Introduction Koan Tradition: Self-Narrative an d Contemporary Perspective s STEVEN HEINE AND DALE S. WRIGHT Aims The term koa n (C . kung-an, literall y "public cases" ) refer s t o enigmati c an d often shockin g spiritual expressions based o n dialogica l encounters between masters and disciples that were used as pedagogical tools for religious training in th e Ze n (C . Ch'an) Buddhist tradition . Thi s innovative practic e i s one of the best-known and most distinctive elements of Zen Buddhism. Originating in T'ang/Sung China, the use of koans spread t o Vietnam, Korea, an d Japa n and now attracts international attention. What is unique about the koan is the way i n whic h i t i s thought t o embod y th e enlightenmen t experienc e o f th e Buddha an d Ze n masters through a n unbroken lin e of succession. Th e koan was conceived as both the tool by which enlightenment is brought abou t an d an expression of the enlightened mind itself. Koans ar e generally appreciate d today as pithy, epigrammatic, elusiv e utterances that see m to hav e a psycho- therapeutic effec t i n liberatin g practitioner s fro m bondag e t o ignorance , a s well a s fo r th e wa y they ar e containe d i n th e complex , multilevele d literary form o f koan collectio n commentaries . Perhap s n o dimensio n o f Asian reli - gions has attracted s o much interest and attention i n the West, from psycho - logical interpretations and comparative mystical theology to appropriations i n beat poetry and deconstractive literary criticism. There have been numerous excellent studies in English of the role of koans in the history of Zen thought, a s well as several important translations of koan collection literature . I n additio n t o th e works of D. T. Suzuki, especially th e three-volume Essays in Zen Buddhism, whic h covers the history of koan writ- ings, a major early study was Zen Dust by Isshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki , which is particularly known for its comprehensive annotated bibliograph y of original sources. 1 A numbe r o f mor e recen t work s specializ e i n particula r 3 4 INTRODUCTION thinkers, schools , o r approache s t o th e us e o f koans, includin g Rober t Bus - well's examinatio n o f th e "short-cut " approac h o f Sung-er a Lin-ch i maste r Ta-hui, "Th e 'Short-cut' Approach o f K'an-hua Meditation, " Kennet h Kraft's book Eloquent Zen o n Japanese Rinza i maste r Daito' s capping phras e com - mentaries o n th e Pi-yen lu (J . Hekiganroku), Steve n Heine' s Dogen and the Koan Tradition o n the role of k5an discourse in the Shobogenzo, and a chapter on the rol e of koans i n the post-Dogen Sot o sec t in William Bodiford's Soto Zen in Medieval Japan.2 Translations o f the three major koan collectio n commentaries compiled i n the twelfth an d thirteenth centurie s include a half dozen versions of the Wu- men kuan (J. Mumonkari), on e complete and on e partial versio n of the Pi-yen lu, and on e complete version of the Ts'ung-jung lu (J. Shoyoroku).3 I n addition , there are numerous translations of other genres of Zen texts from which some koans have been extracted, especially the recorded saying s of individual mas- ters.4 But there remains a great nee d for renderings of the voluminous "trans- mission of the lamp" histories, especially the seminal work of this genre, the Ching-te ch'uan-teng lu (J. Keitoku dentoroku) o f 1004 , since these texts tran- scribe and ar e the storehouse for the original Zen encounters fro m whic h th e more famou s koan collectio n texts have been derived. 5 The role of the trans - mission o f the lam p texts , along with the genr e o f monk biographies , whic h contain passage s o n a wid e variet y o f Buddhist practitioners in addition t o Zen masters, is one of the central topic s dealt with in chapters 1-6 , 8, and 10 . Despite grea t stride s made i n som e area s o f koan studies , th e underlying thesis here is that ou r understanding o f the diverse factors leading to the for- mation an d developmen t o f the Zen koan tradition ha s been severel y limited by a numbe r o f historical an d interpretiv e factors . I t i s our hop e tha t thi s volume will contribute to a deeper and more thoroughly historical understand - ing of the koan tradition b y opening for analysis the complexity of this tradi- tion, including a rich variety of social, political, an d popular cultural elements that framed the unfolding of various usages of koan literature . There ar e several factors that have inhibite d the development o f a critical understanding o f th e koan traditio n i n Ze n Buddhism . Mos t obvious , an d important, i s that koans as religious symbols are purposefully elusive and enig- matic, ofte n defyin g logica l analysi s by creating a linguisti c double bin d o r culminating i n absurdity or non sequitur . Fo r example, in Wu-men kuan cas e 43 the master hold s up a stick and dares his disciples, "I f you call this a stick you will be clinging; if you do not cal l this a stick you are ignoring [the obvi- ous]. So, now, tell me, what do you call it?" Also , in three consecutive cases of the Pi-yen lu (nos. 70 , 71, and 72) , Pai-chang taunts , "Keepin g you r tongue s still and lip s closed, how will you speak? " Since this double bind , "thirt y blow s whether you do o r don't" pattern i s emulated in dozens of examples, interpreters have typically devoted themselves more to the assertion that koans cannot or should not be subject to examina- INTRODUCTION 5 tion than the y hav e t o a n attempt t o understand an d explicat e them. Som e commentators, suc h as Suzuki and Akizuki Ryumin, tend to insist that inter- pretation mus t b e limited to practitioner s o r initiate s into th e tradition, be- cause koans elude objective, rational analysis. While that posture may be ap- propriate from th e subjective, experiential standpoint o f practice, it should by no means be taken to exclud e historical criticism or to rationalize conflating critical hermeneutics with traditional religious function. Another facto r contributing to misimpression s i s that th e modern under- standing of the character of koan practice has been shaped almost entirely by the tradition's ow n self-narrative, constructed in texts that were largely hagio- graphical o r pseudohistorica l rathe r tha n full y historiographical . Thi s self - narrative depicts the Zen lineage as an unmediated, unbroken line of transmis- sion passe d fro m maste r t o discipl e through th e us e of koans. A t th e sam e time, th e result s o f sectaria n debate s an d partisa n polemi c tha t too k plac e subsequent to the formative period of koan literature in T'ang and Sung China are frequently applied t o this epoch retrospectively . Many of the assumptions about th e early period i n China are actually based o n controversies between the Rinzai (C . Lin-chi) and Sot o (C. Ts'ao-tung) sect s that took plac e nearly a millennium later in late Tokugawa Japan, when mutual sectarian oppositio n became stiffene d i n part a s a result o f the politica l pressure s o f the period . This misleading orientation ha s led to inappropriat e generalizations , suc h as that one sec t throughout it s entire history has endorsed koa n trainin g while another sec t has not, or tha t koan s hav e a single , uniform functio n suc h a s defeating logi c that may have been appropriat e in one historical context bu t not in others. Challenging this stereotype, several chapters, especially 6 and 9, show that a t crucial junctures of history it was actually the Ts'ao-tung/Soto sect that kep t the tradition vital . Another problemati c assumptio n base d o n the tradition's self-narrative is the focus on a small handful of collections that have been passed down with their standpoints repeate d uncritically. Chapters 1-4 show that in early stages of the formation of the tradition fro m th e pre- T'ang through southern Sung periods there was a remarkable variety of texts and perspectives. Moreover, because the current Western understanding of koans largely de- rives from twentieth-century Japanese Rinzai Zen as depicted by Suzuki, it has focused almos t exclusively on the psychological or mystical aspects of koans. A commen t b y Rut h Fulle r Sasak i typifie s th e vie w that koan s necessaril y culminate i n a nonconceptual, ineffabl e awareness : "Koan stud y is a unique method o f religious practice which has as its aim the bringing of the student to direct, intuitive realization of Reality without recourse to the mediation of words or concepts." 6 Chapters 1 0 and n disput e thi s contention b y looking carefully at the issue of nonduality in the epitome of the very tradition—Toku- gawa and post-Tokugawa Rinzai training—from whic h the argument derives.