By ARTHUR WALEY LONDON: LUZAC & CO., 46, Great Russell Street, W.C.1. 1922 ZEN BUDDHISM ZEN BUDDHISM AND ITS RELATION TO ART Books on the Far East often mention a sect of Buddhism called Zen. They say that it was a “school of abstract meditation” and that it exercised a profound influence upon art and literature; but they tell us very little about what Zen actually was, about its relation to ordinary Buddhism, its history, or the exact nature of its influence upon the arts. The reason of

There were already many sects in China, the chief of which were: (1) The Amidists. This was the form of Buddhism which appealed to the uneducated. It taught that a Buddha named Amida presides over the Western Paradise, where he will receive the souls of those that worship him. The conception of this Paradise closely resembles the Christian idea of Heaven and may have been derived from it. (2) The Tendai Sect, founded at the end of the sixth century. Its teaching was based on a scripture of enorm

He first describes the different attitudes in which Zen may be practised, with an exact account of the correct position for hands, feet, head, etc. The normal attitude of meditation, cross-legged, with upright back and hands locked over the knees is familiar to every one. Zen could also be practised while walking and, in cases of sickness, while lying down. Buddhapriya’s instructions are in the form of question and answer. Question. —How does the Zen practised by heretics and by the other school

Zen was at first a purely personal discipline, non-monastic, non-ethical, not demanding the acceptance of any Scripture or any tradition. In modern Japan it has to some extent regained this character. In China the habit of quoting written authority was too strong to be easily discarded. The Zen masters soon began to answer difficult questions by quoting from the Buddhist Scriptures. Convenience dictated that practicants of Zen should live in communities and monasticism was soon established in th

Let us begin with Enō, a master of the seventh century. He lost his parents when he was young and earned his living by gathering firewood. One day when he was in the market-place he heard some one reading the Diamond Sūtra. [6] He asked where such books were to be had and was told “From Master Kōnin on the Yellow Plum-blossom Hill.” Accordingly he went to Kōnin’s Monastery in Anhui and presented himself before the Master. “Where do you come from?” “From the South.” “Bah! In the South they have n

The warden Shinshū had lost the Patriarchate and with it the spiritual headship of Zen. But as a compensation Fate had in store for him worldly triumphs of the most dazzling kind. Leaving the rural monastery of Kōnin, he entered the Temple of the Jade fountain in the great city of Kingchau. His fame soon spread over central China. He was a man of “huge stature, bushy eyebrows and shapely ears.” The Empress Wu Hou, who had usurped the throne of China, notoriously cultivated the society of handsom

Ōbaku lived at the beginning of the ninth century, and was thus a contemporary of the poet Po Chü-i. He enjoyed the patronage of a distinguished statesman the Chancellor Hai Kyū, of whom the Emperor said, “This is indeed a true Confucian.” It is to the Chancellor that we owe the record of Ōbaku’s conversations, which he wrote down day by day. I will make a few extracts from this diary: Hai Kyū.—Enō could not read or write. How came it that he succeeded to the Patriarchate of Kōnin? The warden Sh

Baso was a master of the ninth century. One day he was sitting with his feet across the garden-path. A monk came along with a wheel-barrow. “Tuck in your feet,” said the monk. “What has been extended cannot be retracted,” answered Baso. “What has been started cannot be stopped,” cried the monk and pushed the barrow over Baso’s feet. The master hobbled to the monastery and seizing an axe called out “Have any of you seen the rascal who hurt my feet?” The monk who had pushed the barrow then came ou

Ōbaku, as we have seen, taught wisdom with his fists. When the novice Rinzai came to him and asked him what was the fundamental idea of Buddhism, Ōbaku hit him three times with his stick. Rinzai fled and presently met the monk Daigu. Daigu : Where do you come from? Rinzai : From Ōbaku. Daigu : And what stanza did he lecture upon? Rinzai : I asked him thrice what was the fundamental doctrine of Buddhism and each time he hit me with his stick. Please tell me if I did something I ought not to have

I said at the beginning of this paper that Zen is often mentioned by writers on Far Eastern Art. The connection between Zen and art is important, not only because of the inspiration which Zen gave to the artist, but also because through Zen was obtained a better understanding of the psycho logical conditions under which art is produced than has prevailed in any other civilisation. Art was regarded as a kind of Zen, as a delving down into the Buddha that each of us unknowingly carries within him,

One institution, about which till recently very little was known, seems to have been an important factor in the propagation of Zen art and ideas. About 1215 A.D. a Zen priest came from the far south-west of China to Hangchow, the Capital, and there refounded a ruined monastery, the Rokutsūji, which stood on the shores of the famous Western Lake. His name was Mokkei. He seems to have been the first to practise the swift, ecstatic type of monochrome which is associated with Zen. In hurried swirls

Reproductions of Zen Paintings in Japanese art publications. (The Kokka and the other publications here referred to may be seen at the Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum; and at the Print Room of the British Museum.) MOKKEI— Kokka. 37, 112, 122, 177, 185, 238, 242, 265, 268, 291, 293, 314. RASŌ.— Shimbi Taikwan XX. MOKUAN.—(Mokkei II).— Kokka 295, Shimbi Taikwan Vol. IX. (Nos. 21 and 22 in the collection of Chinese Paintings at the British Museum are probably by Mokuan.) RYŌKAI.— Kokka 40,

The Nikkōshū [11] , a diary by the priest Gidō, has the following entry under the year 1378 (month and day uncertain): To-day Donfu [12] came, and we fell to talking of Mokuan. It seems that he was once known as Ze-itsu. But on becoming a pupil of the priest Kenzan [13] , he changed his name to Mokuan. Afterwards he went to China and entered the Honkakuji [14] , where he became the disciple of Ryō-an [15] and was made librarian. Here he published at his own expense (lit. “selling his shoes”) the

(1) With tightly closed lips, as he appeared before the Emperor of China in 520. Masterpieces of Sesshū , Pl. 47. (2) Crossing the Yangtze on a reed. Perhaps the best example may be seen not in a reproduction, but in No. 22 of the original Chinese Paintings at the British Museum. (3) Sitting with his face to the wall. He sat thus in silence for nine years in the Shōrin Monastery on Mount Sung. Kokka 333....

Second Patriarch of the sect. Severed his own arm and presented it to Bodhidharma. In spite of his fanaticism (or because of it) the Founder did not at first regard him with complete confidence and recommended to him the study of the Langkāvatāra Sūtra, not considering him ripe for complete, non-dogmatic Zen. Eka waiting waist-deep in the snow for the Founder to instruct him. Masterpieces of Sesshū, Pl. 45....

Sixth Patriarch. See above, p 15. Kokka , 289, 297....

Shimbi Taikwan , I, 13, shows him with his famous Zen stick. He is also sometimes depicted failing to answer an old market-woman’s riddle; and tearing up his commentary on the Diamond Sūtra....

A painting by Indra ( Kokka 173) shows him burning the wooden statue of Buddha at the Erin Temple....

The only writer who has made extracts from the works of Bodhidharma is Père Wieger, whose remarks (in his Histoire des Croyances religieuses en Chine , pp. 517-528) show a robust and likeable bigotry. Of Zen literature he says: “ Nombre d’in-folio remplis de réponses incohérentes, insensées.... Ce ne sont pas, comme on l’a supposé, des allusions à des affaires intérieures, qu’il faudrait connaître pour pouvoir comprendre. Ce sont des exclamations échappées à des abrutis, momentanément tirés de l

Most of this paper is derived from the section on Zen (Series II, Vol. 15, seq.) in the “Supplement to the Collection of Buddhist Scriptures,” Dai Nihon Zoku Zō Kyō . Much of the information with regard to the Rokutsūji School is taken from the article by Mr. Saga to which I have already referred. For the Rokutsūji (“Temple of the Six Penetrations”) see Hsien Shun Lin-an Chih (“Topography of Hangchow, 1265-1275 A.D. ”), ch. 78, f. 9 recto. I have also used Yamada’s Zenshū Jiten (Dictionary of Ze