few koans over a lifetime, based on the notion that
resolving one koan is resolving them all.
In China, kanhuaChan became a standard for Chan
meditation soon after Dahui, even in the Caodong tra-
dition that Dahui had criticized. KanhuaChan con-
tinues to be important in Chinese Chan through the
twentieth century, although earlier types of medita-
tion, similar to silent illumination, are also considered
legitimate.
See also:Chan School; China; Japan; Korea; Medita-
tion
Bibliography
Bodiford, William M. SotoZen in Medieval Japan.Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
Buswell, Robert E., Jr. “The ‘Short-Cut’ Approach of K’an-Hua
Meditation: The Evolution of a Practical Subitism in Chi-
nese Ch’an Buddhism.” In Sudden and Gradual: Approaches
to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought,ed. Peter N. Gregory.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987.
Cleary, J. C., and Cleary, Thomas, trans. and eds. The Blue Cliff
Record.Boston: Shambhala, 1977.
Foulk, T. Griffith. “The Form and Function of Koan Literature:
A Historical Overview.” In The Koan: Texts and Contexts in
Zen Buddhism,ed. Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Hoffmann, Yoel, trans. and ed. The Sound of the One Hand: 281
Zen Koans with Answers.New York: Basic Books, 1975.
Hori, G. Victor Sogen. “Teaching and Learning in the Rinzai
Zen Monastery.” Journal of Japanese Studies20, no. 1 (1994):
5–35.
Hsieh, Ding-hwa Evelyn. “Yüan-Wu K’o-Ch’in’s (1063–1135)
Teaching of Ch’an Kung-anPractice: A Transition from Lit-
erary Study of Ch’an Kung-anto the Practical K’an-Hua
Ch’an.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist
Studies17, no. 1 (1994): 66–95.
Schlütter, Morten. “Silent Illumination, Kung-an Introspection,
and the Competition for Lay Patronage in Sung-Dynasty
Ch’an.” In Buddhism in the Sung,ed. Peter N. Gregory and
Daniel Getz. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999.
MORTENSCHLÜTTERKOBEN
Koben (Myoe; 1173–1232), a Japanese Shingon-Kegon
monk, embraced traditional Buddhist practices in re-
action to reformers like HONEN (1133–1212), who
founded the Pure Land school based on the rejection
of all practices except for the recitation of the name
of AMITABHABuddha. Orphaned at the age of eight,
Koben was raised by his uncle, a Buddhist priest, and
lived a life of study and practice in monasteries. In 1204
he was granted his own monastery, Kozanji, in the out-
skirts of Kyoto, and he spent the rest of his life there
and at his hometown in Wakayama prefecture, study-
ing, meditating, and writing.
Trained primarily as a Shingon monk, Koben re-
vived ritual practices and devised new ones for the pur-
pose of transforming doctrinal teachings into actual
experience and vision. He popularized Esoteric Bud-
dhist practices, such as the MANTRA of Radiance
(komyo shingon), which is still chanted widely today.
He was also a prolific poet and kept a diary of his med-
itative dreams over a period of forty years. Using po-
etry and meditation, Koben transfigured the world
around him into the idealized realm of his dreams, and
he even cut off his right ear to prove to himself that he
was not attached to this world.
His active imagination, however, did not prevent
him from exercising his critical faculties. Koben wrote
a lengthy, scathing attack to show that Honen’s exclu-
sive practice of recitation not only rejected traditional
Buddhism but also misrepresented the Pure Land tra-
dition. Koben is therefore remembered primarily as a
defender and reviver of traditional Buddhism and the
practice of RITUALand MEDITATION.See also:Japan; Pure Land BuddhismBibliography
Brock, Karen L. “My Reflection Should Be Your Keepsake:
Myoe’s Vision of the Kasuga Deity.” In Living Images: Japan-
ese Buddhist Icons in Context,ed. Robert E. Sharf and Eliza-
beth Horton Sharf. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,
2001.
Morrell, Robert E. Early Kamakura Buddhism: A Minority Re-
port.Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1987.
Tanabe, George J., Jr. Myoe the Dreamkeeper: Fantasy and
Knowledge in Early Kamakura Buddhism.Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1992.
GEORGEJ. TANABE, JR.KONJAKU MONOGATARIKonjaku monogatari(or Konjaku monogatarishu, Col-
lection of Tales Now Past) is a monumental collection
of popular stories (setsuwa), mostly emphasizingKONJAKU MONOGATARI