Chan Buddhism in Ritual Context / Edition 1

by Bernard Faure

Overview

The essays in this volume attempt to place the Chan and Zen tradition in their ritual and cultural contexts, looking at various aspects heretofore largely (and unduly) ignored. In particular, they show the extent to which these traditions, despite their claim to uniqueness, were indebted to larger trends in East Asian Buddhism, such as the cults of icons, relics and the monastic robe.
The book emphasises the importance of ritual for a proper understanding of this allegedly anti-ritualistic form of Buddhism. In doing so, it deconstructs the Chan/Zen 'rhetoric of immediacy' and its ideological underpinnings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415297486
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/26/2003
Series:	Curzon Series in Asian Religion Ser.
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bernard Faure is a Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies. His publications include The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism (1991), Chan Insights and Oversights: A Phenomenological Critique of the Chan/Zen Tradition (1993), Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism (1996) and The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism (1997).

Table of Contents

1. Bernard Faure Chan and Zen Studies: The State of the Field(s)2. Wendi Adamek Imagining the Portrait of a Chan Master3. T Griffith Foulk and Robert H. Sharf On the Ritual Use of Chan Portraiture4. James Robson A Tang Dynasty Chan Mummy [ roushen ] and a Modern Case of furta sacra? Investigating the Contested Bones of Shitou Xiqian5. Carl Bielefeldt Filling the Zen shu: Notes on the Jisshū yõdõ ki6. Bernard Faure Quand l'habit fait le moine: The Symbolism of the kasãya in Sōtō Zen7. Duncan Ryūken Williams: How Dōshō's Medicine Saved Dōgen: Dōshō'an, and Edo-Period Dōgen Biographies

Editorial Reviews

'It offers a probing, detailed and ultimately surprisingly revealing account of an important era of religious thought made all the more interesting by the variety of forms of accommodation to novelty reflected therein.' - Social Anthropology

Review in Acta Orientalia vol. 57 no.3

From the Publisher