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3 Literary Study in Kõan Practice Kõan practice does not consist merely of meditation and sanzen. In the widest sense it also embraces all other aspects of monastery activity, including physical work, ritual and ceremonial practices such as the chanting of sutras, and community life. But even in the more restricted sense of direct engagement with the kõan, it also involves literary study. This study begins in a monk’s ³rst year when he is instructed to search for jakugo or “capping phrases” for kõan that have been passed, and it continues through to the end of formal training with advanced exercises such as writing lectures, called kakiwake (written analysis), and the composition of poetry, called nenrõ (deft play). jakugo: the capping phrase When a monk is ³rst instructed to bring a jakugo, he will probably not know what a jakugo is and will have to ask his fellow monks what he is being asked to do. The ZGDJT (468) gives a useful de³nition of the jakugo: Jakugo qB, also agyo 4B, kengo £B. A short commentary appended to a phrase from either the main case or the verse in a Zen text. Though it is clearly a commentary, in it one uses one’s eye-for-the-essential either to assess and praise the words or actions of the ancients that support their explanations, or to substitute one’s own rendering of their core meaning, freely manipulating the dynamic of life and death. Forms an essential element of certain Zen texts like the Hekigan -roku and the Shõyõ-roku. As this text makes clear, the jakugo assignment reveals both the point or core (shðshi ;Š) of the kõan as well as the eye-for-the-essential (shðjõgan ;/Q) the monk needs to recognize that core. He is expected to return with a Chinese verse expressing the point of the kõan, or of the sassho, as he sees it. Originally, it is said, Zen monks composed their own verses, but with the decline in classical education and facility in composing Chinese verse, modern monks are no longer able to do this. Over time, several thousand such verses have been collected into special Zen collections from which the monk is expected to ³nd an appropriate jakugo. The earliest of 30 these books still in use is the Zenrin kushð (The Zen Phrase Collection), edited by Ijðshi in 1688. This text is in fact a greatly expanded version of an earlier collection known as the Kuzõshi, ³rst compiled toward the end of the ³fteenth century by Tõyõ Eichõ Zenji (1426–1504). New collections of Zen jakugo phrases have been compiled during the twentieth century, discarding many of the old phrases and adding new ones. These will be described in more detail in Chapter Five. Several terms are now used for capping phrases with slightly different meanings. The common term jakugo (qB, ^B) is written with characters that mean in Japanese “to append a phrase” (go o tsukeru B¤^Wš, B¤qWš). The variation in the writing of the glyph for jaku reµects only the minor nuance between “append” and “attach.” A very commonly used term is agyo 4B, which also means “appended phrase.” The term kengo mentioned in the de³nition from the ZGDJT cited above means simply “selected phrase.” Some jakugo assignments require a front phrase, a back phrase, and a combined phrase (zengo 2B, gogo 9B, and sõgo rB). These are meant to express hen’i, the Crooked; shõ’i, the Straight; and the combination of the two. Occasionally jakugo and teigo ÍB (“expression”) are used as a pair, jakugo signifying the shõ’i verse and teigo the hen’i verse. Instead of presenting a traditional jakugo to a kõan, a monk may also offer a betsugo ƒB (“alternate phrase”) or daigo ÖB (“substitute phrase”). All these terms refer to phrases and verses composed in the Chinese language. In addition, there are capping phrases in Japanese known as sego ›B, or “vernacular phrases.” Typically these are lines taken from Japanese tanka, haiku, and other traditional forms of Japanese verse. The Zenrin segoshð (Zen Vernacular Phrase Collection),1 a collection of Japanese verses suitable for use as capping phrases, has been compiled for this purpose. Sego assignments are relatively rare in comparison with jakugo assignments. Finally, there are heigo rB, which are “colloquial phrases” taken from ordinary spoken Japanese. I recall hearing a Zen r...

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