2. Author Affiliation: Duke Kunshan University, China.
關鍵詞
Chan Buddhism; Zen Buddhism; kōan; comparative literature; American Buddhism; genre studies
摘要
Though we understand well the historical contexts in which kōan originated and to what rhetorical purposes they were put, relatively little attention has been paid to kōan as a literary genre. In this paper, I propose that our understanding of the rhetorical operation of kōan benefits from a genre studies approach. Specifically, after disambiguating the terms cases, kōan, and encounter dialogue, I will argue that this genre is best understood as a type of riddle, namely the neck riddle. Neck riddles create a hierarchical situation, suggest esoteric knowledge, create a contest of life and death, and bring the miraculous back to the everyday. To show that kōan were already understood to have such functions during the high point of Zen, namely the Song dynasty, I will close read commentaries from two of the most influential kōan collections: the Wumen guan and the Biyan lu. I will then compare these readings with contemporary interpretations in memoirs of American Zen practitioners to show that kōan are still understood to function as neck riddles today.
目次
Abstract 111 Keywords 111 Introduction 112 Modern Rejections of Applying the Term Riddle to Kōan 112 A Sample Kōan 116 Kōan, Encounter Dialogues, Standards, or What? 118 What is Genre? 121 What Genre is It? 124 Alternative Possibility: Religious Biography 131 Classic Kōan Collections 132 Contemporary Kōan Interpretations by American Practitioners 136 Conclusion 140 Bibliography 141 Abbreviations 141 Primary Sources 141 Secondary Sources 141
