Although Chinese Chan Buddhism proposes the special transmission beyond words and letters, it has been delving into the most indigenous way of narrating and imparting enlightenment experience, which echoes the Sinicized guiding wisdom. When an integration of unprecedented development of unnatural narratology with Chan Koans is encouraged, diverse dimensions of Koan teaching should be studied. Especially when we probe into the subtleties of Koan narration, we will rediscover long-neglected unnatural narrative strategies originally inherent in Chan pedagogy, which may enhance our understanding of the essence of Chan enlightenment experience, its deep consciousness and its way of instruction. This is a new study on narrative aspects of Koans based on three dimensions—unnatural story world, unnatural act of narration, unnatural mind. This essay attempts to demonstrate that Koan, as a unique Chan rhetoric and teaching method, suggests a profound presence of unnatural narratives. And unnatural narratology may shed some light on the interpretation of Chan Koans with its theoretical and practical significance. This interdisciplinary research will also provide a fresh interpretative paradigm for unnatural narratology.
