La compréhension historique : Les récits de transmission du bouddhisme Ch'an et l'historiographie moderne
Metadatas
1993
Copyright PERSEE 2003-2024. Works reproduced on the PERSEE website are protected by the general rules of the Code of Intellectual Property. For strictly private, scientific or teaching purposes excluding all commercial use, reproduction and communication to the public of this document is permitted on condition that its origin and copyright are clearly mentionned.
Similar subjects
Handwriting Chirography UnderstandingCite this document
Dale Wright et al., « La compréhension historique : Les récits de transmission du bouddhisme Ch'an et l'historiographie moderne », Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie (documents), ID : 10.3406/asie.1993.1062
Metrics
Share / Export
Abstract
This paper analyzes the kind of historical understanding presupposed in the writing of classical Chinese Ch'an Buddhist "transmission" narratives and places this historical understanding into comparative juxtaposition with modern Western historiographic practice. It finds that fundamental to Chinese Ch'an historical awareness are genealogical metaphors structuring historical time and meaning in terms of generations of family relations and the practices of inheritance. These metaphors link the Ch'an historian to the texts of historical study in ways that contrast with the posture of modern historians. The essay outlines four basic differences between the self-understanding presupposed in Ch'an Buddhist historical writing and that assumed in modern historical research and concludes by suggesting how contemporary historical thinking might benefit from reflecting on these differences.
