Readings of the Platform Sūtra ed. by Morten Schlütter, Stephen F. Teiser (review)

MORTEN SCHLÜTTER and STEPHEN F. TEISER eds., Readings of the Platform S utra. Columbia Readings of Buddhist Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. ix, 220 pp. US$27.50, £19.00 (pbk). ISBN 978-0-231-15821-3 Readings of the Platform S utra is a collection of six essays on the earliest surviving version of the Platform S utra, the one found in the Dunhuang 敦煌 manuscript, which probably dates to around the 780s. (A later, expanded Platform S utra became the standard.) The contents of this collection are as follows: ‘‘Introduction: The Platform S utra, Buddhism, and Chinese Religion,’’ by Morten Schlütter ‘‘The Figure of Huineng,’’ by John Jorgensen ‘‘The History and Practice of Early Chan,’’ by Henrik H. Sørensen ‘‘The Platform S utra as the Sudden Teaching,’’ by Peter N. Gregory ‘‘Transmitting Notions of Transmission,’’ by Wendi L. Adamek ‘‘Ordination and Precepts in the Platform S utra,’’ by Paul Groner ‘‘The Platform S utra and Chinese Philosophy,’’ by Brook Ziporyn Schlütter’s introduction is broad in its coverage, ideal for the general reader— touching upon  S akyamuni, the rise of the Mah ay ana, Buddhism’s initial penetration into China during the Han dynasty, the schools of Chinese Buddhism, early Chan, later Chan, and so forth. Schlütter makes the observation that the Platform S utra ‘‘contains some of the earliest surviving examples of vernacular (baihua 白話) dialogue between a Chan master and his students, who are presented in a realistic setting and not just as stylized interrogators’’ (p. 19). In this context, the Shenhui 神會 manuscripts, which show a high degree of vernacular, immediately come to mind. Jorgensen’s essay focuses on the historical context of the text. He concludes that ‘‘much of the Platform S utra was built on the inventions of Shenhui, and the textual evidence suggests that the work was written soon after his death’’ (p. 33). Jorgensen makes the interesting observation that Shenhui may have found the template for his romance of Huineng in the legend of Confucius as recorded in the Shiji 史記, and in the J ataka stories. The J ataka connection deserves further research. He also suggests that Shenhui drew on the stereotypes of ‘‘northern’’ and ‘‘southern’’ in the poetry of Xie Lingyun 謝靈運 (385–433). Sørensen’s essay, a historical treatment of Bodhidharma and his lineage, treats the relevant sources, such as the Record of the Monasteries of Luoyang, Daoxuan’s 道宣 Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices, and so forth. Sørensen emphasizes both the political (i.e., power struggles) and the meditative/philosophical. There is a very useful (but short) appendix laying out the patriarchal transmission according to various texts of early Chan literature. In Peter N. Gregory’s essay two observations stand out. The first is that the Diamond S utra, which has been traditionally considered to be the fundamental sutra for our text, is ‘‘never cited in those passages where Huineng expounds his most distinctive teachings’’ (p. 81). The second is that ‘‘the explicit emphasis on the perfection of wisdom needs to be counterbalanced by a recognition of the importance of the tath agata-garbha doctrine’’ (p. 79). Gregory finds that the Vimalak ırti S utra (an ‘‘emptiness sutra’’ that is frequently cited in Chan literature) ‘‘had the biggest impact on the form and content of the Platform S utra’’ (p. 83). BOOK REVIEWS 81 Wendi L. Adamek’s essay begins by pointing out that ‘‘what Huineng is teaching throughout the Platform S utra are variations on the theme that ‘form is emptiness, emptiness is form,’ as expounded in the Heart S utra’’ (p. 110). Adamek’s essay discusses the three levels of transmission in the Platform S utra, all of which ‘‘involve contestation’’: transmission of a particular approach to the teachings; transmission of the text itself as a talisman (similar to Bodhidharma’s robe); and transmission as a part of an ideology (p. 109). Adamek brings in for comparison the Lidai fabao ji 歷代法寶記, a Chan transmission record compiled about the same time as the Platform S utra. Paul Groner ventures beyond the usual perimeters of Chan studies by bringing ordination and precepts into the center of...