What is this?

This website aims to publish daily, original translations of the Classical Chinese phrases that form the basis of the 'Zen Grove Handbook', Zenrin Kushu (ZRKS). The ZRKS is a crucial text in the 臨濟宗 Rinzai (Linji) school of Japanese Buddhism: it represents the cannon of Classical Chinese poems, puzzles, and epigrams used in conjunction with Rinzai's koan practice. The ZRKS was compiled by Zenkei Shibayama and translated into Japanese early in the last century.

I am working from Zenrin Chido Robert E. Lewis superb 'Zen Grove Handbook', which was published by the Zen Studies Society Press in 1980. The book is excellent, and simply a beautiful volume, with a marvellous appendix, lovely character printing, and several reproductions of caligraphy. I strongly encourage you buy the volume at: http://www.jaxzensangha.org/publications.php

The Japanese "reading"-translations, which I am posting alongside the Chinese, are those of Zenkei Shibayama; they are featured followed by Zenrin Lewis' translation and the commentary of Shimano Eido Roshi. I have abbreviated Zenrin Lewis' impressive syntactical commentary apparatus - if you want to know how he arrives at the readings he does, or how to rephrase the Kanbun syntax into modern Japanese, you'll have to buy his book.

I want to be clear about something: this is a translation of the Chinese phrases, which have existed for centuries. Because Zenrin Lewis' book is recommended as a Reader, I feel comfortable rendering both Zenrin Lewis and Eido Roshi's words together online in that they function as simultaneous translation-commentaries of a text that both resists and strongly invites translation that is also commentary. That said, I will be glad to modify or replace the use of quotations if the Society requests.

I have several objectives with this site.

(1) To keep up my Guwen, and maybe learn some kanbun in the process. If there is enough interest in Korean or Vietnamese romanizations in addition to the Chinese and Japanese, I will consider posting these also.

(2) To get better at working with non-Roman character sets online.

(3) To improve my daily Zen practice and generate merit.

Though, starting next week (I need some time to get the appropriate references together), I will posting translations in order of there listing in the ZRKS, I have chosen a particular jakugo which seemed a good note on which to begin this kind of translation. It is number 5.126.

知 恩 方 解 報 恩

Chinese: zhi(1) en(1) fang(4) jia(1) bao(4) en(1)

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To know your debts is to repay them.
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Shibayama Roshi has: On-o shi-te masa-ni on-o hozen-koto-o gesu
Zenrin Lewis has: “Be aware / of your debt of gratitude / to see how to repay it.”
Eido Roshi Comments: "If you know being really grateful, you won’t fail to requite the gift of it."