, it was astute of Welter to point out that Tao-yuan and Yang-i - both responsible for editing the Chuan Teng Lu, in one way or another, had different perspectives on the material. Tao-yuan's title had been 'Fo-tzu tung-tsan chi' - 'Collection of the Common Practice of the Buddhas and Patriarchs' - stressing complementarity between the Teaching School (the myriad practices/wan-hsing)and the Chan transmission, as against Yang-i's title, exalting the Ch'an school as the 'chiao wai pieh hsing' or 'special practice outside the teaching (school).' Editors have certainly left their mark on these texts.

Morten Schlutter's essay documents the background to the formation of Hongzhi's Recorded Sayings. Once lost in China, it is gratifying to note the renewed interest in this fascinating material, characteristic of Ts-ao-tung (J. Soto) Chan in the Sung. In fact, Schlutter's essay is virtually a compact survey of all the important components in Hongzhi's collected... Read more ›

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Hot Molten Ball You Can Neither Swallow Nor Spit Out, April 9, 2006

By 

Crazy Fox (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts (Paperback)

All in all, this is an interesting and useful scholarly collection of articles. Most of the texts discussed in the articles originated in China (though their reception in Japan and to a lesser degree Korea is not neglected), so a more appropriate title may have been "The Chan Canon" but okay. The claim that the volume includes "learned yet accessible studies" is either deliberately misleading or else, as I suspect, the editors and contributors have been at this biz too long. Undoubtedly learned, yes, but these articles assume a great store of prior familiarity with the Chan/Zen tradition and its history and dive straight into the dry, nitty-gritty textual details; I suspect from personal experience that even the long-time Zen student/scholar will frequently find this book challenging and/or a strain on the attention span. The work is worth it, but don't tackle this little tome lightly.

My primary gripe with the book is this...Given the specialized, academic nature of the contents, it is utterly ridiculous that this book nowhere includes the Chinese characters for all the names, titles, and terms within--put them in parentheses after the transliterated version or put them at the end in a character glossary, I don't care, but put them somewhere. There were several spots where these would have been especially helpful.

2 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Zen? Nothing to it., November 6, 2006

By 

Gordon H. Dowton (AJAX, ONTARIO, CANADA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts (Paperback)

I lived in Europe for a number of years and one of my closest friends was a 'zen'monk. He would say..'Wolff, so many books in the west on Zen..Enlightenment..having made the leap.... They never speak about those that did not make it to the other side..went crazy. This book is no better or worse than the myriad of writings on this subject. To have a better understanding on the writing on the writings(almost all writing for the west is translation, and that is a big problem in itself.), I might recommend BUDDHIST HERMENEUTICS(Retrieval of meaning, especially from a text)Donald S. Lopez, Jr.