Zen History: A Historiography Focused on Problems

Author: Gong Jun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: When Western Buddhist studies entered the era of what is termed "embracing the other" and listening to the multiplicity of voices, the Buddhist discourses in the Chinese context seemed to still remain confined to a relatively narrow historical and interpretive narrative. As a philosophical examination of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, although scholars began to re-examine the reliability of traditional lamp histories and their historical context in the early 20th century, particularly with the discovery of new materials and the publication of Dunhuang manuscripts, in hopes of reconstructing a new history of Chan Buddhist thought. In terms of methodology, due to excessive reliance on the revolutionary insights brought by new historical sources, the structure of research primarily focused on historical documents supplemented by necessary philosophical interpretations became the basic paradigm of modern Chinese Chan Buddhist studies. The value belief of "clear etymology leads to clear meaning" in Sinology, after being packaged with modern rationality, led scholars to believe that through the collation and interpretation of original documents and archaeological materials, the temporal and spatial distance of history could be bridged, and the original appearance of traditional Chan Buddhism could be reconstructed. This ambitious heroicism-inspired paradigm of documentary epistemology, on the one hand, led to a considerable expansion of historical document studies on Chinese Chan Buddhism, especially textual studies on Tang Dynasty Chan Buddhism, and together with Japanese scholars, it re-established the historical genealogy of early Chan Buddhism development.