Zongmi on Chan in Bloomington, MN

Japanese Zen often implies that textual learning (
gakumon
) in Buddhism and personal experience (
taiken
) in Zen are separate, but the career and writings of the Chinese Tang dynasty Chan master Guifeng Zongmi (780-841) undermine this division. For the first time in English, Jeffrey Broughton presents an annotated translation of Zongmi's magnum opus, the
Chan Prolegomenon
, along with translations of his
Chan Letter
and
Chan Notes
.
The
persuasively argues that Chan "axiom realizations" are identical to the teachings embedded in canonical word and that one who transmits Chan must use the sutras and treatises as a standard. Japanese Rinzai Zen has, since the Edo period, marginalized the sutra-based Chan of the
and its successor text, the
Mind Mirror
(
Zongjinglu
) of Yongming Yanshou (904-976). This book contains the first in-depth treatment in English of the neglected
, positioning it as a restatement of Zongmi's work for a Song dynasty audience.
The ideas and models of the
, often disseminated in East Asia through the conduit of the
, were highly influential in the Chan traditions of Song and Ming China, Korea from the late Koryo onward, and Kamakura-Muromachi Japan. In addition, Tangut-language translations of Zongmi's
constitute the very basis of the Chan tradition of the state of Xixia. As Broughton shows, the sutra-based Chan of Zongmi and Yanshou was much more normative in the East Asian world than previously believed, and readers who seek a deeper, more complete understanding of the Chan tradition will experience a surprising reorientation in this book.