Foulk on Gregory
-
Upload
michaelpequod -
Category
Documents
-
view
222 -
download
0
Transcript of Foulk on Gregory
8/12/2019 Foulk on Gregory
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/foulk-on-gregory 1/4
Review: [untitled]
Author(s): T. Griffith FoulkSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 114, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1994), pp. 487-489Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/605107 .
Accessed: 20/02/2011 22:10
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aos. .
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of
the American Oriental Society.
8/12/2019 Foulk on Gregory
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/foulk-on-gregory 2/4
Reviews of Bookseviews of Books
But in the first, the genitive is clearly linked with the preced-
ing noun, and in the second, with the following. The double
senses he speaks of should rather be explained by suppletionthan by a kind of slesa or play on meaning.
Treatment of thesyntax (or any feature)
of aspecial
text
calls for the linguist to relate the features properto the text to
features of the language in general (or a recognized subset of
it). Aklujkarwould have done better to focus more narrowlyon any one of the several features he discusses, trim his
examples more closely and compare them more carefully to
examples in other texts. The evidence he cites fails to estab-
lish that the Vrtti has a distinctive style and fails to make
known previously unknown features characteristic of exposi-
tory prose.In contrast, Jamison's Syntax of direct speech in Vedic
(pp. 95-112) admirablydemonstrates the value for the studyof the Vedic language as a whole, of isolating smaller corpora
of stylistically unified discourse and examining their proper-ties (p. 108). She shows the prevalence of a hitherto unno-
ticed distinction in the use of the particles eva and vai in
mythological direct speech versus in narrative prose. Simi-
larly, Bubenik's Nominal and Pronominalobjects in Sanskrit
and Prakrit (pp. 19-30) shows that analysis of word order
must take into account both the genre of the literature and the
function of the expression.I cannot discuss all the papers included in this volume.
However, let me at least mention the high-point of the book,
Klein's excellent paper, Syntactic and discourse correlates of
verb-initial sentences in the Rigveda (pp. 123-43). He iden-
tifies eight aspects of the surroundingdiscourse structurethatare correlated with the fronting of verbs, including contexts
for the use of the imperative, rhetorical repetition, juxtaposi-tion of sentence-initial verb with sentence-final, correlation
between an event referred to in the hymn and an action in the
yajia, introduction of a quotation, abrupttransition, etc. He
supplies an exact description of the characteristics and extent
of his large sample, precise statistics concerning each corre-
late identified, and ample examples to round off his thoroughtreatment of the topic.
Given what Hock notes in his introduction, that contribu-
tions to the study of Sanskrit syntax published in different
journals and presented at very different professional meetingsare often unnoticed or inaccessible to others working in the
area, the current volume is a welcomed and useful collection.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cardona,George. 1988. Pdnini: His Workand its Traditions,vol. 1: Background and Introduction. Delhi: Motilal Ba-
narsidass.
Coulson, Michael. 1976. Sanskrit: An Introduction to the
Classical Language. Kent: Hodder and Stoughton.
But in the first, the genitive is clearly linked with the preced-
ing noun, and in the second, with the following. The double
senses he speaks of should rather be explained by suppletionthan by a kind of slesa or play on meaning.
Treatment of thesyntax (or any feature)
of aspecial
text
calls for the linguist to relate the features properto the text to
features of the language in general (or a recognized subset of
it). Aklujkarwould have done better to focus more narrowlyon any one of the several features he discusses, trim his
examples more closely and compare them more carefully to
examples in other texts. The evidence he cites fails to estab-
lish that the Vrtti has a distinctive style and fails to make
known previously unknown features characteristic of exposi-
tory prose.In contrast, Jamison's Syntax of direct speech in Vedic
(pp. 95-112) admirablydemonstrates the value for the studyof the Vedic language as a whole, of isolating smaller corpora
of stylistically unified discourse and examining their proper-ties (p. 108). She shows the prevalence of a hitherto unno-
ticed distinction in the use of the particles eva and vai in
mythological direct speech versus in narrative prose. Simi-
larly, Bubenik's Nominal and Pronominalobjects in Sanskrit
and Prakrit (pp. 19-30) shows that analysis of word order
must take into account both the genre of the literature and the
function of the expression.I cannot discuss all the papers included in this volume.
However, let me at least mention the high-point of the book,
Klein's excellent paper, Syntactic and discourse correlates of
verb-initial sentences in the Rigveda (pp. 123-43). He iden-
tifies eight aspects of the surroundingdiscourse structurethatare correlated with the fronting of verbs, including contexts
for the use of the imperative, rhetorical repetition, juxtaposi-tion of sentence-initial verb with sentence-final, correlation
between an event referred to in the hymn and an action in the
yajia, introduction of a quotation, abrupttransition, etc. He
supplies an exact description of the characteristics and extent
of his large sample, precise statistics concerning each corre-
late identified, and ample examples to round off his thoroughtreatment of the topic.
Given what Hock notes in his introduction, that contribu-
tions to the study of Sanskrit syntax published in different
journals and presented at very different professional meetingsare often unnoticed or inaccessible to others working in the
area, the current volume is a welcomed and useful collection.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cardona,George. 1988. Pdnini: His Workand its Traditions,vol. 1: Background and Introduction. Delhi: Motilal Ba-
narsidass.
Coulson, Michael. 1976. Sanskrit: An Introduction to the
Classical Language. Kent: Hodder and Stoughton.
Sharma,Rama Nath. 1987. The Astddhyiyl of Panini, vol. 1:
Introduction to the Astadhyiyi as a GrammaticalDevice.
New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Shastri, CharuDeva. 1990. Panini Re-Interpreted.Delhi: Mo-
tilal Banarsidass.
Whitney, William Dwight. 1924. Sanskrit Grammar, 5th ed.
Leipzig. [Ist ed., 1879].
PETER M. SCHARF
BROWN UNIVERSITY
Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. By PETERN.
GREGORY.rinceton: PRINCETONNIVERSITYRESS,1991.
Pp. 368. $49.50.
This comprehensive, meticulously researched study of the
life and thought of the scholar monk Kuei-feng Tsung-mi
(780-841) shines a well-deserved spotlight on a multi-faceted
thinker who was, by any standard,a major player on the intel-
lectual stage in medieval China. In doing so, the book also il-
luminates the social, political, and religious contexts in which
Tsung-mi's writings were produced and shows how his work
representedan adaptationof Buddhist doctrines and practicesto the Chinese cultural milieu.
Previousresearch on Tsung-mi,most of it publishedin Japa-
nese, has focused largely on his role as a historian who chron-
icled the lineages of early Ch'an(Zen) andchampionedhis ownline of filiation (the Ho-tse branchof the southern ineage of
Ch'an)as the best. Considerableattention has also been paid to
Tsung-mi'scontribution o the Hua-yen(Kegon)tradition,which
subsequentlyclaimed him as its fifth patriarch. Author Peter
Gregory s very well versedin the Japanesescholarshipanduses
it to good advantage.He is not takenin, however,by its simplis-tic caricatureof Tsung-mi as a syncretist who tried to bridgethe gap between Ch'an(characterizedas a mind-to-mind rans-
mission of enlightenment)and the textually based teachingsof exegetical traditionssuch as Hua-yen. Gregory'selucidation
of the complex philosophical, ethical, and social considerations
thatinfluencedTsung-mi's
ntellectualproject
is both broader n
scope and morenuanced than the accountsfound in most previ-ous studies.
Thebook is dividedinto fourparts.Partone, entitled Tsung-mi's Life, collates autobiographicaldata gleaned from Tsung-mi's own writings, references to the monk found in other con-
temporaneousdocuments,and formalaccountsof his life givenin laterChinese biographies.Gregorybracketsthe hagiographi-cal elements and normative udgmentsthatarefoundin both the
classical Chinese and modern Japanesebiographies of Tsung-mi and declines to engage in the gratuitous psychologizing
Sharma,Rama Nath. 1987. The Astddhyiyl of Panini, vol. 1:
Introduction to the Astadhyiyi as a GrammaticalDevice.
New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Shastri, CharuDeva. 1990. Panini Re-Interpreted.Delhi: Mo-
tilal Banarsidass.
Whitney, William Dwight. 1924. Sanskrit Grammar, 5th ed.
Leipzig. [Ist ed., 1879].
PETER M. SCHARF
BROWN UNIVERSITY
Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. By PETERN.
GREGORY.rinceton: PRINCETONNIVERSITYRESS,1991.
Pp. 368. $49.50.
This comprehensive, meticulously researched study of the
life and thought of the scholar monk Kuei-feng Tsung-mi
(780-841) shines a well-deserved spotlight on a multi-faceted
thinker who was, by any standard,a major player on the intel-
lectual stage in medieval China. In doing so, the book also il-
luminates the social, political, and religious contexts in which
Tsung-mi's writings were produced and shows how his work
representedan adaptationof Buddhist doctrines and practicesto the Chinese cultural milieu.
Previousresearch on Tsung-mi,most of it publishedin Japa-
nese, has focused largely on his role as a historian who chron-
icled the lineages of early Ch'an(Zen) andchampionedhis ownline of filiation (the Ho-tse branchof the southern ineage of
Ch'an)as the best. Considerableattention has also been paid to
Tsung-mi'scontribution o the Hua-yen(Kegon)tradition,which
subsequentlyclaimed him as its fifth patriarch. Author Peter
Gregory s very well versedin the Japanesescholarshipanduses
it to good advantage.He is not takenin, however,by its simplis-tic caricatureof Tsung-mi as a syncretist who tried to bridgethe gap between Ch'an(characterizedas a mind-to-mind rans-
mission of enlightenment)and the textually based teachingsof exegetical traditionssuch as Hua-yen. Gregory'selucidation
of the complex philosophical, ethical, and social considerations
thatinfluencedTsung-mi's
ntellectualproject
is both broader n
scope and morenuanced than the accountsfound in most previ-ous studies.
Thebook is dividedinto fourparts.Partone, entitled Tsung-mi's Life, collates autobiographicaldata gleaned from Tsung-mi's own writings, references to the monk found in other con-
temporaneousdocuments,and formalaccountsof his life givenin laterChinese biographies.Gregorybracketsthe hagiographi-cal elements and normative udgmentsthatarefoundin both the
classical Chinese and modern Japanesebiographies of Tsung-mi and declines to engage in the gratuitous psychologizing
48787
8/12/2019 Foulk on Gregory
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/foulk-on-gregory 3/4
Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.3 (1994)
sometimes found in moder Western biographies of religious
figures.The result is a thoroughandjudicious recountingof the
historical evidence: a biography of Tsung-mi which, though
sparse,comes as close as possible to attainingthe ideals of ob-
jectivityand
reliability. Gregorytakes
specialcare to
presentthe
evidence for Tsung-mi's classical Confucian education as a
youth and to documenthis subsequent nteractionswith various
Buddhistteachers, scholar-officials,andpolitical figures.He also
describes the monastic centers and traditionsof Buddhistprac-
tice in Tsung-mi'snative Szechwan that the monk knew most in-
timately. Partone thus provides a social and historical context
for the interpretationof Tsung-mi'sthoughtin the remainderof
the book.
Part two comprises four chapters on Doctrinal Classifica-
tion (p'an-chiao), which is widely regardedby scholars todayas one of the most distinctive features of medieval Chinese
Buddhistthought. Gregory'sprimaryaim is to elucidate Tsung-
mi's p'an-chiao scheme, but his treatment of its antecedents isso thoroughgoing that part two could stand alone as a mono-
graphon the backgroundand progressive development of doc-
trinal classification in the Hua-yen tradition.Gregory carefully
details the various ways in which Tsung-mi's p'an-chiao
differed from those of his Hua-yen predecessors, most notably
Chih-yen (602-68) and Fa-tsang(643-712). His main thesis is
that Tsung-mi's formulation was essentially soteriological in
intent: it mapped out stages of understandingon the path to
Buddhahood. EarlierHua-yen thinkers,in contrast,were either
preoccupied with the hermeneuticalproblem of how to recon-
cile the apparentcontradictions between different sfitras that
were all presumed to be the word of the Buddha, or intent onproving, for sectarianpurposes, the superiorityof the Hua-yenSutra. Gregory concludes that Tsung-mi's concern with soteri-
ology reflected the influence of Ch'an on Chinese Buddhism in
the eighth and early ninth centuries, and that it representeda
radical shift in Hua-yen hermeneutics.
Part three, entitled The Ground of Practice, contains the
most ambitious and potentially controversial chapters in the
book. It begins by outlining what Gregory refers to as Tsung-mi's cosmogonic map. This is a five-stage diagramof the pro-cess of phenomenalevolution throughwhich: (1) the ultimate
groundof being-identified with the one mind of perfect en-
lightenment, the true dharmadhdtu,and the tathdgatagarbha
(2) divided againstitself and producedan aspect of mind that is
subject to birth-and-deathas well as one that is unconditioned
and unchanging, (3) allowed a differentiation in the mind of
birth-and-deathbetween the (relative and conditioned) states of
enlightenmentand delusion, (4) producedin the deluded mind
a false sense of separation between a perceiving subject and
perceived objects, and (5) gave rise in that framework to
(a) mental discrimination, (b) awareness of pleasure and pain,(c) attachment,(d) conceptual elaboration,(e) activity (karma)
based on such attachments and concepts, and finally (f) the
suffering of karmic bondage in which ordinary beings find
themselves. Gregory calls this schematic diagramof the etiol-
ogy of deluded sentient existence a cosmogony because it is
a theory regardingthe birth or creation of the universe or a
descriptionof the original order of the universe (p. 175, n. 5).
InTsung-mi's view,
each of thestages
in theprocess
ofphe-nomenal evolution could be countered and undone by bringing
to bear a particular et of Buddhist doctrinesandpractices,thus
reversing the process in a systematic manner and enabling one
eventually to move from the state of sufferingin karmicbond-
age (stage 5) backwards o a realization of the original state
of perfect enlightenment (stage 1). Gregory holds that Tsung-mi's five-stage diagram,when viewed from the perspectiveof a
practitioner, hus appearsas a map of the pathto liberation.
The central thesis of partthree is that Tsung-mi devised his
five-stage cosmogonic map (as well as a similar etiology of
delusion formulated n ten reciprocal stages) in order to pro-vide an ontological groundfor Buddhistpractice. In particular,
Gregory argues,Tsung-mivalued the doctrines of the tathagata-
garbha and one mind because, by positing an ultimatelyreal
groundof all phenomena(including both deluded and enlight-ened states), it allowed him to counterthe antinomianand neg-ative conative implications of the San-lun (Madhyamaka)doctrineof emptinessand to subordinate he radically apophaticrhetoric of emptiness to a kataphatic(positive) mode of dis-
course. As Gregorydemonstrates,Tsung-mi'sConfuciantrain-
ing and native conservatismput him in opposition to the more
radical tendencies in certain Ch'an movements (especially the
Pao-t'angand Hung-chouschools), which seemed to reject tra-
ditional Buddhistforms of cultivatingmorality,meditation,and
wisdom. By portraying hose modes of cultivation as tools thatwere indispensablefor the progressivedismantlingor reversingof the cosmogonic process, Gregory argues, Tsung-miwas able
to providethem with a firm ontological underpinning hathad
great appealto native Chinese sensibilities.
Gregory does an excellent job of laying out the contents of
Tsung-mi's theoretical formulations, but his interpretationof
them as a cosmogonic map and his thesis that they providedan ontological basis for practice are open to debate. The pro-cess described by Tsung-mi in his five-stage and ten-stage
diagrams was indeed an etiology of delusion (Gregory's
term), but not an account of any quasi-substantive evolution
(again Gregory's term) of the phenomena of sentient exis-
tence. The diagrams, in other words, represent a type of
speculation which, if we want to use Western philosophical
terms, is more epistemological than ontological. Insofar
as Tsung-mi presents an ontology, it is to claim that only the
one mind is ultimately existent: all other, conditioned phe-nomena are merely the ever-changing images reflected on the
surface of the mind, nothing more than the epiphenomena
(mo) of the intrinsically enlightened true mind (p. 252).
Thus, the reversal of the five-stage (or ten stage) process that
Tsung-mi envisioned was essentially a question of succes-
sively lifting the overlaid veils of delusion by cultivating in-
488
8/12/2019 Foulk on Gregory
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/foulk-on-gregory 4/4
Reviews of Bookseviews of Books
sight into the appropriate, countervailing Buddhist doctrines.
It was not a matter of systematically suppressing or undoing,
say through transic meditation (dhyana) or ascetic practices,
any psychophysiological processes or entities that might be
understood to have evolved in some substantiveway.
Viewed
in this light, one could question the interpretationof Tsung-mi's formulas as maps n the sense of an aid to movement or
a plan of action, although the metaphorof a map as somethingthat conveys knowledge of a territoryin and of itself (thereby
obviating the need to go anywhere or do anything other than
read and understandit) may be apt. As with the Indian Bud-
dhist doctrine of the twelve-link chain of conditioned origi-nation (pratityasamutpada), which Gregory (following the
dubious lead of FrankReynolds) holds up as anotherexampleof a cosmogony, Tsung-mi's schemata might better be
compared to the diagnosis, etiological study, and prescriptionfor the treatment of a disease. The disease in this case is
the suffering of karmic conditioning; the root and ongoingcause of its development is delusion; and the treatment s
the study and understandingof Buddhist doctrines.
It is not clear from the datapresented n part hreehow Tsung-
mi, simply by positing the existence of the originally awakened
one mind or tathagatagarbha,could therebyhave resisted the
antinomian endencies in the Ch'anof his dayor strengthenedhis
case for the traditionalBuddhistpractices of moralityand med-
itation (dhyana). To establish a truly ontological basis for
those practices, one would think, it would be necessary to hold
thatthedelusions andpassionsthat cloud the mind are ust as real
as the mind-ground tself. Such a position was in fact taken bythe Northern school of
Ch'an,or at least imputedto it by Shen-hui andTsung-mi,for it was said to have regarded he impuritiesthat obscure the intrinsicallypuremind(like duston a mirror)as
substantiallyexistent phenomenathatneeded to be removed bya vigorous polishing of themindin meditation.Tsung-mihim-
self, however,rejectedthatstandpointon thegroundsthatthe im-
puritiesareempty (k'ung): they lack any independentrealityof
their own because they arenothingbut a manifestationof the in-
trinsically pure mind as it accords with conditions (p. 233). It
was precisely suchan understanding f theemptinessof delusion
and its essential identitywith the Buddha-nature,moreover,that
informed heapparently adical,antinomianpositiontakenby the
Hung-chouschool. The questionthatarises, then, is how Tsung-
mi could have embraced essentially the same ontology as the
Hung-chou school as a means of refuting that school's laissez-
faire approach o Buddhistpractice.The answeris suggested by
Gregory'sown account: it was not the Hung-chou school's on-
tology thatTsung-mi found objectionable,but rather ts lack of
concern with enlightenmentas an epistemological phenomenon.
Tsung-mi chargedthat the Hung-chouschool, in its acceptanceof the fundamentalontological identity of the one mind and its
deludedthoughts,lost sight of the fact thatcognitively (or expe-
rientially) it is still necessary to see throughthe mind's condi-
tioned functioning,actually to realize or attest to the underlying
sight into the appropriate, countervailing Buddhist doctrines.
It was not a matter of systematically suppressing or undoing,
say through transic meditation (dhyana) or ascetic practices,
any psychophysiological processes or entities that might be
understood to have evolved in some substantiveway.
Viewed
in this light, one could question the interpretationof Tsung-mi's formulas as maps n the sense of an aid to movement or
a plan of action, although the metaphorof a map as somethingthat conveys knowledge of a territoryin and of itself (thereby
obviating the need to go anywhere or do anything other than
read and understandit) may be apt. As with the Indian Bud-
dhist doctrine of the twelve-link chain of conditioned origi-nation (pratityasamutpada), which Gregory (following the
dubious lead of FrankReynolds) holds up as anotherexampleof a cosmogony, Tsung-mi's schemata might better be
compared to the diagnosis, etiological study, and prescriptionfor the treatment of a disease. The disease in this case is
the suffering of karmic conditioning; the root and ongoingcause of its development is delusion; and the treatment s
the study and understandingof Buddhist doctrines.
It is not clear from the datapresented n part hreehow Tsung-
mi, simply by positing the existence of the originally awakened
one mind or tathagatagarbha,could therebyhave resisted the
antinomian endencies in the Ch'anof his dayor strengthenedhis
case for the traditionalBuddhistpractices of moralityand med-
itation (dhyana). To establish a truly ontological basis for
those practices, one would think, it would be necessary to hold
thatthedelusions andpassionsthat cloud the mind are ust as real
as the mind-ground tself. Such a position was in fact taken bythe Northern school of
Ch'an,or at least imputedto it by Shen-hui andTsung-mi,for it was said to have regarded he impuritiesthat obscure the intrinsicallypuremind(like duston a mirror)as
substantiallyexistent phenomenathatneeded to be removed bya vigorous polishing of themindin meditation.Tsung-mihim-
self, however,rejectedthatstandpointon thegroundsthatthe im-
puritiesareempty (k'ung): they lack any independentrealityof
their own because they arenothingbut a manifestationof the in-
trinsically pure mind as it accords with conditions (p. 233). It
was precisely suchan understanding f theemptinessof delusion
and its essential identitywith the Buddha-nature,moreover,that
informed heapparently adical,antinomianpositiontakenby the
Hung-chouschool. The questionthatarises, then, is how Tsung-
mi could have embraced essentially the same ontology as the
Hung-chou school as a means of refuting that school's laissez-
faire approach o Buddhistpractice.The answeris suggested by
Gregory'sown account: it was not the Hung-chou school's on-
tology thatTsung-mi found objectionable,but rather ts lack of
concern with enlightenmentas an epistemological phenomenon.
Tsung-mi chargedthat the Hung-chouschool, in its acceptanceof the fundamentalontological identity of the one mind and its
deludedthoughts,lost sight of the fact thatcognitively (or expe-
rientially) it is still necessary to see throughthe mind's condi-
tioned functioning,actually to realize or attest to the underlying
essence, and to integratethat realization of innateBuddhahood
into one's experience of the phenomenalworld. For Tsung-mi,
then,practicewas necessary,not to effect any real change at the
deepest ontological level (which is immutable)but to know the
structureofbeing
and to effectpositive changes
in themakeupof the conditioned mind: to transform he mindsubjectto birth-
and-death rom that of an ordinarysuffering being into thatof
a Buddha.
Partfour,entitled The BroaderIntellectualTradition, deals
with Confucianism andTaoism in Tsung-mi's thoughtand com-
paresTsung-mi'sattemptto provide an ontological basis for the
affirmationof traditionalBuddhistpractices with a similar turn
of thoughttaken, in opposition to Buddhist antinomianism,bythe seminal Neo-ConfucianthinkerChu Hsi (1130-1200). Gre-
gory does a good job of explainingTsung-mi's critiquesof Con-
fucianism and Taoism and his incorporation of those two
teachings into a p'an-chiao scheme alongside, but subordi-
nate to, Buddhism. The comparison that Gregory draws be-tween Tsung-mi and Chu Hsi is a fruitfulone, noting as it does
a common problematic and certain structuralparallels in
their respective metaphysicalpositions. If, however, one views
Tsung-mi'sdefense of moral principles and practices as an ar-
gument couched more in epistemological than ontological
terms,then the similaritiesbetween his position andthatof Chu
Hsi, while still striking in many respects, may be in need of
some furtherqualifications.In conclusion, it is a measure of the excellence of this book
that it lays out the philosophical positions of Tsung-mi and
many of his contemporaries with such clarity and thorough-
ness that the reader is able, without recourse to any outsidematerials, to formulate interpretationsof Tsung-mi's thoughtthat may differ in some particularswith that given by the au-
thor. With its careful, in-depth discussion of many of the keymoral and metaphysical issues that engendered debate in me-
dieval Chinese Buddhism, the book is an invaluable resource
not only for students of East Asian Buddhism but of Chinese
intellectual history in general.
essence, and to integratethat realization of innateBuddhahood
into one's experience of the phenomenalworld. For Tsung-mi,
then,practicewas necessary,not to effect any real change at the
deepest ontological level (which is immutable)but to know the
structureofbeing
and to effectpositive changes
in themakeupof the conditioned mind: to transform he mindsubjectto birth-
and-death rom that of an ordinarysuffering being into thatof
a Buddha.
Partfour,entitled The BroaderIntellectualTradition, deals
with Confucianism andTaoism in Tsung-mi's thoughtand com-
paresTsung-mi'sattemptto provide an ontological basis for the
affirmationof traditionalBuddhistpractices with a similar turn
of thoughttaken, in opposition to Buddhist antinomianism,bythe seminal Neo-ConfucianthinkerChu Hsi (1130-1200). Gre-
gory does a good job of explainingTsung-mi's critiquesof Con-
fucianism and Taoism and his incorporation of those two
teachings into a p'an-chiao scheme alongside, but subordi-
nate to, Buddhism. The comparison that Gregory draws be-tween Tsung-mi and Chu Hsi is a fruitfulone, noting as it does
a common problematic and certain structuralparallels in
their respective metaphysicalpositions. If, however, one views
Tsung-mi'sdefense of moral principles and practices as an ar-
gument couched more in epistemological than ontological
terms,then the similaritiesbetween his position andthatof Chu
Hsi, while still striking in many respects, may be in need of
some furtherqualifications.In conclusion, it is a measure of the excellence of this book
that it lays out the philosophical positions of Tsung-mi and
many of his contemporaries with such clarity and thorough-
ness that the reader is able, without recourse to any outsidematerials, to formulate interpretationsof Tsung-mi's thoughtthat may differ in some particularswith that given by the au-
thor. With its careful, in-depth discussion of many of the keymoral and metaphysical issues that engendered debate in me-
dieval Chinese Buddhism, the book is an invaluable resource
not only for students of East Asian Buddhism but of Chinese
intellectual history in general.
T. GRIFFITHOULK. GRIFFITHOULK
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
New Leaves: Studies and Translations of Japanese Literature
in Honor of Edward Seidensticker. Edited by AILEEN AT-
TEN nd ANTHONYOOD HAMBERS.nn Arbor:CENTEROR
JAPANESETUDIES,NIVERSITYFMICHIGAN,993. Pp. x +
283.
Edward Seidensticker, in whose honor this Festschrift was
compiled, spent over a decade in postwar Japan pursuing a
New Leaves: Studies and Translations of Japanese Literature
in Honor of Edward Seidensticker. Edited by AILEEN AT-
TEN nd ANTHONYOOD HAMBERS.nn Arbor:CENTEROR
JAPANESETUDIES,NIVERSITYFMICHIGAN,993. Pp. x +
283.
Edward Seidensticker, in whose honor this Festschrift was
compiled, spent over a decade in postwar Japan pursuing a
48989