Items related to Chan Rhetoric of Uncertainty in the Blue Cliff Record:...

Chan Rhetoric of Uncertainty in the Blue Cliff Record: Sharpening a Sword at the Dragon Gate - Softcover

Heine, Steven

 
9780199397778: Chan Rhetoric of Uncertainty in the Blue Cliff Record: Sharpening a Sword at the Dragon Gate
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0199397775 ISBN 13: 9780199397778
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

This book provides an in-depth textual and literary analysis of the Blue Cliff Record (Chinese Biyanlu, Japanese Hekiganroku), a seminal Chan/Zen Buddhist collection of commentaries on one hundred gongan/koan cases, considered in light of historical, cultural, and intellectual trends from the Song dynasty (960-1279). Compiled by the disciples of Yuanwu Keqin in 1128, the Blue Cliff Record is considered a classic of East Asian literature for its creative integration of prose and verse as well as hybrid or capping-phrase interpretations of perplexing cases.The collection employs a variety of rhetorical devices culled from both classic and vernacular literary sources and styles and is particularly notable for its use of indirection, allusiveness, irony, paradox, and wordplay, all characteristic of the approach of literary or lettered Chan.

However, as instrumental and influential as it is considered to be, the Blue Cliff Record has long been shrouded in controversy. The collection is probably best known today for having been destroyed in the 1130s at the dawn of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) by Dahui Zonggao, Yuanwu's main disciple and harshest critic. It was out of circulation for nearly two centuries before being revived and partially reconstructed in the early 1300s. In this book, Steven Heine examines the diverse ideological connections and disconnections behind subsequent commentaries and translations of the Blue Cliff Record, thereby shedding light on the broad range of gongan literature produced in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries and beyond.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Steven Heine is Professor of Religious Studies and History and Founding Director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Florida International University.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication date
2016
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0199397775
ISBN 13 
9780199397778
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
360