The Golden Age of Zen: Zen Masters of the T'ang Dynasty

by John C.H. Wu, Jingxiong Wu, Kenneth Kraft (Foreword by)

A classic, examining the history of the great Chinese Zen masters of the 7th through 10th century.

Genres: Buddhism, Zen, Spirituality

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

John went by the name of Wu Ching-hsiung until his conversion, when he was baptized John.

Graduating with honors from the Suzhou Comparative Law School of China in Shanghai, in 1920, Mr. Wu went to the University of Michigan Law School, where he received the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1921. Later he did graduate work at the Sorbonne, the University of Berlin and Harvard University Law School. He maintained a correspondence with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., from his time as a student, and later produced scholarly work examining Holmes' legal thought.

He has honorary degrees from Boston College, St. John's University and the University of Portland.

Previously a Methodist, he was a convert to Roman Catholicism after reading Thérèse of Lisieux's biography.

Wu served as an adviser in the Chinese delegation to the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco and served as the Chinese ambassador to the Vatican in 1947-49. In 1957, Wu was appointed a judge of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague. After the Chinese Communist Revolution, Wu worked as a professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law in New Jersey until retiring to Taiwan in 1967.

Reviews

[Jessica Zu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an ok book but with such a naive and romantic understanding of Chan. I don't think it helped much in terms of understanding Chan. Mostly it is propagating the romanticized image of Chan, so maybe is even harmful for people who wants to understand. Yet, it's a good book to read if you keep a critical mind and NOT falling for the rosy images.

[Rahul Karn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good to know about many Zen Masters of old, but not through this book. This book is written with a very biased view. The basic idea of Zen is to look at the world with awareness without bringing any philosophy in between. But the author is so biased towards Christianity, that he keeps on bringing Christianity every now and then. In the book he has many times said about the stories related to Bodhidharma and few others that they are legends (without any basis). But in the whole book, he never says that many stories of Jesus Christ are also legends. He cannot say.
Another thing is he is too biased towards Hui Neng, the sixth patriarch of Zen.
When one writes on Zen, one should be unbiased and try to do justice to Zen without bringing his own doctrines in between. The author has clearly failed in his endeavour.
What is good about the book is that it talks about many Zen masters and their anecdotes, which is of course helpful for any interested student of Zen. He has brought materials from different sources, that too is commendable.

[Adam Zuwerink · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone without a background in ancient Chinese history and geography, I found this book incredibly hard to penetrate. Because the author does not make an attempt to place the Zen patriarchs in their larger historical context, and does not provide a map of their locations relative to each other, all I really got out of the book is that a bunch of Zen Buddhist monks used to go around insulting and slapping each other a lot.

[Bankim · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the cha'n masters of china during the T'ang period (618-906)
are adequately covered here.One chapter for each master.Historical,biographical and doctrinal facts as well as legends are woven together in a very readable and light hearted narrative.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zen’s father is Buddhism, its mother is Taoism, and it looks most like its mother.

Found it through Merton, who also wrote an intro chapter. Merton spoke, and Wu says the same, that Zen is about the essence and feel whole dogmatics and answers relate to western mind.

[Pablo Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an easy book

Yes is not an easy book. Chinese philosophy as simple as may seem is very deep for westerners readers and scholar

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important work on the great lineages, masters, and important early history of Chinese Ch'an - Zen.

[Cobramor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too Christian centered, but ok

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

这本书介绍了历史上十余位禅宗大师，用他们的故事和理念串联起了禅宗的发展历史。让我看到禅宗不是一个很高深莫测、冰冷严肃的事情。在禅宗的眼里。看似普通的人也可能比修行多年的僧人更接近佛性，所以即使是平凡人也无需妄自菲薄，或者寄希望于必须得到某位大师的点拨。

当然也有很多故事和对话我觉得很无厘头，看不太懂为什么禅师说了某句话对方就开悟了之类的。不过瑕不掩瑜，是很有趣的禅宗入门书。

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 'text' for my Introduction to Zen class.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best texts on classic Zen that you can grab.