Keizan Jōkin and His Thought

Abstract

KEIZAN Jōkin 瑩山紹瑾 (1264–1325) is the fourth generation patriarch of the Japanese Sōtō School after Eihei Dōgen (1200–1253), Ko’un Ejō 孤雲懐弉 (1198–1280), and Tettsū Gikai 徹通義介 (1219–1309). Today, the Sōtō School is based on the idea of two patriarchs in one body as well as the idea of “funiryōzan” 不二両山, which regards the founding figure kōso as father and the reviving figure taiso as mother. Generally speaking, Keizan’s contribution to the development of the Sōtō School is well recognized; however, he did not receive adequate attention from academia. In my work Dōgen zen no seiritsushiteki kenkyū 道元禅の成立史的研究, I compare Keizan with Dōgen. My analysis is that in contrast to the “true dharma” (J. shōbō 正法) constructed by Dōgen, who overcomes the “silent illumination Zen” (J. mokushōzen 黙照禅), Keizan sees the characteristics of the Sōtō School (which is a rival of the Rinzai School) as a return to the tradition of the Silent Illumination Zen. It follows that Keizan supported satori 悟り by experience, which is rejected by Dōgen. Apart from general research such as mine, there are new attempts to understand Keizan such as Bernard Faure’s Vision of Power–Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism (1994), in which Keizan is regarded as the one who established a Zen teaching combining Dōgen’s orthodox Zen with various Zen elements in local religion, schools, and rituals. Finally, Keizan promoted zazen. It is well known that Dōgen promoted “sitting-only” (J. shikantaza 只管打坐). His first book after returning from Song China was a meditation manual, Fukanzazengi 普勧坐禅儀. Dōgen’s position of valuing zazen is followed by Keizan, who wrote the book Zazenyōjinki 坐禅用心記. In this book, Keizan introduced a method and frequency of breathing, which was not mentioned in Dōgen’s work. In another book Sankonzazensetsu 三根坐禅説, Keizan manifests a compassionate attitude towards practitioners with different abilities. This warm character of Keizan can be seen in his teaching of zazen.

Ching-yuen Cheung is a Lecturer of Japanese Studies in Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interest is in Japanese philosophy, especially the philosophy of Nishida Kitarō, post-Fukushima philosophy, and philosophy of pilgrimage. He is an Editor of the Tetsugaku Companions to Japanese Philosophy and an Assistant Editor of the Journal of Japanese Philosophy. His research publications include Globalizing Japanese Philosophy as an Academic Discipline (co-edited with Kevin LAM Wing-keung) and a Xitian xiduolang: Kua wenhua shiye xia de riben zhexue (Nishida Kitarō: Japanese Philosophy from a Transcultural Perspective).