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Zen Buddhism: A History India and China Volume 1
Zen Buddhism: A History India and China Volume 1
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Buddhism

Price:  $26.95

ISBN:  0-941532-89-5
Book Size:  6 x 9
# of Pages:  440
Language:  English



Description
With a Foreword by John McRae, this volume represents a newly revised and greatly expanded edition of Heinrich Dumoulin's acclaimed history of Zen Buddhism which was first published over 30 years ago. It has been updated to take into account the wealth of historical research that has gone on in the intervening years, insuring its place as a standard reference work in the field. This volume treats Zen from its roots in ancient Indian Buddhism and Yoga to its flowering in China under the influence of Taoism and Confucian thought. Dumoulin not only introduces the imposing personalities of Zen Buddhism, among them Shakyamuni, Hui-neng, and Lin-chi, but also discusses the various expressions of Zen in the art and culture of India and China.
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Detailed Description of Zen Buddhism

With a Foreword by John McRae, this volume represents a newly revised and greatly expanded edition of Heinrich Dumoulin's acclaimed history of Zen Buddhism which was first published over 30 years ago. It has been updated to take into account the wealth of historical research that has gone on in the intervening years, insuring its place as a standard reference work in the field. This volume treats Zen from its roots in ancient Indian Buddhism and Yoga to its flowering in China under the influence of Taoism and Confucian thought. Dumoulin not only introduces the imposing personalities of Zen Buddhism, among them Shakyamuni, Hui-neng, and Lin-chi, but also discusses the various expressions of Zen in the art and culture of India and China.

The luminous heart of Zen, “not founded on words and letters”, shines through these pages, and Dumoulin never fails to remind us of those core religious ideas which transcend history and shape the life of the spirit.


About the Author(s)

Heinrich Dumoulin

Born in 1905, Heinrich Dumoulin was one of the world's foremost Zen scholars. Works previously translated into English include Buddhism in the Modern World, Zen Enlightenment, Zen Buddhism: A History; Volume 1 India and China and Zen Buddhism: A History; Volume 2 Japan.

Father Dumoulin is the author of Zen Buddhism: A History; Volume 1 India and China and Zen Buddhism: A History; Volume 2 Japan.


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John R. McRae

John R. McRae is a Professor of East Asian Buddhism and the author of Seeing Through Zen and The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch'an Buddhism (Studies in East Asian Buddhism, No 3). He has taught at both Indiana and Cornell Universities, and is currently a lecturer at Komazawa University in Tokyo. Professor McRae wrote the introduction for Zen Buddhism: A History; India and China Volume I .


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Reviews of Zen Buddhism

"The decision to reprint of Heinrich Dumoulin’s classic study of Zen history, according to one of the original translators, James Heisig, “was not an easy one to make.” As a friend of mine said, '”I’m not sure what that tells us about the state of Zen studies in the West, but good luck with your review!” The problem lies, as Heisig warns us, in the explosion of Western scholarly work on Zen from the moment it appeared in English translation in 1988 that made Dumoulin’ study vulnerable to criticism. The problem was not that it soon became dated after its publication. It is also the fact that the entire methodological underpinnings to Dumoulin’s approach to his history came under a hermeneutics of suspicion by Bernard Faure, John McCrae and others among a new generation of Zen scholars.

So why read it, let alone review it? The new edition is valuable because of the fascinating introductions by John McRae and Victor Hori. For his part, McRae sees it as “an excellent reference work” that still should not be read as an authoritative history of Zen given advances in the field. Hori’s introduction, by contrast, is more sympathetic, arguing that critics who see Dumoulin “as a naïve historian who let himself be beguiled by Zen into promoting its deceptive self image” are being unfair as he told the history of Zen from the insider’s point of view. The remainder of Hori’s essay is a spirited attack of McRae’s critique of Dumoulin’s “romanticized image of Zen.” What both introductions do is to place the current controversy over the history of the field, methodological approaches, the insider/outsider problem, etc. before the reader for critical reflection. The result is a perfect framework for assessing not only the strengths and weaknesses of Dumoulin’s book, but also the state of the field of Zen studies."
Mark MacWilliams, Religious Studies Review


"Zen Buddhism: A History India And China is a new edition of volume 1 of the classic two- volume history by Heinrich Dumoulin (1905-1995), one of the world's most renowned Zen scholars. Covering the emergence of Zen through India and China, the new edition also includes additional notes by James W. Heisig of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture; a new introduction by John R. McRae of Indiana University exploring recent developments in the study of Zen; and the complete original text. An excellent, thoroughly researched, in-depth history especially recommended for advanced students and scholars of Buddhism and religious history."
Bookwatch




"The publication of these books set a landmark in the study of the history of Zen Buddhism…It is the consummation of the life-long work of one of the world’s leading scholars of Zen Buddhism.”
—Tadanori Yamashita, The Journal of Asian Studies


"Heinrich Dumoulin, the foremost exponent of the history of Zen Buddhism to the West, wrote his first history of Zen in German in 1959. Despite the flood of research on Zen Buddhism, it is clear that only the barest outlines have been revealed. It is evident that the task of writing a comprehensive history of Zen through the ages is Herculean.

No major library or Student of Zen History can afford to be without these volumes, for they are a product of immense scholarship, summing up much of the mountain of Studies of Zen. Dumoulin's volumes will provide initial guidance for many researchers in the future and will no doubt be seen as one of the pioneering classic in English in the field."
—Japanese Journal of Religious Studies



"This scholarly tome gives a thorough account of the rise and development of Zen Buddhism in India and China. This erudite and meticulous account by Heinrich Dumoulin is not for the faint hearted! It is, however, an excellent work of scholarship, and indispensible for anyone wishing to develop their knowledge of Zen history."
—AboutBuddhism.com


"…a necessary addition to any library and will certainly replace its earlier edition as the standard work in the field."
—Choice


"Dumoulin's work (Zen Buddhism: A History) chronicles the history of Zen from its origins in India, its further development and dissemination throughout China, and finally, and most extensively, to its roots and expansion in Japan."
—Ian Patton, The Edmonton Buddhist Priory


Table of Contents for Zen Buddhism

Foreword to the English Edition

• Foreword to the 1988 Edition
• Prologue to the 1988 Edition
• Linguistic Conventions
• Preface
• Note to the 2005 Edition by James W. Heisig
• Introduction by John R. McRae

Part One: Beginnings and Roots in India


1. Sâkyamuni, the Enlightened One
- The Figure of the Buddha
- The Great Experience
- The Transmission of Enlightenment
- The Zen Buddhist View of Sakyamuni

2. The Yogic Element in Buddhism
- Essential Characteristics of Yoga
- The Practice of Meditation in Indian Buddhism Nirvana:
- The Final Goal of the Buddhist Way
- The Roots of Zen in Yoga

3. The Essentials of Mahayana
- The Beginnings of Mahayana
- The Bodhisattva Ideal
- Buddhology
- The History of Mahayana Buddhism

4. The Mahayana Sutras and Zen
- The Spiritual and Intellectual Context of Zen
- The Sûtras of Perfect Wisdom
- Prajnâpâramitâ
- The Doctrine of Totality—Avatarpsaka (Hua-yen)

Part Two: Origins and Blossoming in China


5. Preparations in Chinese Buddhism
- The Historical Understanding of Zen
- The Reception of Buddhism in China
- Kumârajiva and the School of the "Middle Way"
- Seng-chao Tao-sheng

6. The Early Period Bodhidharma-History and Legend
- The Image of Bodhidharma in Zen History
- Hui-k'o and Seng-ts'an Tao-hsin and Hung-jen

7. The Split between the Northern and Southern Schools
- The "Suddenness" of the South and "Gradualness" of the North
- The Northern School
- The Claim of the Southern School
- The Ox-Head School

8. The Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
- The Tun-huang Text and its Sources
- The Biography of Hui-neng
- Sudden Enlightenment as Seeing into One's Nature
- The Mahâyâna Doctrines of No-Mind and the Buddha Nature

9. The Zen Movement after Hui-neng
- The Beginnings of the "Zen of the Patriarchs" Schools and Currents
- The Two Main Lines of Chinese Zen
- Strange Words and Extraordinary Actions Monastic Life

10. Lin-chi
- The Generational Line From the Life of Lin-chi
- Themes from the Rinzairoku
- Lin-chi and His School

11. Characteristics of the Five Houses
- The Persecution of Buddhism
- The "Five Houses"
- Kuei-yang: Experience in Action
- Lin-chi: Threefold and Fourfold Formulas Ts'ao-tung:
- "The Five Ranks" Yun-men: "The One-Word Barriers"
- Fa-yen: The Interpenetration of Attributes

12. The Sung Period: A Time of Maturation
- Zen and the Spirit of the Age
- Kôan Practice and Kôan Collections
- Aspects of the Kôan Method
- The Two Mainstreams of Zen

13. Developments in Culture and Society
- The "Five Mountains" and "Ten Temples"
- Zen Buddhism and the Neo-Confucians
- Zen Art Syncretistic Tendencies and Decline

• Epilogue
• Supplement: The Northern School of Chinese Zen
• Appendix I : Abbreviations
• Appendix 2: Chronological Table
• Appendix 3: Chinese Characters
• Appendix 4: Genealogical Tables
Index of Names and Titles
Index of Terms and Subjects


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Introduction to Zen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 1 - India and ChinaZen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 1 - India and ChinaMcRae, John R. Buddhism
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