Through a diachronic and comparative approach this book offers a comprehensive study of Zen Buddhist linguistic and rhetoric devices in China, Korea, and Japan.

This book provides an in-depth textual and literary analysis of the Blue Cliff Record (Chinese Biyanlu, Japanese Hekiganroku), a seminal Chan/Zen Buddhist colle

Can literature reveal reality? Is philosophical truth a literary artifice? How does the way we think affect what we can know? Buddhism has been grappling with t

“What is the sound of one hand clapping?” “Does a dog have Buddha-nature?” These cryptic expressions are among the best-known examples of koans, the con

The truth of Chan Buddhism--better known as "Zen"--is regularly said to be beyond language, and yet Chan authors--medieval and modern--produced an enormous quan