Illusory Abiding: The Cultural Construction of the Chan Monk Zhongfeng Mingben

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A groundbreaking monograph on Yuan dynasty Buddhism, Illusory Abiding offers a cultural history of Buddhism through a case study of the eminent Chan master Zhongfeng Mingben. Natasha Heller demonstrates that Mingben, and other monks of his stature, developed a range of cultural competencies through which they navigated social and intellectual relationships. They mastered repertoires internal to their tradition―for example, guidelines for monastic life―as well as those that allowed them to interact with broader elite audiences, such as the ability to compose verses on plum blossoms. These cultural exchanges took place within local, religious, and social networks―and at the same time, they comprised some of the very forces that formed these networks in the first place. This monograph contributes to a more robust account of Chinese Buddhism in late imperial China, and demonstrates the importance of situating monks as actors within broader sociocultural fields of practice and exchange. Illusory Abiding: THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHAN MONK ZHONGFENG MING BEN Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1. Floating Light and Illusory Shadows: The Life of a Monk 2. Places and Patrons: The View from Mount Tianmu 3. Beneath Thatched Roofs and amid Waves: Reclusion in the Chan Imagination 4. To Place One’s Mind in the Assembly: Rules of Purity for the Cloister of Illusory Abiding 5. Raising Old Expedients: Genealogies, Gongan, and the Chan Literary Tradition 6. Body and Mind Like an Iron Wall: The Huatou in Practice 7. Brushes and Inkstones: Poetry, Calligraphy, and the Art of Cultural Exchange 8. Capturing Charisma: The Role of Portraits and Inscriptions Conclusion Chronology of Zhongfeng Mingben’s Life Bibliography Glossary-Index Harvard East Asian Monographs