Inventing Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch: Hagiography And Biography in Early Ch'an

Front Cover
BRILL, 2005 - Social Science - 862 pages
It was through the propaganda of Shen-hui (684-758) that Hui-neng (d. 710) became the also today still towering figure of sixth patriarch of Ch an/Zen Buddhism, and accepted as the ancestor or founder of all subsequent Ch an lineages. The first part of the book analyses the creation of the image of Hui-neng and the worship of a lacquered mummy said to be that of Hui-neng. Using the life of Confucius as a template for its structure, Shen-hui invented a hagiography for the then highly obscure Hui-neng. At the same time, Shen-hui forged a lineage of patriarchs of Ch an back to the Buddha using ideas from Indian Buddhism and Chinese ancestor worship. The second half of the book examines the production of the hagiographies of Hui-neng , how they evolved, and the importance of ideas about authorship and the role of place. It demonstrates the influence of Confucian thought, politics and the periphery in the growth of early Ch an hagiography and the changing image of Hui-neng.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Analysis of the Hagiography Huineng
35
Why not take all of me? The Afterlife
190
Secondary Relics Ancestor Worship
274
The Furtum Sacrum
322
THE WRITING OF THE HAGIOGRAPHY
357
Wen Authority and the Lives of Huineng
385
Conclusion
446
Evolution of the Hagiographies
535
Conclusion
635
Conclusion
669
The Translations
677
Korea and the Compilation of the Tsutang
729
Works Cited
753
Index
801
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2005)

John Jorgensen, Ph.D. (1990), Australian National University, is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies, Griffith University. He has published on Chinese and Korean Buddhism, and Korean new religions.

Bibliographic information