Table Of ContentThe Records of Mazu and the Making
of Classical Chan Literature
The Records
of Mazu and
the Making
of Classical Chan
Literature
z
MARIO POCESKI
1
3
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations xi
Conventions xiii
Introduction 1
PART I: Study of Chan Literature
1. Mazu’s Records and the Study of Chan Literature 17
2. Hagiographic Representations of Patriarch Ma 38
3. Further Communal Remembrances 61
4. Formation of Chan Genres 93
5. Four Main Genres 111
6. Protracted Makings of Texts and Patriarchs 133
PART II: Translation and Commentary of Mazu’s Records
1. Mazu’s Stele Inscription 175
2. Stone Case Inscription 195
3. Biographical Entry in Zu tang ji 199
4. Excerpts from Zong jing lu 239
vi Contents
5. Biographical Entry in Song gao seng zhuan 257
6. Biographical Entry in Jingde chuan deng lu 276
7. Sermon in Jingde chuan deng lu 298
Appendix: Additional Sources about Mazu 315
Glossary 317
Bibliography 327
Index 343
Preface and Acknowledgments
The disTanT origins of this book go back in time to my late teens, when
I first got seriously interested in the study of Chan/Zen Buddhism. That hap-
pened at an island hermitage in Sri Lanka, where I took temporary residence
after extended overland travel from Europe. The initial encounter with books
about Zen prompted me to travel to East Asia in a youthful search for knowl-
edge. The record of Mazu Daoyi (709–788), Mazu yulu, was among the earli-
est Chinese texts I ever read, after I taught myself classical Chinese while
living at another monastery located on an island, this time in Hong Kong. My
first book, Sun Face Buddha (Asian Humanities Press 1993)—published before
my entry into graduate school, while I was still in my twenties—included a
translation of Mazu’s record, along with other related materials. Other mark-
ers on the way to this volume included my PhD dissertation on Tang Chan
(UCLA 2000) and my book on the history, doctrines, and practices of Mazu’s
Hongzhou School, Ordinary Mind as the Way (Oxford 2007), along with a
number of shorter publications on related subjects. The idea of this book was
born while I was working on the Hongzhou School book, although a number
of other projects, including work on two other books, delayed the progress on
the manuscript.
The work on a book of this kind, like much of humanistic scholarship, is
for the most part a solitary undertaking. In a way, it evokes a comparison with
monastic life, of the eremitic variety. Nonetheless, my academic life has taken
me to many places and brought me into contact with a number of people. Over
the years, I have greatly benefited from the support, example, and encour-
agement that was kindly extended to me by a number of individuals and
institutions. I would especially like to thank Steven Heine, Robert Buswell,
Albert Welter, and Beata Grant, as well as my colleagues and students at the
University of Florida, particularly Richard Wang.
Much of the writing of the book, especially the final stages, was done during
two research stays in Germany, as a Humboldt fellow and a visiting professor
viii Preface and Acknowledgments
at the University of Hamburg. I am especially grateful to the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation for their generous support, which enabled me to spend
the summers and falls of 2013 and 2014 in Germany (plus a forthcoming stay
in the summer of 2015). I am also greatly appreciative of the hospitality I have
received in Hamburg, where I am affiliated with the Asien-Afrika-Institut.
I have especially enjoyed the support and friendship of my academic host,
Michael Zimmermann, the director of the University of Hamburg’s Center for
Buddhist Studies, who also offered valuable feedback on the book’s introduc-
tion and chapter 1.
I also want to acknowledge the support I received from my home insti-
tution, the University of Florida. That included grants that facilitated two
research stays in Japan: Humanities Scholarship Enhancement Grant, from
the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Rothman Summer Fellowship,
from the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. During my second
stay in Japan, in the summer of 2012, I was fortunate to be able to conduct
research in Nagoya, where I used the excellent facilities of the Institute for
Religion and Culture at Nanzan University. Special thanks go to James Heisig
and Paul Swanson, who facilitated my stay there and inspired me by their high
standards of scholarship.
I wish to thank Cynthia Read, Executive Editor, and the production team
at Oxford University Press, including Glenn Ramirez, for their excellent work
and high level of professionalism, as well as Joy Matkowski for her expert
editing. I would also like to acknowledge the encouragement and construc-
tive feedback I received from the three anonymous scholars who reviewed the
manuscript for Oxford. In preparing the present book, with the publisher’s
permission I made use of materials from two earlier chapters, which I wrote
for edited volumes published by Oxford: “Monastic Innovator, Iconoclast, and
Teacher of Doctrine: The Varied Images of Chan Master Baizhang,” in Steven
Heine and Dale Wright, eds., Zen Masters (Oxford 2010), and “Mazu yulu
and the Creation of the Chan Records of Sayings,” in Steven Heine and Dale
Wright, eds., The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts (Oxford 2004).
I used only small and revised portions of the first, while the second publica-
tion became a foundation for a number of sections in chapter 6.
I especially want to thank Rev. Dixuan (Chen Yujing), a graduate stu-
dent of mine, for going over most of the translations and offering valu-
able comments. The same kind of thankfulness goes to Rev. Guoguang, for
her helpful feedback on my translation of Mazu’s stele inscription. I also
received assistance from Zhou Chunyang (a graduate student at Hamburg),
who proffered the Chinese characters, and Zhang Yanchao (a graduate stu-
dent at Florida), who located and sent me digital copies of various research
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
materials, especially during my stays abroad. Special thanks go to Ruth
Sheng, a great colleague and a fomer graduate sudent of mine, for the won-
derful calligraphy that graces the cover of the book. As always, at the end
I want to express the greatest appreciation and gratitude to my wife, Hiroko
Poceski, for her love, patience, and support.
