The Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan History and Its Contexts

Part I, “The Mystique of Transmission,” provides the historical and conceptual framework. Chapter 1 discusses authority and authenticity, especially the contested status of the Lidai fabao ji. Chapter 2 examines transmission and translation through early Chinese Buddhist figures and legends. Chapter 3 studies transmission and lay practice, including bodhisattva precepts and devotional participation. Chapter 4 analyzes material Buddhism, Dharma kings, imperial power, and eschatological concerns. Chapter 5 focuses on robes, patriarchs, Shenhui’s rhetoric, Huineng, Bodhidharma’s robe, and the politics of Chan lineage. Chapter 6 studies Wuzhu, Wuxiang, antinomianism, women, Daoists, and formless precepts. Chapter 7 examines the legacy of the Lidai fabao ji and its later traces. Part II contains an annotated translation of the Lidai fabao ji, organized into forty-three sections. These include the legend of Emperor Ming of Han, the transmission from India to China, the Chan patriarchs from Bodhidharma to Huineng, figures such as Zhishen, Chuji, Wuxiang, Shenhui, and Wuzhu, dialogues with monks, nuns, Daoists, Vinaya masters, treatise masters, lay donors, and the final portrait-eulogy for Wuzhu.