Ancestors, authority, and history: Chan lineage in the writings of Qisong (1007--1072)

This dissertation is a study of religious lineage in Chinese Chan Buddhism, focusing on the writings of the Chan dharma heir Qisong (1007--1072). In Chapter One, I trace the process by which lineage emerged in Chinese Buddhism, showing that it was not a simple and automatic rejection of sastras and then sutras in favor of patriarchs. Rather, the notion of lineage arose in fits and starts as a supplement to or even justification of the transmission of texts and textual knowledge. In Chapter Two, I explore how lineage, while effectively bypassing traditional forms of Indian Buddhist authority, claims transmission from Indian figures. I argue that lineage may be a significant Chinese response to the fundamental Buddhist dilemma of the absence of the Buddha and the decline of the dharma. Chan patriarchs may be seen as the emphatic affirmation of some Chinese Buddhists that the dharma has been preserved and enlightenment is possible. In Chapters Three and Four, I recount Qisong's life and demonstrate that the view of him as either a mild-mannered "Confucian monk" or a history-distorting sectarian zealot is unfounded. From Qisong's own language, it is clear that he regarded all of his activities, including an energetic letter-writing campaign to have his works on Chan history accepted at court, as the promotion and defense of true religion. In Chapter Five, I offer a close reading of Qisong's Chuanfa zhengzong lun, the historiographical essay accompanying his main historical work, the Chuanfa zhengzong ji, attempting to demonstrate the creative, sometimes historically casuistic, approach Qisong took to reconstructing Chan lineage from a wide range of sources. With Qisong, lineage became a direct object of discussion, and in Chapter Six, I present his understanding of lineage as the core of the Buddhist tradition. I also lay out Qisong's vision of Buddhist history in relation to lineage. In the Conclusion, I pursue these historiographical questions and find that Qisong brought Buddhist and Chinese patterns of history together into a grand narrative of perpetual preservation of the dharma transmission in a world wracked by misunderstanding.