- Description
- 1 online resource.
- Summary
- "Chan Buddhism--better known as 'Zen'--produced an enormous amount of literature, and yet many Chan advocates, medieval and modern, insist that Chan and its truths can be found in neither language nor literature. Patriarchs on Paper explores this paradox by considering several genres of Chan literature that appeared during the Tang and Song dynasties (c. 600-1300), including genealogies, biographies, dialogues, poems, monastic handbooks, and koans. Looking carefully at this body of literature, Alan Cole shows how Chan authors gradually constructed, in ever more artful portrayals, images of the perfectly simple masters of the past, best known for their freedom from literature and cultural norms. Patriarchs on Paper explores how this kind of 'fantasy Buddhism' interacted with its more traditional Chinese forms and in so doing sheds new light on how Chan's illustrious ancestors were created in literature to satisfy a wide range of agendas"--Provided by publisher.
- Uniform Title
- Patriarchs on paper (Online)
- Alternative Title
- Patriarchs on paper (Online)
- Subject
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Access (note)
- Access restricted to authorized users.
- Source of Description (note)
- Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.
- Contents
- Introduction: Chan - what is it? -- Making history : Chan as an art form -- Plans for the past : early accounts of how perfect truth came to China -- Portable ancestors : Bodhidharma gets two new families -- More local Buddhas appear : Jingjue, Huineng, Shenhui -- Truth, conspiracy, and careful writing : a new version of Huineng -- The Platform Sutra and other conspiracy theories -- Chan "dialogues" from the Tang Dynasty -- Chan compendiums from the Song Dynasty -- Rules for purity : handbooks for running Chan monasteries -- Koans and being there -- Conclusions : Chan, a Buddhist beauty.
- LCCN
- 2016023440
- OCLC
- ssj0001725942
- Author
Cole, Alan, 1964-
- Title
Patriarchs on paper [electronic resource] : a critical history of medieval Chan literature / Alan Cole.
- Imprint
Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2016]
- Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Access
Access restricted to authorized users.
- Note
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.
- Connect to:
- Other Form:
Print version: Cole, Alan, 1964- author. Patriarchs on paper Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2016] 9780520284067 (DLC) 2016021494