The Sociology of Philosophies

not only revived but, at the hands of Wang Pi, Kuo Hsiang, and others, pushed in the direction of both epistemology and metaphys ...

ficient level of generality. But it is hardly an aboriginal or eternal item of Chinese culture. Its classic statement, the appen ...

matter of declining material supports for intellectual life; the fall of the great dynasties with their material wealth is corre ...

dieval Europe, too, the universities are a two-edged sword: centers of creativity during their early periods, associated with a ...

CHAPTER 7 £ Innovation through Conservatism: Japan Religions generally look backwards to the sacredness of past tradition. But r ...

Japanese philosophy in the centuries up through about 1300 directly con- tinued Chinese networks; all the major Chinese Buddhist ...

through a “Renaissance” period when the wealthy clerical elite secularized from within, turning most of its attention to artisti ...

of creativity coincides with the major institutional break, the transition from the Heian court rule to Kamakura feudalism. Afte ...

religious or otherwise. In what follows I shall be concerned to show why surrounding conditions did not stir up another wave of ...

cult could be used as a weapon whenever a major challenge to de facto authority was mounted. The upsurges of Shinto ideology cor ...

FIGURE 7.1. NETWORK OF JAPANESE PHILOSOPHERS, 600–1100: FOUNDING OF TENDAI AND SHINGON 328 • (^) Intellectual Communities: Asian ...

there was no longer much autonomy left for internal networks of intellectual argument and creativity. The content of Buddhism be ...

of the ever-dividing imperial kin eventually mobilized them for battles over the center. In 1180–1185 full-scale civil war resul ...

insufficient against professional warriors. The old lines of religious-political power were disrupted; their provision of ritual ...

Zen as Conservative Innovation The outburst of Zen lineages occurred in the same generations as the radical Pure Land movements, ...

without creative figures. Within Rinzai, one line absorbed all other schools, and by the Ming dynasty, Soto as well. In the Ming ...

FIGURE 7.2. EXPANSION OF PURE LAND AND ZEN, 1100–1400 ...

Chinese Lin-chi (Rinzai) line, soon produced a number of figures of at least secondary fame. Among them, Enni Ben’en was instrum ...

gen’s intention. Dogen’s position in the 1230s had been moderate and even included some koan teaching; but after Enni returned f ...

and ideologically, however, Dogen launched a successful new trajectory for Zen. He consummated the shift from Zen syncretism to ...