Abstract
This article examines the issue of the paradoxicality of institution, de-institutionalization, or the counter-institutionalization in classical Chan thought by focusing on the texts of Hongzhou School. It first analyzes the problem of 20th century scholars in characterizing the Chan attitude toward institution as iconoclasts, and the problem of the recent tendency to return to images of the Chan masters as traditionalists, as opposed to iconoclasts. Both problems are examples of imposing an oppositional way of thinking on the Chan masters. The essay then introduces a new paradigm for interpreting the Chan attitude toward institution, the model of de-institutionalization, which borrows certain insights from Derrida’s idea of the counter-institutional. However, the new model is supported by the Chan heritage of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. This model can more consistently construe the Chan understanding of the paradoxicality of institution, the subtle Chan relationship of being “with and against” institution, and the Chan “middle way” to make institution remain open to its outside and to transformation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blofeld, John, trans. 1958. The Zen Teaching of H uang Po. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.
_____. 1962. The Zen Teaching of Instantaneous Awakening. London: Buddhist Publishing Group.
_____. 1974. Beyond the Gods: Taoist and Buddhist Mysticism. New York: Dutton & Co.
Bryer, Anthony and Judith Herrin, eds. 1977. Iconoclasm. Birmingham, England: Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham
Chanzong Jicheng 禪宗集成. 1968. Reprint of the collection of Chan School from the HTC. 25 vols. Taibei: Yiwen Yinshu Guan.
Cheng Chien Bhikshu, trans. 1992. Sun-Face Buddha: The Teaching of Ma-tzu and the Hong-chou School of Ch’an. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press.
Cleary, Thomas, trans. 1978. Sayings and Doings of Pai-chang. Los Angeles: Center Publications.
Derrida, Jacques. 1981. Positions. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
_____. 1992. “Force of Law: The ‘Mystical Foundation of Authority’.” In Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice. Ed. by D. Cornell, M. Rosendeld, and D.G. Carlson. New York and London: Routledge.
_____. 1995. “A ‘Madness’ Must Watch over Thinking.” In Points … Interviews 1974-1994. Ed. by Elisabeth Weber, and trans. by Peggy Kamuf and others. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
_____. 2001. “I Have a Taste for the Secret.” In A Taste for the Secret. Ed. by Giacomo Donis and David Webb, and trans. by Giacomo Donis. London: Polity Press.
_____. 2002. “Negotiations.” In Negotiations: Interventions and Interviews 1971-2001. Ed., trans., with an introduction, by Elizabeth Rottenberg. Stanford, California.: Stanford University Press.
_____. 2004. “Countersignature.” Paragraph 27. 2: 7-42.
Freedberg, David. 1977. “The Structure of Byzantine and European Iconoclasm.” In Iconoclasm. Ed. by A. Bryer and J. Herrin. Birmingham, England: Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham.
HTC (Hsu Tsang Ching/Xu Zang Jing 續藏經). 1968-1970. Reprint of Dainippon zokuzokyo (Nakano Tatsue, ed. Kyoto: Zokyo shoin. 1905-1912). 150 vols. Taibei: Xinwenfeng Chuban Gongsi.
Hu, Shi 胡適. 1975. “Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism in China: Its History and Method.” In H u Shi Chanxue An 胡適禪學案 (The Case of Chan Studies by H u Shi). Ed. by Yanagida Seizan 柳田聖山. Taibei: Cheng Chung Books Co.
Jia, Jinhua. 2006. The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Poceski, Mario. 2004. “Mazu Yulu and the Creation of the Chan Records of Sayings.” In The Zen Canon. Ed. by Steven Heine and Dale Wright. Oxford: Oxford University Press
_____. 2007. Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sohaku, Ogata, trans. 1990. The Transmission of the Lamp: Early Masters. Wakefield, New Hampshire: Longwood Academic.
Sprung, Mervyn, trans. 1979. Lucid Exposition of the Middle Way: The Essential Chapters from the Prasannapadā of Candrakīrti. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新修大藏經. 1933. Ed. By Takakusu Junjirō and Watanabe Kaigyoku, 100 vols. Tokyo: Daizo shuppan kai.
Wang, Youru. 2003. Linguistic Strategies in Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan Buddhism: The Other Way of Speaking. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
_____. 2007. “Deconstructing Karma and the Aporia of the Ethical in Hongzhou Chan Buddhism.” In Deconstruction and the Ethical in Asian Thought. Ed. by Youru Wang. London and New York: Routledge.
Watson, Burton, trans. 1968. The Complete Works of C huang Tzu. New York: Columbia University Press.
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. 1993. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc.
Wortham, Simon M. 2006. Counter-Institutions: Jacques Derrida and the Question of the University. New York: Fordham University Press.
Wright, Dale. 1998. Philosophical Meditation on Zen Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Yanagida Seizan 柳田聖山. 1969. “Zenshū goroku no keisei 禪宗語錄の形成.” Indogaku bukkyōgaku Kenkyū 印度學佛教學研究 18.1: 39-47.
_____. 1974. “Chūgoku zenshū shi 中國禪宗史.” In Zen no rekishi: Chūgoku 禪の歷史—中國. Ed. by Nishitani Keiji 西谷啟治. Tokyo: Chikuma shobō.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Youru, W. Paradoxicality of Institution, De-Institutionalization and the Counter-Institutional: A Case Study in Classical Chinese Chan Buddhist Thought. Dao 11, 21–37 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-011-9255-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-011-9255-9