| The Chanlin (Chan Grove) category of collected remarks on poetry is a section of the Qing dynasty literary great Wang Shizhen's (1634--1711) collected remarks on poetry, the Daijingtang shihua (1760). The "Chan Grove" is the world of Chan Buddhist monks, and the Chanlin category of remarks includes twenty-eight entries by Wang on poetry by Chan monks or by lay persons affiliated with Chan Buddhism. The Discussion first explores the nature of Chan (Zen) Buddhism and its reflection in Chan-inspired poetry, after which it analyses the relationship between Wang Shizhen's shenyun (spirit resonance) poetic theory and his interest in Chan Buddhism. Next, the contents of the Chanlin category of remarks is analysed in terms of how the entries increase our understanding of what shenyun means, and, finally, it concludes that although Chan was one of Wang's major inspirations, his poetics was much broader in scope and more secular in interest. The annotated translation of the Chan Grove category of remarks presented here is the first into any Western language; as such, it should make a major contribution to the field of pre-modern Chinese poetry and poetics. |
