Awards
- Winner of Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Textual Studies 2017
- Winner of Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies, American Academy of Religion 2008
- Winner of Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies, American Academy of Religion 2017
Overview
The Mystique of Transmission is a close reading of a late-eighth-century Chan/Zen Buddhist hagiographical work, the Lidai fabao ji (Record of the Dharma-Jewel Through the Generations), and is its first English translation. The text is the only remaining relic of the little-known Bao Tang Chan school of Sichuan, and combines a sectarian history of Buddhism and Chan in China with an account of the eighth-century Chan master Wuzhu in Sichuan. Chinese religions scholar Wendi Adamek compares the Lidai fabao ji with other sources from the fourth through eighth centuries, chronicling changes in the doctrines and practices involved in transmitting medieval Chinese Buddhist teachings. While Adamek is concerned with familiar Chan themes like patriarchal genealogies and the ideology of sudden enlightenment, she also highlights topics that make Lidai fabao ji distinctive: formless practice, the inclusion of female practitioners, the influence of Daoist metaphysics, and connections with early Tibetan Buddhism. The Lidai fabao ji was unearthed in the early twentieth century in the Mogao caves at the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang in northwestern China. Discovery of the Dunhuang manuscripts has been compared with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as these documents have radically changed our understanding of medieval China and Buddhism. A crucial volume for students and scholars, The Mystique of Transmission offers a rare glimpse of a lost world and fills an important gap in the timeline of Chinese and Buddhist history.
Full Product Details
Author: Wendi Adamek (Lecturer in Buddhist Studies, University of Sydney)
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.50cm
, Height: 4.30cm
, Length: 23.20cm
Weight: 0.992kg
ISBN: 9780231136648
ISBN 10: 0231136641
Pages: 448
Publication Date: 15 May 2007
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language: English
Reviews
An authoritative and illuminating study. -- Benjamin Bogin Buddhadharma Rigorous and engaging H-Buddhism Wendi Adamek's elegantly written and skillfully executed book adds much toour growing understanding of the complex history that is Chan. -- Linda Penkower The Journal of Asian Studies Massive and masterful, insightful and thorough, articulate and engaging--the scholarship presented here is truly impressive. History of Religions
An authoritative and illuminating study. -- Benjamin Bogin Rigorous and engaging -- H-Buddhism
Author Information
Wendi L. Adamek is assistant professor of Chinese religions at Barnard College/Columbia University. She specializes in medieval Chinese Buddhism. Her current research interests include Buddhist nuns of the Tang dynasty, Buddhist donor practices, and religious art of the Silk Road.
