ASIAN 4405 - Zen Buddhism: Experience and Ideology

(crosslisted)
(also RELST 4405)(GHB) (CA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

J. M. Law.

This course explores the Zen’s central religious, historical and aesthetic developments. We read primary sources in translation and secondary sources. We examine the rise of the Ch’an tradition in China and the development of Northern and Southern Schools. In Japan, we examine the establishment of Zen in the Kamakura period, through the development of both Rinzai and Soto Zen, and early transmissions of Chinese texts and practices to Japan through Japanese emissaries. We study the lives and writings of Eisai and Dôgen, and explore how their works influenced later developments in Zen. Next we read works by Hakuin. Last, we study how Zen is implicated in Japanese fascism and later, postwar identity discourses. Finally, we look at Zen in an American context. (RL)

Print this Page