Abstract
I want to know whether Chan masters and students depicted in classical Chan transmission literature can be interpreted as asking open (or what I will call “genuine”) questions. My task is significant because asking genuine questions appears to be a decisive factor in ascertaining whether these figures represent models for dialogue—the kind of dialogue championed in democratic society and valued by promoters of interreligious exchange. My study also contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of early Chan not only by detailing contrasts between contemporary interests and classical Chan, but more importantly by paying greater attention to the role language and rhetoric play in classical Chan. What roles do questions play in Chan encounter dialogues, and are any of the questions genuine? Is there anything about the conventions of the genre that keeps readers from interpreting some questions in this way? To address these topics, I will proceed as follows. First, on a global level and for critical-historical context, I survey Chan transmission literature of the Song dynasty in which encounter dialogues appear, and their role in developments of Chan/Zen traditions. Second, I zoom in on structural elements of encounter dialogues in particular as a genre. Third, aligning with the trajectory of performative analyses of Chan literature called for by Sharf and Faure, I turn to develop and criticize a performative model of questions from resources in recent analytic and continental philosophy of language and I apply that model to some questions in encounter dialogue literature.
Highlights
I want to know whether Chan masters and students depicted in classical Chan transmission literature can be interpreted as asking open questions
Given Mazu’s (709–788) apparent discouragement to seek answers to questions, at least not from masters who would seem to know the answers, it may strike some readers as misguided to seek further clarification about acts of questioning generally and the kinds of questions depicted in Chan encounter dialogue literature in particular
My task is significant because asking genuine questions appears to be the decisive factor in ascertaining whether these figures represent models for dialogue—the kind of dialogue championed in democratic society and valued by promoters of interreligious exchange
Summary
I provide an overview of both the basic structure of Chan transmission literature and its life in Chan/Zen traditions, as characterized in recent Western scholarship. I conclude this section by calling into question rigid dualities of “written” discourse and “spoken” discourse
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