Fathering your father : the Zen of fabrication in Tang Buddhism / Alan Cole.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cole, Alan, 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Zen Buddhism--China--History.

Zen Buddhism.

China.

History.

Physical Description:

xix, 340 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2009]

Summary:

This book offers a provocative rereading of the early history of Chan Buddhism (Zen). Working from a history-of-religions point of view that asks how and why certain literary tropes were chosen to depict the essence of the Buddhist tradition to Chinese readers, this analysis focuses on the narrative logics of the early Chan genealogies: the seventh- and eighth-century lineage texts that claimed that certain high-profile Chinese men were descendents of Bodhidharma and the Buddha. Reversing the standard "religious experience first, texts second" approach, this book argues that early Chan's image of the perfect-master-who-owns-tradition was in fact constructed for reasons that have little to do with Buddhist practice, new styles of enlightened wisdom, or "orthodoxy" and much more to do with politics, property, geography, and, of course, new forms of writing.

Contents:

Healthy skepticism, and a field theory for the emergence of Chan literature

The state of enlightenment: the empire of truth in Zhiyi's legacy and Xinxing's sect of the three levels

Owning it: Shaolin monastery's in-house Buddha

The future of an illusion: Du Fei hijacks Shaolin's truth-fathers

My life as a Buddha: Jingjue's version of the truth-fathers

Shenhui's "stop thief" bid to be the seventh son

Conclusion: Assessing the hole at the beginning of it all.

Notes:

"A Philip E. Lilienthal book"--Prelim. p.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-330) and index.

ISBN:

0520254848

9780520254848

0520254856

9780520254855

OCLC:

231834536