The Poetry Demon: Song-Dynasty Monks on Verse and the Way

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Notes

1. Protass, ‘The Flavors of Monks’ Poetry.’

2. See, for example, the Jiaqing Emperor’s exclusion of gāthās and incantations from Quan Tang wen 全唐文 ‘in order to prevent the spread of harm and rectify people’s minds’ (以防流弊, 以正人心) in his 1814 preface to the work.

3. I list many examples of this in the introduction to my book, for which see Mazanec, Poet-Monks, 4–6. The disciplinary division between Buddhist Studies, Literary Studies and Philosophy has led to a similar lack of integrated studies in another corner of the academy, on which see Stepien, ‘Introduction.’

4. Tsung-Cheng Lin’s annotated bibliographies of scholarship on Ming poetry published in February 2023, for example, make no mention of Liao Chao-heng’s 廖肇亨 many studies of monastic poetry during this period. See Lin, ‘Ming Poetry 1368–1521’ and idem, ‘Ming Poetry 1522–1644.’

5. For example, the introduction to a recent anthology by Wu Yansheng, which promises that its readers ‘will transcend time and space and enter the spiritual world of the enlightened … Anxiety will be dispelled, your spirit will aspire to the sublime and your soul will be purified, allowing you to live in this world as a poet.’ See Wu, Power of Enlightenment, 1–2.

6. Protass and I have remarked on many highlights of this turn in January 2023, in our co-authored ‘Buddhist Poetry of China.’

7. Hsiao, ed., Zhongguo fojiao wenxue shi, vol. 1, appeared in late 2021, while Liao, ed., Zhongguo fojiao wenxue shi vol. 2, appeared in summer 2023.

8. Quan Tang shi, 168.1731.

9. Quan Tang shi, 608.7016–18.

10. Quan Tang shi, 748.8522.

11. This point would have been further strengthened by referring to the essay on ‘Yixue’ 異學 [Other Learning] by the Tang monk Shenqing 神清 in his essay collection Beishan lu 北山錄 [North Mountain Record], which was republished (with new commentaries) and widely read in the Song. On this text and its place in Song Buddhist debates, see Wong, ‘The Mid-Tang Scholar-Monk Shenqing and His Beishan lu.’