Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Kōan in Zen Buddhism by Steven Heine (review)

a statuary of ancestors and deified masters overlaps with genealogies, local religious practices coexist with large institutions, be they Daoist, Buddhist or Confucian. It is thus quite likely that with Hunan we have the image of an open, polymorphous, multipolar local society that has not yet been made uniform by institutions, ideology, and political and academic discourse. How much longer will this last?8 Patrice Fava, referring to surrealism, argues (p. 34): “Each statue is a perfect example of ‘the entanglement of the natural and the supernatural within a single object’ beloved by André Breton who always advocated ‘the necessity to allow a kind of conciousness to prevail over the other,’ the one that prevails amongst animist cultures, from Oceania, from the Indian earth, or from the sanctuaries of old China.” One may wonder if this statement helps to understand the Hunan religion . Likewise, Fava’s comparison between the statuettes of Hunan and the Kachina puppets of the Hopi Indians of Arizona (pp. 34, 320, 462) might be misleading. Even so, this book will certainly open unexpected perspectives to all those who go on thinking that such a religion does not exist in China. It will be for them, as it has been for the author, marveling at the field, the “history of a discovery.” BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER CNRS, LESC. Université Nanterre, Paris Ouest La Défense STEVEN HEINE, Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Kōan in Zen Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 266 pp. US$31.95 (pb). ISBN 9780199837304 This is another book dealing with kōan literature in the rapid succession of monograph publications by Steven Heine. It is a study on probably the most famous kōan in the history of Chan/Zen Buddhism, the so-called “Mu kōan.” The author structures his study around the hypothesis that the tension between what he refers to as “Ur Version” and other main versions of the kōan was among the most important driving forces in the historical development of this kōan in China and Japan. The Ur Version consists of a short dialogue in which the famous Chan master Zhaozhou 趙 州 (778-897) is asked by a monk whether a dog had Buddha nature. Zhaozhou’s answer was simply “wu” (無, Jap. “mu”: “does not have”). By contrast, the so-called “Expansive Mu” or “Dual Version” (as termed by the author, pp. 29–30) narratives contain both negative and positive responses to the question. Heine traces many versions and commentaries that emerged over time in China and Japan, with an emphasis on the Song period and Dōgen’s 道元 (1200-1253) interpretation of the kōan. The book is divided into six main chapters, each dealing with different aspects of the development of the kōan. The first chapter provides the background of the study, including a more general discussion of the evolution of kōan literature. Chapter 2 consists of an attempt to reconstruct the formation of the Ur Version, followed by two chapters concerned with the “deconstruction” of this very version and its 8 Alain Arrault, “ La société locale vue à travers la statuaire domestique du Hunan,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 19 (2010): 122 (my translation). BOOK REVIEWS 79 dominant position in kōan collections and exegetical literature. Chapter 5 provides a reevaluation of the Dual Version, followed by a chapter mainly dealing with Dōgen’s interpretations, and a section with conclusions concerning the development of the kōan. Throughout the publication the author demonstrates his close familiarity with the various source materials, and introduces the reader to a great number of interpretations of this key kōan. In general, chapter titles of the book are somewhat enigmatic (for example, chapter 1 is entitled “More Cats Than Dogs? A Tale of Two Versions”; chapter 6, “When Is a Dog Not Really a Dog? Or, Yes! We Have No Buddha-Nature”). Chapter 1 (in addition to chapter 3) also includes passages dealing with methodological questions, e.g., on page 17 a description of the approach to the topic is provided : “The approach taken here, which will be defined in chapter 3 as ‘multilateral historical hermeneutics,’ represents a holistic and neutral rather than...