Zen and Zen Classics by R. H. Blyth; Frederick Franck; Zen and the Ways by Trevor Leggett;Zen Culture by Thomas HooverReview by: Francis H. CookJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 100, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1980), p. 208Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/601091 .

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208 Journal of the American Oriental Society 100.2 (1980)

Zen and Zen Classics. By R. H. BLYTH. Compiled by FREDERICK FRANCK. Pp. xviii + 289. New York: RANDOM

HOUSE. 1978. $4.95, paper. Zen and the Ways. By TREVOR LEGGETT. Pp. xiii + 258.

Boulder: SHAMBALA. 1978. $5.95, paper. Zen Culture. By THOMAS HOOVER. Pp. xx + 262. New York:

RANDOM HOUSE. 1977. $3.95, paper.

Zen and Zen Classics is a compilation of some of Blyth's writings which appeared originally under the same title. The essays range over a broad spectrum, from "What is Zen?" to essays on Zen and poetry, the sayings of well-known Zen masters, the poetry of Hanshan, Ryokan, and Ikkyd, and the like. The reader who is eager for hard data will be disap- pointed, for Blyth had no patience with Zen in any histori- cal, ideological or institutionalized context. Blyth was mainly interested in poetry, and in his own mind Zen and poetry were identical.

Blyth sought "true Zen" in the poetry and fiction of such diverse writers as Hanshan, Dante, Cervantes, Dickens, and Thoreau. He was also fond of looking for Zen in the works of Western composers (Bach is Zen, Beethoven is not). Blyth was an esthete and dilletante, not a scholar. Zen and Zen Classics is entertaining, but does not advance our understanding of Zen. If it has value, it is in the way it shows how one European tried to comprehend Zen. The selection by Franck is represen- tative of Blyth's writing, and Franck's own drawings add much to the book.

Trevor Leggett's Zen and the Ways contains much new material hitherto untranslated. Part one is a general discus- sion of Zen. Parts two and three contain some interesting material: a partial translation of the Sh/nankatt5 roku, which is a collection of koans used during the Kamakura period and which is almost completely unknown outside of Japanese Zen circles; biographical information on prominent Zen nuns; information on Kamakura nunneries; and an interesting discussion on Zen practice during that time. Later sections of the book contain translations of the "secret scrolls" of the schools of martial arts and stories of the application by individuals of Zen to the various arts. An appendix contains a translation of the writings of Imai Fukuzan (ca. 1920) on bushi Zen and the Sh5nankatt5 roku.

The translation of the koan collection and the material on the Zen practice of women alone make this book worthwhile. Stories about the remarkable Meiji figure, Yamaoka Tesshu, add much to the value of the book. While not a scholarly work, it is solid in its own way, the work of a man who has lived a long time in Japan and heard, seen, and read much.

Hoover's Zen Culture is an attempt to show how the Zen esthetic has permeated Japanese life. The book is in three parts: part one is a discussion of the origins of Zen and what it is, and takes the reader up to 1333; the second part covers the

period from 1333 to 1573; the third part brings us up to the modern period. The author discusses his subject from the standpoints of history, ideology, and esthetics. The author has drawn all his material from English language sources, and the reader will find little in the book that does not already exist elsewhere.

The author's grasp of Buddhism is tenuous; he believes, for instance, that "the original teachings of the Buddha" are more philosophy than religion (p. 31). No reputable scholar claims to know what the original teachings were. To deny that Buddhism is a religion because it does not worship a supreme being betrays a superficial understanding of religious phe- nomena. To say that the Buddha taught that "the external world is illusory" (p. 31) again indicates superficiality; the statement is misleading as it appears. It is also misleading to claim (p. 33) that "Chinese Buddhism became, in many ways, merely a rearrangement of existing Chinese philosophies." Worst of all, he thinks that "the Rinzai school pursued a technique of 'sudden' enlightenment, the Sot6 school, 'gradual enlightenment,"' and the Dogen established the "meditative, gradual school of Sot6 Zen" (p. 53). One is led to wonder if the author has ever seen a lineage chart of the Zen masters or whether he has ever read anything by Dogen. It is unfortunate that this kind of writing perpetuates fundamental errors concerning Zen.

In view of the questionable quality of the earlier section of this book, it is no surprise that the parts dealing with the penetration of the Zen esthetic into Japanese life are superfi- cial and cliche-laden. The subject matter is intrinsically interesting and could be done very well by someone with fresh insights based on a deep understanding. But this seems to be more in a long series of books that exploit the American market for books on Zen, but do not enrich our understanding of that interesting phenomenon.

FRANCIS H. COOK

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE

Fujiwara Teika 's Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shcji Era, 1200. Translated by ROBERT H. BROWER. Pp. 120. Tokyo: SOPHIA UNIVERSITY. 1978. $11.00 cloth; $6.50 paper.

Brower and Miner's Japanese Court Poetry, published in 1961, continues to be a fundamental work and a major source of inspiration for the scholar of Japanese literature. The only regret is that it has not led to more detailed work, at least in any quantity. There are, of course, exceptions, not the least being Professor Brower himself. We have come to expect a high standard of scholarship from him and the monograph under review is, happily, no exception.

In many respects a continuation of his work in the

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