Otani University Academic Repository / 大谷大学学術情報リポジトリ

下村, 優佳

中世越前真宗史の研究―専海系三河門流を中心として―_要約

江森, 英世

エモリ, ヒデヨ

EMORI, Hideyo

[Materials] Research on the Development of Teaching and Learning to Enhance Thinking Skills: The Experience of Japan

表紙、目次、奥付

北山, 敏秀

キタヤマ, トシヒデ

KITAYAMA, Toshihide

Reading the Manuscript of Kenzaburo Oe's“Okinawa Notes”: Generating the Phrase“Such an Enormous Mass of Sin”and Its Meaning

James Robson

English

BOOK REVIEWS Ibuki Atsushi. Chugoku Zen shisoshi (An Intellectual History of Chinese Chan/Zen)

Ryoze Wada

T H E  E A S T E R N  B U D D H I S T  4 ,  296
Maraldo, John C. Japanese Philosophy in the Making 3: Alternatives with Tracks through Zen. 
Nagoya: Chisokudō, 2023. 
Nakamura Hajime 中村元. 1981. Bukkyōgo daijiten 仏教語大辞典 (A Dictionary of Buddhist 
Terms). Tokyo: Tōkyō Shoseki.
#e Revolution of Buddhist Modernism: Jōdo Shin #ought and Politics, 1890–1962. By 
Je$ Schroeder. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2022. xi + 317 pages. Hard-
cover. ISBN-13: 978-0-8248-9394-1.
R5)C+ Wa(a
#e Revolution of Buddhist Modernism begins with a brief story of the 8nal days of the 
famous Jōdo Shin 浄土真 Buddhist scholar-priest Kiyozawa Manshi 清沢満之 (1863–
1903). !is dramatic opening may give the reader the impression that this monograph 
revolves around his “extraordinary life” (p. 2). We are told, however, that his life is in 
fact the beginning of “an even more extraordinary story” (p. 2), namely, the story of 
the revolutionary changes taking place within the 0tani 大谷 branch of the Jōdo Shin 
sect during the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. In other words, this volume 
presents not a biography of an individual but rather an institutional history of the 
0tani community with a special focus on politics. Indeed, each of the three sections 
of the book—“Intellectual Politics,” “Institutional Politics,” and “National Politics”—
contains the word “politics” in the title. 
Schroeder acknowledges that his discussion is primarily focused on distinguished 
8gures and o:cial institutions that are central to today’s historiography and that 
marginal ones tend to be left out. !is, however, in no way detracts from the value 
of his study. Based on multiple voices found in a wide range of source materials such 
as newspapers, letters, diaries, lectures, and scholarly writings, his historical account 
of the Shin sect’s modernizing process is abundantly detailed. His description alone 
makes an invaluable contribution to English-language scholarship on this topic, where 
historical data has been in great demand. In addition, Schroeder o$ers a theoretical 
model that not only makes sense of the complexity of the modernization of a speci8c 
branch of a speci8c Buddhist sect but also allows the particularities of that history to 
challenge the assumptions underlying the generic category of “Buddhist modernism.” 
!us, the signi8cant value of this volume lies both in its rich historical description and 
its theoretical insights.
In the introduction, Schroeder lays out the three overarching arguments of his 
book: (1) that there are discrepancies between Kiyozawa’s actual life and the exag-
B O O K  R E V I E W S 97
gerated heroic image of him that is widely held today, (2) that orthodoxy is not an 
achievement of a few charismatic leaders but a product of a community’s collective 
e$orts, and (3) that the binary terms “traditional” and “modern,” which are often 
employed in studies on Buddhist modernism, are more heuristically useful when 
conceptualized as a more ;uid pair of categories than conventionally assumed. While 
the 8rst two points are self-explanatory, the third one is worth more exploration. !e 
usual distinction between the terms “traditional” and “modern” tends to depend on 
whether the person or community at issue assumes a positive or negative attitude 
toward traditional rituals, the hierarchical structure of established institutions, and so 
on. According to Schroeder, however, this approach fails to identify the exact issues 
over which the competing Shin groups argued during the nineteenth and twentieth 
centuries because they often held both “traditional” and “modern” viewpoints. Instead, 
he proposes a relational scheme in which traditionalists are relatively conservative and 
modernists are relatively progressive. !e primary advantage of this method is that it 
leaves room for “the possibility that a single individual or group may be traditionalist 
in one context and modernist in another” (p. 14).
Chapter 1, “!e Language of Religious Experience,” is concerned with Kiyo-
zawa’s modern perspective on, and expressions of, Buddhism. In response to the 
rapid spread of scienti8c skepticism as a hegemonic discourse in nineteenth-century 
Japan, Kiyozawa did not hesitate to employ the vocabulary of Western philosophy in 
order to e$ectively communicate his understanding of Buddhism to a broader audi-
ence than that which traditional sectarian studies aimed at. Quoting from famous 
works of Kiyozawa including, but not limited to, Shūkyō tetsugaku gaikotsu 宗教哲学
骸骨 (A Skeletal [Outline] of a Philosophy of Religion) and Yūgen mugen roku 有限
無限録 (Notes on the Finite and the In8nite), Schroeder demonstrates that one can 
discern a shift in Kiyozawa’s linguistic orientation from a subjectivist one to a quasi-
scienti8c one. Despite this, his critical stance toward scienti8c skepticism was in fact 
consistent throughout his career and manifests itself in his repeated emphasis on faith 
as the necessary condition for a:rming any scienti8c proposition. In other words, it is 
Schroeder’s assertion that Kiyozawa’s frequent use of apparently scienti8c terms such 
as “experiment,” “observation,” and “experience” is not an indication of his trust in 
scienti8c empiricism but of his deliberate strategy to highlight the importance of faith, 
which is something nonempirical and subjective.
Chapter 2, “Two Paradigms of Buddhist Studies,” features three eminent disciples 
of Kiyozawa: Sasaki Gesshō 佐々木月樵 (1875–1926), Soga Ryōjin 曽我量深 (1875–
1971), and Kaneko Daiei 金子大榮 (1881–1976). By contrasting their methodological 
arguments, which were inspired by Kiyozawa, with the methods of traditional sectarian 
studies, Schroeder portrays the dawn of the paradigm shift in Shin sectarian studies. 
Established during the Tokugawa 徳川 period (1603–1867), the traditional approach, 
T H E  E A S T E R N  B U D D H I S T  4 ,  298
called the “sectarian vehicle” (shūjō 宗乗), was intended to reinforce and transmit the 
doctrinal interpretations propounded by authoritative 8gures in the sect such as Kaku-
nyo 覚如 (1270–1351), Zonkaku 存覚 (1290–1373), and Rennyo 蓮如 (1415–1499). 
In this framework, rebirth in the Pure Land was a matter of being reborn in an after-
life, and challenging this orthodox view would have been perceived as a heretical posi-
tion. By contrast, Kiyozawa and his followers eagerly insisted that the fruit of studying 
the Buddhist teachings should be “personal, transformative encounters with the Bud-
dha here and now in this world” (p. 59). Framing their academic style, which was 
based on the idea of “free inquiry” ( jiyū tōkyū 自由討究), as “Shin studies” (shinshūgaku 
真宗学), they made a distinction between sectarian principles (shūgi 宗義) as some-
thing 8xed, and scholarly undertaking to interpret those principles (shūgaku 宗学) as a 
domain allowing for freedom and diverse understandings. !is deliberate distinction 
enabled the modernists to claim the validity of their subjective, personal, and empirical 
interpretations as one variety of shūgaku. Given the depth of methodological con;ict 
between the approach of the sectarian vehicle and that of the emerging Shin studies, 
Schroeder regards the gulf between them as unreconcilable. 
Under the provocative title “Evil Conditions at a Buddhist University,” chapter 3 
traces how this intellectual tension was mirrored in the transformation of the 0tani 
institutional structure that culminated in the establishment of Otani University, 
which continues to be the center of 0tani sectarian studies. Schroeder o$ers a detailed 
account of the school’s origins and evolution from a sect seminary to a modern private 
university o:cially accredited by the government. !e refashioning of scholarly dis-
ciplines in this process deserves particular notice. To keep up with the national trend 
of promoting “practical learning” ( jitsugaku 実学) as opposed to “empty learning” 
(kyogaku 虚学) in order to strengthen the nation’s imperial power and foster national-
ism, the leaders of Otani University tried to prove the pragmatic utility of their cur-
riculum. One of the strategies for doing so was to no longer treat sectarian studies as 
a privileged discipline but rather to view it as one among many “objective” disciplines 
that were supposed to bear tangible, practical results. As a result, both modern and 
traditional ways of studying sectarian principles were now subsumed under the single 
rubric of Shin studies.
Chapter 4, “Heresy, Protests, and the Press,” provides an account of moments in 
which the intrasectarian con;ict became so intense as to draw public attention from 
outside the sect. !e main incident Schroeder singles out is the so-called Kaneko her-
esy a$air. In 1927, Kaneko Daiei, one of the three in;uential students of Kiyozawa 
mentioned above, who was serving as professor at Otani University, gave a public 
lecture in Nagoya. Putatively, the lecture included mention of his interpretation of the 
Pure Land as an “idea” (kannen 観念), which provoked harsh criticism from tradition-
alist groups who accused this of being a form of heresy (ianjin 異安心). On the other 
B O O K  R E V I E W S 99
side of the con;ict were Kaneko’s supporters: the students, who were fervently inclined 
toward Marxism; his fellow faculty members; and the liberal, religion-focused news-
paper Chūgai nippō 中外日報, among others. Despite powerful defenses from such 
quarters, the 0tani authorities managed to push Kaneko into “voluntarily” resign-
ing his professorship in 1928 and his status as a priest in 1929 even though no clear 
o:cial judgment was pronounced on whether Kaneko’s interpretation was, or was 
not, heretical. Schroeder points out that an ambivalent ending of this sort could not 
have occurred during the Tokugawa period, when the government was able, and was 
expected, to intervene—by violence if necessary—in cases of Buddhist heresy to help 
the sectarian authority impose orthodoxy. Now that religion was de8ned as being in 
the private domain, the modern Japanese government did not play such a role, and the 
sect thus began to see a signi8cant decline in its ability to centralize its power.
Nevertheless, more decisive factors would be necessary for sect orthodoxy to shift 
from traditionalist interpretations to modernist ones. A crucial step toward this end 
was the 0tani sect’s reevaluation of Kaneko Daiei and Soga Ryōjin during the Fifteen 
Years War (1931–1945). !is is the topic of chapter 5, “Amida and the Emperor.” Prior 
to the wartime period, as Schroeder discusses in chapter 4, 0tani authorities pushed 
both Kaneko and Soga to the margins of the sect due to their radi cal perspectives. In 
the 1930s, however, it was precisely Kaneko’s and Soga’s radicality that convinced the 
0tani leaders to make the two 8gures representative of the sect’s orthodoxy. With a 
special focus on the doctrine of two truths, Schroeder’s analysis of wartime writings by 
both traditionalists and modernists reveals that the latter were more actively engaged 
in pro-war ideology. While traditionalists con8ned State Shinto to the realm of worldly 
truth and reserved absolute truth for Buddhism, modernists con;ated the two, con-
tending that the emperor was identical to Amida Buddha and “death in this war would 
necessarily lead to rebirth in the Pure Land” (p. 181). To meet the state’s expectations, 
the 0tani authorities gravitated toward the ultranationalist arguments set forth by 
modernists.
Chapter 6, “Democratic Sangha,” depicts the postwar e$orts made by the 0tani 
institution to reform itself and become a more democratic organization. Under the US 
Occupation (1945–1952), freedom of religion and democratic governance were among 
the urgent issues the 0tani community had to confront in critically re;ecting upon its 
war responsibility. On the one hand, the sect’s parliament successfully established a new, 
democratic constitution for the sect. On the other hand, there was according to Schro-
eder a dilemma on the doctrinal level: although the modernist viewpoint now became 
rather in;uential, imposing orthodoxy was, by de8nition, in opposition to the principle 
of democracy. To overcome this conundrum, a series of attempts were made by both 
intellectual and administrative leaders—Soga, Yasuda Rijin 安田理深 (1900–1982), 
Akegarasu Haya 暁烏敏 (1877–1954), Kurube Shin’yū 訓覇信雄 (1906–1998), and 
T H E  E A S T E R N  B U D D H I S T  4 ,  2100
Miyatani Hōgan 宮谷法含 (1882–1962)—to create a Shin Buddhist form of sangha, 
which is to say, a community of active religious seekers wherein laypeople and priests 
stand on the same ground without hierarchy. Whether such an idealized community 
came into existence is another matter. Yet, what Schroeder stresses as a historically sig-
ni8cant fact is that those o:cial e$orts of the sect were explicitly based on a new ortho-
doxy deriving from Kiyozawa’s teachings. At this point, Schroeder concludes, “it can be 
said that the modernist revolution of 0tani Shin Buddhism was ful8lled” (p. 213).
As mentioned above, the distinctive contribution of #e Revolution of Buddhist 
Modernism can be articulated in two ways. First, it presents an extensive amount and 
range of primary material. Second, it theorizes the process of modernization within the 
0tani institution by elegantly stringing together multiple critical events whose inter-
connections would otherwise not be immediately evident. In order to maximize these 
strengths without unnecessary confusion, however, there are at least two issues the 
reader should be aware of. !e 8rst pertains to the treatment of the Japanese language 
in this work. !ere is no small number of errors concerning Japanese proper nouns, 
both in their romanization and use of Japanese characters: “kanchō 官長” for “kanchō 
管長,” p. 229; “Kyogakukyoku” for “Kyōgakukyoku,” p. 229; “Kojin o kotaeyo” for 
“Kojin o koeyo,” p. 243; “Ryojin” for “Ryōjin,” p. 235; and “tannin 担人” for “tannin 
担任,” p. 300, to name a few. Although these do not directly a$ect Schroeder’s argu-
ment, more precision would be expected especially as the two glossaries (“Glossary 
of Institutional Terms” and “Glossary of Books and Articles”) and the bibliography 
include rich information that is not available in other English-language studies. For 
the same reason, what is also unfortunate is the editorial decision to omit the original 
Japanese characters of the Japanese-language sources in the bibliography. !is reduces 
the practical value of Schroeder’s work since, generally speaking, the primary role of a 
bibliography is to allow an interested reader to locate particular sources—something 
that is rather di:cult to do without the full Japanese references.
!e second issue I would like to raise concerns Schroeder’s methodological proposal. 
In the introduction, he de8nes the concepts of “traditional” and “modern” as a pair of 
context-dependent categories rather than 8xed labels determined by certain internal 
qualities. On this basis, he emphasizes the ;exibility of his method, stating that an 
individual can be a traditionalist in one context but at the same time a modernist in 
another. Despite this, almost every 8gure in the book is depicted either as a tradition-
alist or a modernist. Consequently, Schroeder’s keen awareness of the possibility that 
a given individual could switch between the two positions depending on the context 
does not materialize in his actual analysis to a satisfying degree. In fact, some evidence 
that Schroeder himself is aware of this problem may be found in the notes rather than 
the main body of the book. For example, in a note to chapter 3, he brie;y writes that 
“this chapter largely describes a binary con;ict between modernists and traditionalists, 
B O O K  R E V I E W S 101
but the reality was more complex” (p. 261, n. 67). Another note states, “Abe’s posi-
tion in relation to the modernist-traditionalist divide is di:cult to de8ne” (p. 262, n. 
81). Such statements, in my reading, are Schroeder’s implicit acknowledgement of the 
necessity for further elaboration on how his ;exible way of conceptualizing “modern” 
and “traditional” can be concretely mapped onto the history he describes. !ere is no 
doubt that his methodology has the potential to lead us to a subtler and more sophisti-
cated understanding of the topic than we have at the moment.
Apart from these two possible problems for the reader, #e Revolution of Buddhist 
Modernism is a well-organized, informative, and stimulating work on the modern insti-
tutional history of the 0tani Shin sect. It is a must-read for those who are interested 
in this topic. Given the large in;uence of this sect in the development of the Japanese 
religious landscape, those who specialize in Japanese Buddhism and the religions of 
modern Japan should also be able to gain useful knowledge and insights from Schro-
eder’s discussion. Moreover, the clarity of his argument, as well as his vivid storytelling 
sprinkled throughout the book, makes #e Revolution of Buddhist Modernism easily 
accessible to nonspecialist readers as well.


BOOK REVIEWS Jeff Schroeder. The Revolution of Buddhist Modernism:Jodo Shin Thought and Politics, 1890-1962

アマ, ミチヒロ

AMA, Michihiro

Tannishō and Narrativity in the Light of Monogatari and Setsuwa: Creative Aspects of Writing and the Effects of Paradox in Tannishō

佐藤, 愛弓

サトウ, アユミ

SATO, Ayumi

The relationship between“The Tale of Kajū-ji”and Kajū-ji Temple in the Heian period.

中原,大貴

NAKAHARA,Daiki

Japanese

Clarification of Self-Immolation as an Offering -Why Did the Practice of Self-Immolation Become Common in This Era?-

Michael J. Walsh

B O O K  R E V I E W S 87
and introduces new research in a way that is accessible to a general audience. How 
many nonspecialist readers will have the stamina to work their way through this mas-
sive tome to reap the bene8ts of Ibuki’s exhaustive work, however, remains to be seen. 
REFERENCES
Dumoulin, Heinrich. 1988. Zen Buddhism: A History; India and China. Translated by James W. 
Heisig and Paul Knitter. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. 
———. 1990. Zen Buddhism: A History; Japan. Translated by James W. Heisig and Paul Knit-
ter. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Faure, Bernard. 1997. The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism. 
Translated by Phyllis Brooks. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 
Ibuki Atsushi 伊吹敦. 2001. Zen no rekishi 禅の歴史 (History of Zen). Kyoto: Hōzōkan.
———. 2015. “Vinaya and the Chan School: H?nayāna Precepts and Bodhisattva Precepts, 
Buddhism in the City and Buddhism in the Mountains, Religion and the State.” Translated 
by Eric M. Greene. Studies in Chinese Religions 1, no. 2, pp. 105–30.
———. 2021. “A New Perspective on the Authorship of the Platform Sutra: The Implications 
of Sanjie Ideology in the Dunhuang Text.” Translated by Joseph C. Williams. Kokusai Zen 
kenkyū 国際禅研究 (International Zen Studies) 7, pp. 45–116.
Robson, James. 2009. Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak (Nanyue 
南嶽) in Medieval China. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center.
Suzuki Tetsuo 鈴木哲雄. 1984. Tō Godai no Zenshū: Konan, Kōsei hen 唐五代の禅宗: 
湖南、江西篇 (Chan in the Tang and Five Dynasties Period: Hunan and Jiangxi). Tokyo: 
Daitō Shuppansha.
Yanagida Seizan 柳田聖山. 1986. Zen no sanga 禅の山河 (The Mountains and Rivers of Zen). 
Kyoto: Zenbunka Kenkyūjo.
In the Land of Tigers and Snakes: Living with Animals in Medieval Chinese Religions. By 
Huaiyu Chen. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023. x + 271 pages. Paperback. 
ISBN-13: 978-0-231-20261-9.
M/4*a+l J. Wal,*
Who knew that a parrot in eighth-century Chang’an 長安, the capital city of the 
Tang 唐 dynasty (618–690; 705–907), would serve as a key witness at a murder trial? 
Emperor Xuanzong 玄宗 (685–762; r. 713–756) was so impressed with the parrot’s 
testimony that he gave the parrot a title, “!e Green-Clothes Messenger,” and Prime 
Minister Zhang Yue 張說 (663–730) composed a biography for the parrot. It is with 
such accounts that Huaiyu Chen’s marvelous study of the interactions and relation-
ships between animals and humans in medieval China begins. !is volume sheds new 
T H E  E A S T E R N  B U D D H I S T  4 ,  288
light on the changing power relations at the ecological, social, political, and cultural 
levels. But, as Chen explains, this study is focused on religion, especially Buddhist 
religiosities and sentimentalities. He writes: “In examining how Buddhist depictions of 
the natural world and native Chinese taxonomies mutually enriched each other, I o$er 
a special perspective for understanding how Buddhism as a religious culture took root 
in Chinese society” (p. 3). Chen shows how Buddhist ideas about animals were in;u-
enced by the medieval culture within which they were developed, but also how these 
ideas changed that very same culture, a$ecting the political, cultural, and religious 
landscapes of medieval China.
Chen analyzes the role of animals in “human-human, animal-human, and religion-
religion relations” (p. 7). He does this by focusing on four power con8gurations in 
medieval China, namely, animals, the state, and local and religious communities. 
He asserts that although there are a number of studies on animals and religion, his 
book is the 8rst to deal speci8cally with medieval Chinese religions. !is makes for a 
unique study that deepens our understanding of Chinese religiosities during this time 
period. Using a range of sources, Chen shows how several sections of the population—
including Buddhist monks, Daoist priests, local villagers, and Confucian government 
administrators—faced real threats from tigers and snakes. !ese were both physical 
and psychological threats. He writes: “Taming tigers and killing snakes became crucial 
cultural capital for both [the Buddhist and Daoist] religious traditions to show their 
power, both in reality and rhetoric” (p. 8). 
Using historical texts, stone inscriptions, and visual culture, Chen’s book inter-
weaves history with religious studies, animal studies, and environmental studies, mak-
ing it a rich interdisciplinary enterprise. !e book has an introduction, six chapters, 
and an epilogue. In each chapter, Chen employs both diachronic and synchronic 
approaches to look at the histories of rituals and practices pertaining to animal-human 
interactions during the medieval period and to analyze primary text accounts of inter-
actions between humans and animals not only at the state and local levels but also 
within Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian practices, and naturally, there was much over-
lap in these domains.
In chapter 1, Chen explores some of the animal classi8cation systems used by medi-
eval monks in China. He also includes some comparative aspects taken not only from 
other types of Chinese medieval literature but also from European classi8catory tradi-
tions. Chen focuses on the writings of Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667), an eminent monk of 
this period, who drew on his personal experience, Chinese zoological knowledge, and 
Buddhist doctrine to compile a Buddhist classi8cation of animals. Daoxuan’s system 
comprises three categories: domesticated animals, wild animals, and animals rejected 
in the Vinaya—the Buddhist monastic code. He also classi8es animals in terms of their 
use within the monastic economy. Chen provides detailed accounts of some of the 
B O O K  R E V I E W S 89
issues faced by Daoxuan: for example, Daoxuan does not equate human karma with 
animal karma, leading him to question whether or not animals bene8t the monastic 
community. Chen concludes that “many Buddhist concepts in daily life, including the 
classi8cation of animals, were transformed from early Buddhist culture to Chinese cul-
ture” (p. 34). 
Chapter 2 uses epigraphic accounts to explore symbolic and cultural meanings con-
cerning animals such as tigers—often symbols of local, powerful families—locusts, and 
pheasants. Chen suggests that in Confucian discourse, the idea of controlling unruly 
animal behavior was tantamount to establishing the goal of virtuous governance. In 
other words, wild tigers needed to be restrained, as did unruly human communities. 
He begins this chapter with a descriptive account found on a Buddhist stupa dedicated 
to a local o:cial whose virtuous governance caused his jurisdiction to be free from 
locusts, which often devastated Chinese agriculture. Chen then goes on to explore 
how the tiger and pheasant were used symbolically in Chinese political culture and 
o$ers a range of examples from the historical record such as tombstone epigraphy, 
stele inscriptions, and Buddhist hagiographies. According to Chen, taming wild beasts 
became central to “taming” the mind and society. !is provides a compelling way of 
rethinking traditional imperial power structures, and Confucians and Buddhists both 
participated in these frameworks.
In chapter 3, Chen looks more deeply at the interactions between Buddhist monks 
and tigers and how the relationship between the two played out in local communi-
ties. Using hagiographies and biographies of eminent Buddhist monks, Chen provides 
dozens of stories about the practice of monks taming tigers and what that meant for 
local communities and for society at large. While the lion was one of the most power-
ful symbols in most Asian Buddhist cultures—the lion is also frequently associated 
with the Buddha—the animal was not native to China. !us, in China it was the tiger 
that was understood to be the most powerful of animals, and Chen explains that the 
tiger came to symbolize a controlling power and force (p. 72). Although in the Book of 
Rites (Liji 禮經) the tiger depicts tyranny and bad governance, Buddhists transformed 
the symbol of a tiger into a representation of monks who had mastered scriptural doc-
trine. !ese eminent monks, who were understood to be masters of the monastic code, 
were referred to as “the tigers of the Vinaya” (luhu 律虎). Chen looks at legends from 
across di$erent time periods where medieval monks survive encounters with tigers. 
Oftentimes a tiger would appear with demons and mountain spirits. Monks would use 
chants, sutra recitations, and meditation to counter these appearances. Chen concludes 
that “taming beasts, especially tigers, gradually came to be regarded as one of the most 
important credentials of an eminent monk” (p. 87). Taming became a practice, a rhet-
oric, and a ritual all at the same time, which in turn helped Buddhists further integrate 
into local communities and the broader Chinese society. 
T H E  E A S T E R N  B U D D H I S T  4 ,  290
Chapter 4 shifts direction and explores Daoist encounters with tigers. Chen, rely-
ing mostly on Daoist hagiographies, explains that Daoists developed new strategies 
and discourses to engage with tigers as companions, threats, and weapons. For many 
Daoists living in the mountains, encountering tigers was quite common. !e dao 道 
could be navigated to subdue tigers by using talismans, amulets, spells, and incanta-
tions to ritually protect Daoist monks. Chen then highlights the di$erences between 
Confucian and Daoist approaches to tigers. For Confucians, virtuous governance was 
the key; for Daoists (and Buddhists), taming the tiger to help the community was the 
objective. Chen concludes that controlling tigers gave Daoists cultural and religious 
capital that ultimately helped them to expand their in;uence.
Chapter 5 turns to the relationship between Buddhists and snakes. !roughout the 
book, Chen o$ers a comparative approach, looking at Buddhists, Daoists, and tra-
ditional Chinese medieval culture more broadly to better understand these relations. 
And again, he o$ers an extensive breadth of stories to make his case that medieval 
Buddhists developed sophisticated doctrinal and ritual methods to justify the killing 
of snakes, speci8cally to protect local communities but also to compete with Daoists 
in terms of ritual supremacy. In the sources Chen looks at, common phrases used are 
“tiger violence” (hubao 虎暴) and “snake disasters” (shezai 蛇災). He also explores the 
relationship and constructed links between women and snakes, which he refers to as a 
“misogynistic discourse” (p. 139). 
In chapter 6, Chen follows the logic of how animals might achieve enlightenment. 
He 8rst explores parrots in early Buddhist Jataka tales before shifting to medieval 
Chinese Buddhist narratives. Parrots came to be equated with the 8gure of the sage 
because of their intelligence and ability to imitate human language. By contextualizing 
Buddhist writings, Chen helps us understand how cultural elites came to accept the 
idea of an enlightened parrot. !e bird came to be understood as intelligent, virtuous, 
and 8lial. (Painted parrot images can be seen in the Mogao 莫高 caves in Dunhuang 
敦煌.) Chen uses an extraordinary range of texts to make the case that parrots served 
an important role in connecting medieval Chinese literature with Buddhist writings.
Rather than giving us a lengthy summary of the book, the epilogue argues that 
while the foundations of Chinese relationships with animals were established during 
the medieval period, the repercussions of these relationships are still relevant today in 
various associations between animals and the state, and animals and religiosity.
A minor criticism of Chen’s study is that the categories of religion, politics, cul-
ture, literature, and the social all hopelessly overlap to the extent that they are overly 
rei8ed. For instance, in the introduction, Chen writes that “Religious culture shares 
similarities with political culture” (p. 4). I fail to see how we can separate the catego-
ries. !is, however, does not detract from the engaging narratives that the author so 
carefully excavates from an impressively wide variety of sources. !e book goes a long 
B O O K  R E V I E W S 91
way toward showing us how Chinese Buddhism developed locally and regionally by 
tapping into a range of indigenous traditions in China. !is use of traditions seems to 
me to be a powerful use of upāya, or skillful means, on the part of Chinese Buddhists. 
Chen has given us an erudite study that joins other classics in the 8eld in further deep-
ening our understanding of how Buddhists adapted to, and shaped, China during the 
medieval period and beyond.
Manifesting Zen: Master Dharma Talks from Mt. Baldy. By Kyōzan Jōshū Sasaki. 
Edited, with an introduction, by Kendō Hal Roth. Los Angeles: Rinzai-ji Press, 2022. 
xiii + 402 pages. Hardcover. ISBN-13: 978-1-73798-650-8.
J)*. C. Maral()
Manifesting Zen contains translations of thirty-8ve talks that Jōshū Sasaki Rōshi 
(1907–2014) gave at 8ve sesshin 接心, or intensive meditation retreats, in 1986 at 
his monastery on Mt. Baldy, California. Over the course of 8fty years of teaching in 
the United States and Europe, this in;uential teacher, who traced his lineage back to 
Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴 (1686–1769), gave thousands of Dharma talks at his various 
practice centers. !is book, along with one short treatise, is the only set of teachings he 
chose to publish during his lifetime.1 !e talks were originally given in Japanese and 
spontaneously rendered into English by Christopher Ives. For their publication, Jōshū 
Rōshi’s long-time student Kendō Hal Roth, a professor of Religious Studies at Brown 
University, worked with Ives and other advisors to adjust the translations to ensure 
their faithfulness to a set of original transcripts. Roth’s thirty-8ve-page introduction 
elucidates Jōshū Rōshi’s teachings in the context of the basic teachings of Buddhism. 
Ample endnotes and a detailed index complement this beautifully bound and designed 
book.
As teishō 提唱, these “Master Dharma talks” serve to demonstrate as much as to 
explain the teachings of Buddhism. In print they now appear in a form detached from 
their original presentation; they lack the intonation, gestures, and tone of voice of the 
oral presentations directed to a speci8c audience. But the book does retain the often 
humorous way the teacher directly addressed his listeners. Indeed, the setting in which 
1 !e short treatise, About Tathāgata Zen, was published in 2014 also by Rinzai-ji Press. In the late 
1970s, each issue of the periodical Zero: Contemporary Buddhist Life and #ought published a transla-
tion of a talk by Jōshū Rōshi. !e publication Buddha Is the Center of Gravity: Teisho of Joshu Sasaki 
Roshi at Lama Foundation (San Cristobal, NM: Lama Foundation) appeared in 1974 without his 
approval.


BOOK REVIEWS Huaiyu Chen. In the Land of Tigers and Snakes: Living with Animals in Medieval Chinese Religions

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