This project investigates the development of Chinese Chan/Zen 禪 Buddhist hagiography and historiography during the Tang-Song transition (ca. 750–1050). Specifically, I examine the hagiographies for the patriarchs and early Chan masters in the four earliest extant anthologies from this period: (1) the Baolin zhuan 寶林傳 (Chronicle of the Baolin [Monastery], ca. 801), (2) the Shengzhou ji 聖冑集 (Collection of the Sagely Descendant, ca. 899), (3) the Zutang ji 祖堂集 (Collection of the Patriarchal Hall, ca. 952) and (4) the Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄 (Jingde-Era Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, ca. 1004).
The study is structured around three major themes:
- A critical history of these Chan anthologies, exploring questions of authorship, compilation process, textual history, structure, genealogical framework, as well as chronological and regional coverage.
- Textual reuse and source criticism, examining the integration of earlier sources in these four Chan anthologies and what this reveals about the historiographical craft of their compilers.
- Thematic aspects of Chan hagiography and historiography, such as the role of Indian patriarchs, the idealized image of the Chinese Chan patriarch, and the use of colloquial language and humor as literary tools.
The project also explores related texts such as the Keitoku dentō roku shōchō 景德傳燈錄抄註 (Annotated Record of Excerpts from the Jingde chuandeng lu, compiled after 1316), a fourteenth-century Japanese commentary on the Jingde chuandeng lu which contains fragments from the lost tenth juan 卷 (fascicle) of the Baolin zhuan, and the Quanzhou Qianfo xinzhu zhuzushi song 泉州千佛新著諸祖師頌 (Eulogies for the Patriarchs Newly Composed by Qianfo [Deng] of Quanzhou), a collection of thirty-eight tetrasyllabic eight-line encomia for the patriarchs and early Chan masters authored by the Quanzhou 泉州 monk Wendeng 文僜 (892?–972), who also penned the preface to the original single-juan Zutang ji.