A comprehensive treatment of the shared traditions of Chan, Sŏn, and Zen in dynamic interaction across East Asia, acknowledging the changing and growing parameters of the field of Zen studies. This volume focuses on Chinese Chan Buddhism and its spread across East Asia, with special attention to its impacts on Korean Sŏn and Japanese Zen. Zen enthralled the scholarly world throughout much of the twentieth century, and Zen Studies became a major academic discipline in its wake. Interpreted through the lens of Japanese Zen and its reaction to events in the modern world, Zen Studies incorporated a broad range of Zen-related movements in the East Asian Buddhist world. As broad as the scope of Zen Studies was, however, it was clearly rooted in a Japanese context, and aspects of the "Zen experience" that did not fit modern Japanese Zen aspirations tended to be marginalized and ignored. Approaches to Chan, Sŏn, and Zen Studies acknowledges the move beyond Zen Studies to recognize the changing and growing parameters of the field. The volume also examines the modern dynamics in each of these traditions.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Robert E. Buswell Jr. Preface Introduction Section I: Chinese Chan and the Greater East Asian Region 1. The Spread of Chan Buddhism: Linguistic and Cultural Constraints John Jorgensen 2. The Hangzhou Region and the Spread of East Asian Buddhism Albert Welter 3. A Greater Vehicle to the Other Shore: Chinese Chan Buddhism and the Sino-Japanese Trade in the Seventeenth Century Jiang Wu Section II: The Japanese Zen Nexus 4. The Transmission of the Blue Cliff Record to Medieval Japan: Textuality and Historicity in Relation to Mythology and Demythology Steven Heine 5. Interpreters, Brush-Dialogue, and Poetry: Translingual Communication between Chan and Zen Monks Jason Protass 6. Doves on My Knees, Golden Dragons in My Sleeves: Emigrant Chan Masters and Early Japanese Zen Buddhism Steffen Doll 7. The Lute, Lyric Poetry, and Literary Arts in Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen Buddhism George A. Keyworth Section III: The Korean Sŏn Nexus 8. Pure Rules and Public Monasteries in Korea Juhn Y. Ahn 9. Gender and Dharma Lineage: Nuns in Korean Sŏn Buddhism Jin Y. Park 10. Mindful Interactions and Recalibrations: From Chinul to T'oegye Kevin N. Cawley Section IV: Chan, Zen, and Sŏn in the Modern Period 11. Taixu's History of the Chan Tradition Eric Goodell 12. Zen Internationalism, Zen Revolution: Inoue Shūten and Uchiyama Gudō and the Crisis of Buddhist Modernity in Late Meiji Japan James Mark Shields 13. The Struggle of the Jogye Order to Define its Identity as a Meditative School in Contemporary Korea Bernard Senecal Bibliography Contributors Index