DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY IN MEDIEVAL JAPANESE BUDDHISM . Edited by Richard K.Payne and TaigenDan Leighton . Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism . London : Routledge , 2009 . Pp. xv + 271 . Cloth, $170.00; paper, $39.95.
摘要
This fine collection of essays focuses on the uses and understandings of language in different Japanese Buddhist traditions from roughly the twelfth to fifteenth centuries. Topics covered include the role of linguistic metaphors in cultural transformation; the development of Japanese nationalism through the convergence of “three countries” (sangoku: India, China, Japan) and “decay of the dharma” (mappō) discourses; the understanding of religious texts—such as the late‐Kamakura Reikiki—as talismanic condensations of the entire universe; Indic doctrines of the soteriological efficacy of language as underpinning Japanese Shingon teachings; Jōkei's (1155‐1213) development of “Buddhist ceremonials” (Kōshiki) to promote a kind of Buddhist pluralism against the universalizing tendencies of the Kamakura “single‐practice” movements; Myōe Kōben's (1173‐1232) calls to revive the monastic precepts as antidote to the impending mappō period; Myōe's act of self‐mutilation (cutting off his ear) as instantiation of bodhisattva ideals and protest against the dominant kenmitsu Buddhist establishment; different Tendai and Nichiren conceptions of how the language of the Lotus sūtra works soteriologically; how the self‐reflexive discourse of the Lotus influenced Dōgen's (1200‐1253) writing style; Dōgen's refashioning of kōan literature to promote his institutional and philosophical agendas; and Shinran's (1173‐1262) use of Tendai rhetorical strategies to emphasize reliance on the “other‐power” of Amida Buddha. Overall, while some of these essays are better than others (J. Stone's is certainly the cream of the crop), their quality is fairly even, and they cohere rather nicely in their shared focus on the emic discourses of medieval Japanese exegetes. This book is recommended for anyone interested in the intellectual history of pre‐modern Japanese Buddhism.
