Enlightenment in Dispute

Enlightenment in Dispute is the first comprehensive study of the revival of Chan Buddhism in seventeenth-century China. Focusing on the evolution of a series of controversies about Chan enlightenment, Jiang Wu describes the process by which Chan reemerged as the most prominent Buddhist establishment of the time. He argues that the revival of Chan Buddhism depended upon reinventions of previous Chan ideals, which had been largely lost after the Song dynasty. Wu investigates the development of Chan Buddhism in the seventeenth century through the lens of a series of controversies involving such issues as correct practice and questions of lineage and lines of transmission. Through them, he shows how the Chan revival reshaped Chinese Buddhism in late imperial China and resonates in modern Chinese Buddhism. Situating the controversies and the rise of Chan Buddhism in the historical background of the Ming-Qing transition, Wu points out that the rise and fall of Chan Buddhism was conditioned by the transformation of Chinese culture and society.
By examining the role of textual practice and the implication of dharma transmission in rebuilding Chan institutions, Wu argues that the Chan revival was actively coordinated to coincide with the transformation of Chinese culture and society. His study concludes by bringing the Chan revival to a larger historical context and reflecting on its legacies, ultimately establishing a general pattern of past Buddhist revivals.