Chan Literature

In this survey, “Chan” (禪) refers to Chan texts produced in China from the early Tang dynasty (618–907) through the Yuan dynasty (1279–1367). This is a survey of studies on Chan literature, which is a branch of Chinese literature (and simultaneously a branch of Buddhist literature). The framework involves a selection of representative texts from each of the major Chan literary genres: transmission records, yulu語錄 (recorded sayings), compendia, miscellanies (“brush notes”), poetry (including poetic lines, inscriptions, songs, so-called case collections, and shi詩 poetry), monastic codes (“regulations of purity”), and sutras closely associated with Chan. For each text an attempt has been made to give an edition and a translation (usually into Japanese or English or both, depending upon availability) as well as relevant monographs, articles, dissertations, and so forth. In most genre categories the first representative texts are naturally “Dunhuang Chan manuscripts,” because the texts found within this manuscript corpus are the earliest we have. The discovery in the early 20th century of a walled-up cave filled with tens of thousands of Chinese and Tibetan manuscripts within the Mogao Grottoes located outside the oasis town of Dunhuang in northwest China led, over decades, to the retrieval of some of the earliest Chan texts. Woodblock printing of books had its beginnings in China during the Tang (beginning with Buddhist incantations in the 7th century), went through a period of development during the Five Dynasties, and reached a high plateau during the Song (though, of course, manuscripts still circulated). In the Song an extensive printed Chan literature came into wide circulation, including intact Tang texts, Tang materials reworked and burnished by Song editors for their own purposes, and a vast new Song Chan literature. Printed Chan literature was very important in the spread of Chan among the educated elite during the Song.