Over the past three decades, the use of newly published medieval Chinese epitaphs has informed our knowledge of society, culture and religion during the Tang Dynasty. There are only seven sporadic ...records of noble women's Chan Practice in the Quan Tangwen 全唐文 Compendium of Tang Prose Writings. However, newly published epitaphs have greatly increased the number of these kinds of records available for scholars to study. In this article, the author compiles 90 records of noble women's Chan practice from Quan Tangwen and newly (up to 2022) published epitaphic collections, studies noble women's family backgrounds, life experiences, Chan practice and funeral arrangements, and discusses some important issues of Chan history in the Tang Dynasty, including the relationship between Chan Buddhism and women, historical facts of Shenxiu 神秀 (606?-706) and other chief Chan masters, and the influence of some Chan patriarchs. In addition, this article proposes the concept of Luoyang Chan 洛陽禪. The comprehensive research presented in this article will supplement, revise and enrich the scholarly understanding of Early Chan Buddhism and the history of Chan Buddhism in the eighth century.
Kyoto University has been for a long time an important center for Chinese Studies in Japan. It has attached great importance to the study of Chinese religions and attained considerable ...accomplishment. Unfortunately, the unique contribution that the scholars at Kyoto University made to the study of Chinese Chan Buddhism has been hitherto little known in the academic community. This article aims to address the oversight and introduce the scholarly achievement of Matsumoto Bunzaburo by analyzing the characteristics of his research in Chinese Chan Buddhism.
There are phenomena of Chan Buddhism as philosophical and religious dogma and embodiment of its rules in the center of the article. Study object is poetry of monks and nuns written during Song ...dynasty (lyrics of Dumu Jingang, Zhenru, Daoqian and Daoqiang). The study is based on the works of the Chinese (Hu Shih), Ukrainian (N. S. Isaieva), Russian (M.I. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya, M.S. Ulanov), French (H.Ciхоus, C. Clement), Germany (S. Weigel) and American (N. Miller) researchers. However, in the same time we have noticed lack of the works addressed to analysis of the Chan poetry, its’ themes, images and symbols, so this space is ready and open for follow-up study. The main purpose of the article is to highlight the common and distinctive features of poetic works written by women and men as well as to designate level of themes transformation specific for Chan Buddhist poetry written by nuns and monks of Song Dynasty after analyzing meanings and poetics of their poetry. To achieve this goal, several methods were used – hermeneutic, historical and cultural, historical and literary, comparative methods as well as semantic and poetical analysis. This methodological base allow considering the lyrics of monks and nuns through the prism of the right explanation. Moreover, it help us to analyze gender and religious components, so we have highlighted the characteristics that are common and different for the Buddhist poetry of women and men. The article claims that particulary interesting point for researchers in feminist literary studies is the question of whether the text of a female author is different from the text of a male author. The French theorist of feminist literary studies E. Cixоus and the American psychologist N. Miller argue that the «female style» exists, but it is quite difficult to describe. According to the German literary critic S. Weigel and Doctor of Philology N.S. Isaeva, there are certain specific features that are inherent in works of art written by women (discontinuity, indentation, inconsistency, subjectivity, the desire for pleasure, the description of their own feelings), and for works written by men (logic, regularity, objectivity). If take a look at the issue of «female» and «male» style from the standpoint of Chan Buddhism, the closest position will be a completely different one. In some theoretical works concerning «feminine» it has been repeatedly emphasized that it does not oppose «masculine», because «feminine» by its nature denies the binary, dichotomy and hierarchy of created structures (including textual). Similarly, the chan denies any opposition and contrast. The results of our research show that Chan Buddhist poetry has a lot of themes created by using Chan Buddhist images and symbols. We have established that due to approach of Chan women and men are collateral because there is no dualism in the world, but after conducting a gender study we found that despite the principles of Chan Buddhism, it is still possible to identify similar and different features in the poetry of monks and nuns. We have found some transformation in the poetry written by men and women: at the level of themes, at the level of stylistic devices, as well as in the emotional component of poetry. Firstly, there are some themes which are found only in the poetry of monks: the theme of equality of everyone in front of Buddhist teachings, the theme of solitude (loneliness) or the theme of excommunication from the vain world, the theme of liberation from suffering (worries and attachments), the theme of meditative practices, the theme of accessibility of Chan teachings for everyone, the theme of suffering, the theme of harmony. Accordingly, in the lyrics of the nuns we found out the theme of joy, the theme of death, the theme of illusory contradictions. Secondly, there are small amount of stylistic devices in the Chan lyrics, but, despite this, we have concluded that only epithets are common to both the poems of monks and the poems of nuns. Antithesis and rhetorical questions are a sign of «male» style, and hyperbole is inherent in «female» style. Thirdly, the poetry of monks are objective and rational, what is a characteristic of «male» literature, while the poems of nuns are characterized by subjectivity and sensuality, what is a characteristic of «female» literature. On the contrary, we have detected that some themes are common for the monks’ and nuns’ poetry: theme of life’s worldliness, theme of meditation, theme of ease and lightness, theme of contradictions’ illusory, theme of isolation and solitude, theme of separation people to Chan Buddhists and laymen. To embody these themes authors used different images and symbols and such variety of stylistic devices shows that individual styles of writing in Chan Buddhism exist even though it may seem impossible in religious poetry, which conveys ideas of the certain religious doctrine. In summary, there is a plenty of Chan lyrics that have not been researches by Chinese scientists. Moreover, this poetry haven’t even been translated into other languages, hence, haven’t been analyzed and expounded by not Chinese researchers, so it is long-rage field to be researched.
This paper explores the perspective on peace-making of the contemporary Chinese Buddhist monk Jinghui 淨慧 (1933–2013), whose views have garnered esteem among Chinese Buddhists but have received ...limited attention from scholars. Jinghui introduced the notion of “Life Chan”, emphasizing the inseparable nature of Buddhist practice and daily living. Building on this concept, he emphasizes that it is incumbent upon Buddhists to remain attentive to a range of real-world issues, among which war and peace loom large as subjects deserving of special focus. In accordance with the principles of Chinese Buddhism regarding the nature of the mind, he posits that wars and conflicts on the global stage stem primarily from the mind, with external societal influences acting as secondary triggers. Therefore, he proposes that the cornerstone of establishing worldwide peace rests in purifying the mind by means of a variety of Buddhist practices. By drawing upon Chinese Chan literatures, he introduces a novel and distinct method to facilitate worldwide peace—a tea ceremony imbued with Chan philosophy. Jinghui claims that such an approach, by nurturing individual peace, will ultimately lead to collective harmony across the globe.
This essay explores in depth one aspect of a topic that looms large in Song dynasty (960-1279) philosophy-the mutual interaction between Confucianism and Chan Buddhism. Under these reciprocal ...influences, both experience meaningful and definitive changes. This Song philosophical legacy became emblematic, and has remained so until now, of the Chinese way of thinking. Yü Ying-shih describes this exchange as a bi-directional development: "the process of Confucianization of Northern Song Buddhism," in other words, "the process of becoming proficient as Confucian scholars undergone by Buddhist monks"; and "the influence of Chan Buddhism on the Confucian literati" (Yü, Ying-shih 余英時. 2003. The Historical World of Zhu Xi: A Study of the Political Culture of Song Intellectuals 朱熹的歷史世界 宋代士大夫政治文化的研究. Vol. 1. Taipei: Yunchen wenhua, 116). The present research focuses on the former and examines an original strategy that the Northern Song Chan scholar-monk Qisong契嵩 (1007-1072) used in order to demonstrate the affinities between the two teachings: a particular interrelatedness between heart-mind and names.
From the Tang era (618–907) to the present day, controversy over the translation and authenticity of the Chinese version of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra, which appeared at the end of the early Tang, has been ...ongoing. The scholar-official Fang Rong (d. 705) has been considered either the translator or the forger of the sutra, while its Chinese elements, especially those from Daoism, have been used as major evidence that the text is apocryphal. By uncovering new historical sources and critically analysing the arguments of modern scholars, this article undertakes a new examination of this old controversy from the perspective of cultural interaction through scriptural translation. The attribution of translators seen in the version of the sutra preserved in the Fangshan stone-canon, as well as the historical context of the translation, proves that—for specific politico-historical reasons—the two early accounts by Buddhist bibliographer Zhisheng (fl. 669–740) do not contradict but rather complement each other. New and solid evidence also supports the argument that Fang Rong indeed participated in the sutra’s translation; moreover, he contributed its Chinese cultural, intellectual and religious elements, and graceful literary style during the process. Additionally, the relationship between early Chan Buddhism, Fang Rong, and Chan master Huaidi, who verified the translation, may have motivated them to make certain embellishments upon the sutra’s central theme of Tathāgatagarbha doctrine. This article thus confirms the Śūraṃgama-sūtra to be a major Mahāyāna scripture that contains elements of the Chinese cultural tradition, and that it in turn has exerted tremendous influence on this tradition.
From the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), the Linji School became the main branch of the Southern Chan Buddhism. Understanding the historical significance of the Linji School is ...crucial for comprehending the origins and development of Chan Buddhism in China and East Asia. This article adheres to the academic approach of studying Chan in its historical context, using GIS (Geographic Information System) tools to include in the research all seven generations of Linji monks, from the fourth to the tenth Linji generation, and reconstructing the spatial and temporal process of Linji’s transmission in the 10th and 11th centuries. The study found that the Linji monastic group maintained a tenuous relationship with secular power in their ideology during the Northern Song Dynasty, with their preaching distribution center far from the power center (the capital), located to the south of the Yangtze River. This situation allowed the Linji monastic group to avoid extinction during the transition between the Song and Jin Dynasties, and the monastic group later became a unique and thriving force.
