Book of Serenity (Cóngróng Lù)

Text

Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157) selected and versed 100 kōans; a generation later Wansong Xingxiu added prose commentary, producing the Caodong/Sōtō counterpart to the Blue Cliff Record. The collection emphasises silent illumination (mòzhào) and the subtle dialectic of Caodong rather than dramatic encounter, and circulates today as the standard kōan curriculum on the Sōtō side of the lineage.

tr. Thomas Cleary, Book of Serenity: One Hundred Zen Dialogues, Lindisfarne Press 1990

license: fair_use

Original language

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Hongzhi Zhengjue

Lineage: Caodong

By Hongzhi Zhengjue

• In Silence, In Clarityproverb
• Silent Illuminationsermon
• Silent Illuminationproverb
• Empty Fieldproverb
• Wide Pond, Single Reedproverb

Sources

• contentZen Buddhism: A History, Volume 1 — India and China

  Heinrich Dumoulin (trans. James W. Heisig & Paul Knitter)

  Volume 1, chapter on Hongzhi Zhengjue

  Hongzhi Zhengjue's 100 verses on classical kōans, with Wansong's commentary, became the Cóngróng Lù — the Caodong school's parallel to the Blue Cliff Record.