飲水由波 紫柏真可的禪教觀與兩種歷史解釋進路的方法論難題=Drink Water from Wave: Zibo Zhenke’s (1543-1604) Perspective on the Relationship between Chan and Doctrine and the Problems of Two Approaches of Historical Explanation
Zibo Zhenke (紫柏真可, 1543-1604), who is regarded as one of three eminent monks during Wanli (萬曆) period in Ming Dynasty. Zibo very emphasized the importance of Chan (禪) and doctrine (教) both, and tried to claimed his view on the relationship between these is from Juefan Huihong (覺範惠洪, 1071-1128). However, Zibo’s view is not only different from the mainstream’s standpoint of Chan community in Song Dynasty, but also distinct from Huihong who was admired by him –one of metaphors Zibo used a to explain the relationship between Chan and doctrine is “water and wave.” That means, they are same one but in different aspects. He also mentioned that we cannot drink water without wave, such as it’s impassable to reach Chan without doctrine.
How do we understand and explain Zibo’s perspective and its difference from the mainstream’s standpoint of Chan community, that is “Chan is another tradition which is separate from doctrine (in sūtra)” (教外別傳), since 9th century? In this paper, I will distinguish and classify the answers into two approaches, one is contextualization, another is essentialism. The former tends to attribute Zibo’s perspective to context and environment, but this way also leads to the suspicion of reductionism and assumption Zibo’s perspective as an expediency preach. The later seems to be able to avoid of some above problems, but it appeals to an ineffable experience which is regard as the essence usually, such as “Chan / Zen” said by Zibo and D. T. Suzuki (鈴木大拙). In fact, essentialist assumptions will bring about more problems. For example, if someone (just as Zibo and Suzuki) defines Chan experience as something cannot be understood nor verified by rationale, it will lead to the dilemma between position of that “we cannot distinguish” and perennialist religious pluralism when facing various religious tradition. Besides, the similarity between Zibo and Suzuki maybe a case to show that we should not simply regard the rhetoric of experience as a product by modernism.
