Facets of the life and teaching of Chan Master Yunmen Wenyan (864-949). (Volumes I and II)

This dissertation informs about the life and teaching of one of China's most prominent Chan masters, Yunmen Wenyan sk40 (jap. Ummon Bun'en, 864-949). As the founder of one of China's five Chan lineages or 'houses' (wujia sk30) Yunmen played an important role in Chan/Zen history. However, this dissertation does not investigate Yunmen's historical role and influence; rather, it constitutes the first book-length attempt to present the known facts about Yunmen's life and to throw light on some facets of his teaching.;Information about Yunmen's life stems from stone inscriptions and various other texts; the first chapter includes a concise biography of the Master based on a critical analysis of the most reliable biographical sources and a translation of the biographical part of the earliest stone inscription. The notes to this translation take all important biographical sources materials into account.;The major source for the investigation of Yunmen's teaching is a text in three volumes, the Extensive Records of Yunmen (Yunmen guanglu sk50). The history and structure of this text are analyzed in the second chapter. Although the oldest extant version of this text dates from 1267, early quotes as well as fragments of and commentaries to older texts indicate that the bulk of the extant text is likely to be a relatively trustworthy record of Yunmen's teaching.;In the third and fourth chapters many instructions by and conversations with the Master are translated and analyzed in a structured fashion. Analyses are given of the students' questions and of their core problem, of the way to overcome this problem, of the Master's teaching patterns and methods (with particular attention to questioning and challenge), of Yunmen's view of his own role as teacher, of the role of doubt and gongan sk35(jap. koan), of breakthrough, of non-daulistic freedom, and of the expression of awakening.