Abstract
The understanding of Zen is very often identified thereafter with the appreciation of poetic images, symbolisms, and natural scenes. With regard to the Zen-based poetic wisdom, an aesthetic contemplation of mountains and waters opens up a main entrance to spiritual revelation connected with prajñā pāramitā. The ultimate purpose in this case is to explore and pursue the realm of sūnyatā as absolute beauty and freedom. In order to facilitate such a perception and experience of highest prajñā pāramitā as wisdom in perfection, it requires at least an artistic vision and literary mind with emotionally and intellectually tinged percipience, in addition to a Zen heart and poetic sensibility with an insightful understanding of sūnyatā.
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- 1.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, in Emerson: Essays (Tianjin: Tianjin Education Press, 2004), p. 171.
- 2.
Hong Yingming, Caigen tan [Tending the Roots of Wisdom]. The translation given here is mine. The readers can also see the English version provided by Paul White. It is cited here for reference: “In the course of your career, keep inured to the fact that you are in favour or out of favour with your superior; watch the flowers as they bloom and droop outside your door. Pay no heed to whether you remain in or are removed from office; calmly gaze at the clouds on the horizon, as they gather and disperse…. In utter repose, hearing the tune of waving pine branches, or the tinkling of a brook over pebbles on sense that these are the murmurings of Nature. With an undisturbed mind, gazing at the delicate wisps of smoke flickering on the horizon of the boundless prairie or the reflections of clouds in a still lake, one can perceive the exquisitely beautiful pattern of Nature.” Cf. Hong Yingming, Tending the Roots of Wisdom (trans. Paul White, Beijing: New World Press, 2001), pp. 289, 295.
- 3.
Arthur C. Danto, After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997). Also see Stephen David Ross (ed.), Art and Its Significance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), pp. 470–481.
- 4.
Arthur C. Danto, “The Artworld,” in The Journal of Philosophy (1964), pp. 571–584. Also see his other writings, including The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art, The State of the Art, and After the End of Art, etc.
- 5.
Arthur C. Danto, “The Artworld,” in Stephen David Ross (ed.), Art and Its Significance, p. 477.
- 6.
Ibid. According to a footnote given by Dabney Townsend, Danto identifies this passage elsewhere as coming from one of the more radical forms of Zen, the Diamond Sutra. See Dabney Townsend (ed.), Aesthetics: Classical Readings from Western Tradition, Wadsworth, 2001, p. 332. Actually, it comes from another source book instead of the Diamond Sutra, for its original version in Chinese, see Pu Ji (ed.), Wu deng hui yuan [A Collection of Ko-an in Zen Buddhism] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2002), Vol. 3, p. 1135.
- 7.
Pu Ji (ed.), Wu deng hui yuan [A Collection of Ko-an in Zen Buddhism], p. 1135.
- 8.
Arthur C. Danto, “The Artworld,” in Stephen David Ross (ed.), Art and Its Significance, p. 477.
- 9.
Burton Wasten (tr.), The Lotus Sutra (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 14, etc. Another title that is frequently used for Buddha is “The World Honored One” (Shizun).
- 10.
Fung Yu-lan, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, in Fung Yulan, Selected Philosophical Writings of Fung Yu-lan (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1991), p. 482.
- 11.
Ibid., p. 217. It is translated by Arthur Waley.
- 12.
Pu Ji (ed.), Wu deng hui yuna [A Collection of Ko-an in Zen Buddhism], p. 10. The translation is mine.
- 13.
Huang Maolin (tr.), The Sutra of Hui Neng (Changsha: Hunan Press, 1996), p. 13.
- 14.
For this, we can find some hint in The Sutra of Hui Neng regarding the practice and attainment of prajna. “When Mahayanists and the followers of the highest school hear about the Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedika), their minds become enlightened; they know that prajna is immanent in their Essence of Mind and that they need not rely on scriptural authority or logos (bu jia wen zi), since they can make use of their own wisdom by constant practice and contemplation and observation. The prajna immanent in the Essence of Mind of every one may be likened to a rainfall. Rain does not come from the sky but is produced by the miracle of the Naga. The moisture of which refreshes every living thing, trees and plants as well as sentient beings. When rivers and streams reach the sea, the water carried by them merges into on body. This is another analogy.” Cf. “On Prajna,” in The Sutra of Hui Neng , pp. 47–49.
- 15.
Huang Maolin (tr.), The Sutra of Hui Neng , p. 19. The last two lines of this gatha are modified in accordance with its original Chinese version (ben lai wu yi wu, he chu ruo chen ai). In Huang’s translation, the last two lines are rendered as such “Since all is void from the beginning/Where can the dust alight?”
- 16.
Ibid., pp. 51–53.
- 17.
Ibid., pp. 49–51.
- 18.
Ibid., pp. 49–53.
- 19.
Ibid., p. 51.
- 20.
Ibid., pp. 39–41.
- 21.
Ibid., pp. 91–93.
- 22.
Ibid., p. 83.
- 23.
The four directions (sida) here stand for east and west, south and north. They are often used to indicate the universe.
- 24.
Li Zehou, “Chan yi ang ran” [The Meaning of Zen], in Zou wo ziji de lu [Along My Own Path] (Beijing: Sanlian Bookshop, 1986), pp. 392–393. Also see Li Zehou, Zhongguo gudai sixiang shilun [Essays on Traditional Chinese Thoughts] (Beijing: Renmin Press, 1985), pp. 207–210.
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Wang, K. (2019). Poetic Wisdom in Zen Enlightenment. In: Chinese Culture of Intelligence. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3173-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3173-2_7
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