Sometimes history is cruel: a civilization starts to fall apart and a stable social order starts to unravel; upheaval and uncertainty abound. Tyrants ride high, old notions of justice vanish, and people may feel they have nowhere to turn for relief. In some ways, this is the story of human civilization. Indeed, this is what happened to the Chinese world in the thirteenth century when the Mongol conquerors mangled China and left the Chinese social order in tatters.
This book, from one of the pioneering and preeminent translators of Zen for the West, presents a selection of Zen lessons from four teachers in four successive generations. More than just a book on Zen philosophy, Zen Under the Gun spans the turbulent period in Chinese history from the last generation of the Song dynasty (overthrown by the Mongols in 1279) to the first generation of the Ming dynasty (which drove out the Mongols, and proclaimed its own reign in 1368). These four Zen masters were all eminent public teachers, and their teaching words reflect the state of China and the art of Zen in their time.
