This book offers a provocative rereading of the early history of Chan Buddhism (Zen). Working from a historyofreligions 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 seventhand eighthcentury lineage texts that claimed that certain highprofile Chinese men were descendents of Bodhidharma and the Buddha. This book argues that early Chan's image of the perfectmasterwhoownstradition was 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.
This book offers a provocative rereading of the early history of Chan Buddhism (Zen). Working from a historyofreligions 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 seventhand eighthcentury lineage texts that claimed that certain highprofile Chinese men were descendents of Bodhidharma and the Buddha. This book argues that early Chan's image of the perfectmasterwhoownstradition was 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.
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