The Record of Linji tr. by Ruth Fuller Sasaki (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews 133 understood as a religious tradition (as a project of spiritual self-cultivation toward an immanent transcendence) suggest that analysis in religious as well as philosophical, historical, and literary terms might be possible? Much might be gained. To engage the work of the broad range of international feminist religionists and religious feminists—whether mujerista, womanist, Orthodox Jewish, or pagan—is not to encourage some hegemonic imposition of theory or practice. Rather, it may serve to identify a conceptually flexible space wherein Rosenlee’s vision of “Confucian feminism”—building on this excellent book—can be advanced. VIVIAN-LEE NYITRAY, University of California, Riverside The Record of Linji Translation and commentary by RUTH FULLER SASAKI. Edited by THOMAS YŪHŌ KIRCHNER. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2009. xxxii, 485 pages. ISBN 978-08248 -2821-9. US$53.00 hardcover. Almost 35 years have passed since Ruth Fuller Sasaki’s translation of the record of Linji (Linji lu 臨濟錄) first appeared in 1975, which contained limited annotation. We now have the full version of her work, as she wished, with YANAGIDA Seizan’s 柳田聖山 (1922-2006) introduction and the complete and updated notes edited by Thomas Kirchner. Based on a recent biography of Ruth Sasaki1 and his own personal experience in Japan, Kirchner provides a detailed account of the making of this book in an “Editor’s Prologue.” Ruth Sasaki, a rich widow, was attracted to Zen and married her teacher SASAKI Shigetsu 佐 佐木指月 (Sōkei-an 曹谿庵, 1882-1945). Inspired by her husband, she was determined to provide a full translation of the Linji lu to the newly developing Zen communities in the West. She moved to Japan in 1950 and attracted a group of young Western and Japanese scholars, including Philip Yampolsky (1920-1996), Burton Watson, Gary Snyder, IRIYA Yoshitaka 入 矢義高, and YANAGIDA Seizan, to work on the project. These members all became famed scholars, translators, or, in the case of Snyder, a Beat poet. Among them, Burton Watson published his own English translation of the Linji lu2 and Iriya and Yanagida published their *I want to thank Albert Welter for commenting on a draft of this review. All opinions and errors remain my own. 1 Isabel Stirling, Zen Pioneer: The Life and Works of Ruth Sasaki (Emeryville: Shoemaker and Hoard, 2006). 2 The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-chi (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993). 134 Journal of Chinese Religions Japanese translations as well in 1989 and 1972 respectively (both are entitled as Rinzairoku).3 The team members worked on and off for years until Ruth’s sudden death in 1967. In 1975, the translation, leaving out most of the notes, was published by the Institute of Zen Studies. The current volume reprints most contents of the previous translation, including the 1975 foreword by YAMADA Mumon 山田無文 and the preface written by FURUTA Kazuhiro 古田 和弘. The entire translation of the Linji lu is reprinted in the first part, with occasional corrections noted by the editor in the commentary. It is followed by YANAGIDA Seizan’s original introduction (some parts appeared in his English article on Linji’s life published in Eastern Buddhist, New Series 2, pp. 70-94 in 1972). Then follows the full commentary by Ruth Sasaki, which is the main part of the book and has never before appeared in any publication. At the end, an updated bibliography of primary sources is provided, followed by a list of secondary sources and a list of personal names in Chinese characters and their readings in Pinyin, Wade-Giles, and Japanese. This book is a product of the confluence of traditional Japanese monastic scholarship on the Linji lu, the study of Tang colloquial literature based on Tang period texts discovered at Dunhuang, and Western interest in Zen. It should be noted first that no commentaries of the Linji lu were written in China despite its popularity and importance. Japanese monastic scholars, however, studied the text and wrote commentaries on it. At the time of translation in the fifties, this commentarial tradition became a treasure-trove for Sasaki’s translation team to explore. In particular, MUJAKU Dōchū’s 無著道忠 unpublished commentary, Rinzai Eshō zenji goroku soyaku 臨濟慧照禪師語錄疏瀹, is an important source and often quoted in Sasaki’s...