Home > Activities > "Rediscovering Chinese Scholastic Chan in Edo Japan," talk by George Keyworth

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"Rediscovering Chinese Scholastic Chan in Edo Japan," talk by George Keyworth

A Numata Colloquium Series Talk

Wednesday, February 20, 2013
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
243 Royce Hall, UCLA

This talk explores how and why particular Japanese Zen monastics reevaluated the transmission narrative of Chinese Chan and especially the case of scholastic or literary Chan/Zen (Ch. wenzi Chan, Jpn. moji Zen) to show that when Zen thrives as a teaching, it has everything to do with the arts, and that when Zen degenerates it ignores them.

Dr. Keyworth (B.A. UCSB 1992; M.A. UCSB 1995; Ph.D. UCLA 2001) is a scholar of Zen Buddhism in medieval China and Japan; Buddhist and Daoist rituals and spells; and esoteric Buddhism in East Asia and Tibet.  Currently an Assistant Professor of East Asian Religions at the University of Saskatchewan, he has contributed to Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras (E.J. Brill, 2011) and submitted several recent articles for publication on topics including the Spell of the White Canopy of the Buddha’s Sinciput (Ch. Baisangai foding zhou, Jpn. Byakusangai bucchōshu, Skt. Sitātapatra-buddhôṣṇīṣa-dhāraṇī) from the Chinese *Śūraṃgama-sūtra (T. 945), and the Japanese monk-pilgrim Jōjin (1011-1081). His book manuscript, Zen and the Literary Arts, is currently under review with Oxford University Press.

Cost: Free and open to the public

Download File: Keyworth-flyer-CBS-j4-hcy.pdf