Kazantzakis’s Zorba the Greek: East Asian Influences from Zen Buddhism to Daoism

Abstract

Broadly transcultural as well as intertextual in approach, this article explores the extent to which Zorba the Greek (1946) is shaped by the ideas, philosophy, and religion of East Asian countries, such as China and Japan. The significant engagements discussed in this article include: (1) the Japanese concept of fudoshin, mainly used in Japanese Zen Buddhism (zazen) and Japanese martial arts (budo); (2) the Lunyu (Analects) by Kongzi (Confucius); (3) the Mengzi by Mengzi (Mencius); and (4) the Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou (Chuang-tzu). Kazantzakis’s until now largely undiscerned dialogue with these East Asian thinkers turned out to be vital to his worldview and literary universe, particularly in Zorba the Greek, which can be read as the narrator’s progression from Zen Buddhism toward the Dao.