Chan before Chan: Meditation, Repentance, and Visionary Experience in Chinese Buddhism.

• Author: Heirman, Ann

Chan before Chan: Meditation, Repentance, and Visionary Experience in Chinese Buddhism. By ERIC M. GREENE. Honolulu: UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I PRESS, 2021. Pp. xiv + 313. $68 (cloth); $20 (paper)

Chan before Chan aims to examine "the early history of Buddhist meditation in China as the history of a semiotic ideology of meditative experience and attainment" (p. 17), and that is exactly what it does. With a focus on chan's early history, Eric Greene investigates a largely neglected period of meditation--namely, the formative, early medieval phase that runs from roughly the fifth century to the seventh. He takes into account an impressive corpus of previous scholarship in Chinese, Japanese, and Western languages, and then presents a meticulously substantiated and innovative view on early Chinese Buddhist meditation.

The first chapter addresses an essential shift that took place in fifth-century China as chart meditation started to become a recognized Buddhist discipline, "with certified teachers, dedicated spaces and authoritative practices" (p. 55). In earlier periods, as Greene convincingly argues, meditation--in the form that it is known today--did not play a significant role in Chinese Buddhist society, even though various meditation texts had been translated over the preceding centuries. Greene reaches this conclusion by meticulously studying early medieval Chinese authors' actual discourses on meditation practice while resisting the influence of later interpretations or interpolations. His close reading of these documents, coupled with his fascinating focus on the relationships between texts and people, and between masters and disciples, reveals how meditation was used and perceived by both meditation masters themselves and their "clients," including elite laypeople who hoped to gain some benefit from associating with Buddhist monks.

In addition, Greene supports his reading of the fifth century with convincing corroborating evidence. For instance, while the inclusion of the word chan in the names of monasteries or temple buildings--such as chan cloister (chanyuan [phrase omitted]), chan quarter (chanfang [phrase omitted]), and so on (pp. 42-43)--may be viewed as a minor development in the history of Buddhism in China, Greene deftly places this change in context to reveal that it attests to the growing power and influence of chan practitioners. Similarly, an inscription on a cave wall in Binglingsi [phrase omitted] that dates to the first...