Synopses & Reviews
The Mystique of Transmissionis a close reading of a late-eighth-century Chan/Zen Buddhist hagiographical work, the Lidai fabao ji( Record of the Dharma-Jewel Through the Generations), and is its first English translation. The text is the only remaining relic of the little-known Bao Tang Chan school of Sichuan, and combines a sectarian history of Buddhism and Chan in China with an account of the eighth-century Chan master Wuzhu in Sichuan. Chinese religions scholar Wendi Adamek compares the Lidai fabao jiwith other sources from the fourth through eighth centuries, chronicling changes in the doctrines and practices involved in transmitting medieval Chinese Buddhist teachings. While Adamek is concerned with familiar Chan themes like patriarchal genealogies and the ideology of sudden enlightenment, she also highlights topics that make Lidai fabao jidistinctive: formless practice, the inclusion of female practitioners, the influence of Daoist metaphysics, and connections with early Tibetan Buddhism. The Lidai fabao jiwas unearthed in the early twentieth century in the Mogao caves at the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang in northwestern China. Discovery of the Dunhuang manuscripts has been compared with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as these documents have radically changed our understanding of medieval China and Buddhism. A crucial volume for students and scholars, The Mystique of Transmissionoffers a rare glimpse of a lost world and fills an important gap in the timeline of Chinese and Buddhist history.
Synopsis
Adamek provides a reading of the late 8th century Chan/Zen Buddhist Lidai fabao ji (Record of the Dharma-Jewel Through the Generations) and provides its first English translation. The work combines a history of the transmission of Buddhism and Chan in China with an account of the 8th century Chan master Wuzhu in Sichuan.
Table of Contents
The mystique of transmission. Authority and authenticity. Fabrications ; On the background of the Lidai fabao ji ; An overview -- Transmission and translation. The challenge of continuity ; Summary of the contents of the Lidai fabao ji ; Emperor Ming of the Han ; Daoan and transmission of forms ; Buddabhadra and transmission of lineage ; Huiyuan's transmission of space and place ; The mystique of legitimacy -- Transmission and lay practice. The interdependence of lay and ordained practice ; Criteria of authenticity of the dharma and the authority of the ordained ; The role of the Bodhisattva precepts in lay devotional practice -- Material Buddhism and the dharma kings. The dangers of empire ; The Northern Wei and spiritual materialism ; Empires of signs ; The Fu fazang zhuan ; The legacy of Tiantai Zhiyi ; The Renwang jing ; The Sanjie (three levels) movement ; Imaginary cultic robes -- Robes and patriarchs. The "Chan" question ; Tales of the Chan patriarchs ; A genealogy of patriarchal lineages ; Shehui's rhetoric ; Inconceivable robes in the Vajrasamādhi-sūtra and the Platform sūtra -- Robes purple and gold ; The reforms of Emperor Xuanzong -- Wuzhu and his others. The second part of the Lidai fabao ji ; A note about style ; Mass precepts ceremonies and formless precepts ; Transmission from Wuxiang to Wuzhu ; Locating Wuzhu ; Antinomianism in the monastery ; Women in the Lidai fabao ji ; Daoists in the dharma hall -- The legacy of the Lidai fabao ji. The portrait-eulogy of Wuzhu ; Developments after the Lidai fabao ji.