Urs APP: REFERENCE WORKS FOR CHAN RESEARCH
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This lexicon forms part of a miracle of the loaves and fishes in the realm of dictionaries. At the origin stands the Lexikon der östlichen Weisheitslehren (Fischer-Schreiber et al., 1986) which featured entries marked with "B" for Buddhism, "H" for Hinduism, "T" for Daoism, and "Z" for Zen. That lexicon was translated into English (published by Rider as well as Shambhala) and into French (published by Laffont). In 1991, Shambhala left out the "T" and "H" entries and published the result as Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen (Fischer-Schreiber et al., 1991). In 1992, the original German publisher went on publishing the "B" entries (Lexikon des Buddhismus. München: O.W. Barth Verlag, 1992) and the "Z" entries (the present lexicon) as separate books. The useful and detailed descriptions in fine print which followed the basic entries in the original Lexikon der östlic hen Weisheitslehren were regrettably omitted in this work, but the bibliography was brought up to date by Stephan Schuhmacher, one of the original editors. See under (Fischer-Schreiber et al., 1991) for an evaluation of the scope and quality of the entries marked "Zen."
This is the original encyclopedia. See Diener (1992) for the history of this encyclopedia and Fischer-Schreiber et al. (1991) for an evaluation of the entries marked "Zen."
English translation of the Lexikon der östlichen Weisheitslehren by Fischer-Schreiber et al. (1986). See Diener (1992) for the history of this encyclopedia, and Fischer-Schreiber et al. (1991) for an evaluation of the entries marked "Zen."
Identical except for the title with Fischer-Schreiber et al. (1989a).
French translation of Fischer-Schreiber et al. (1986). See Diener (1992) for the history of this encyclopedia, and Fischer-Schreiber et al. (1991) for an evaluation of the entries marked "Zen."
Reedition of parts of Fischer-Schreiber et al.'s encyclopedia (1989a); all entries marked "T" (Daoism) and "H" (Hinduism) were omitted. See Diener (1992) for the history of this encyclopedia.
The entries marked "Z" (Zen) --and these are the only ones discussed here -- include about 135 general Buddhist terms, about 300 specific Zen terms, a dozen general Japanese terms (such as "haiku" and "shinto"), information about 16 Buddhas and bodhisattvas, 24 Indian Zen patriarchs, 140 Chinese Chan masters, 35 Japanese Zen masters, one Korean Son master, 13 Chan texts, 20 Japanese Zen texts, and some sûtras and place names. The focus of this dictionary lies on present-day Japanese Zen pr actice, kôan collections, and figures appearing in them. Korean Son is practically ignored, and information on texts and other items of interest to students and scholars is very sparse. The author's conscious effort to discuss terms that a Western novice will encounter in a Zen monastic environment makes it much more useful in this respect than Inagaki's (1991) and Yokoi's (1991) works. The author seems just to describe what he is familiar with, and he does so in a very engaged fashion. Unfortunately, this does not quite add up to a "dictionary," but practitioners will find it quite useful. Many cross references, but antiquated Wade-Giles transcriptions for Chinese. The included bibliography is a careless rehash of the original German one; it contains many German titles, even if they were originally published in English.
This work by the wife of Eugen Herrigel is listed (without further information) on p. 14 (at the very back) of the 1964 supplement to Komazawa University's Shinsan zenseki mokuroku V[TΠΪ^.
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The author has spent long years in Japanese Zen monasteries and aims at conveying not only the sources of these sayings but also their usage in modern Zen training. This may finally become an alternative to Shigematsu's "translation" (1981).
ξ_vY. 1991. A Glossary of Zen Terms. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshôdô icΆΉ°.
This dictionary is produced much on the lines of Inagaki's earlier Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist Terms (Kyoto: Nagata Bunshôdô, 1988 [third ed. with supplement]). Includes seven appendices. Unfortunately, this glossary does not include a character-based index and thus favors users with a good grasp of Japanese readings of Chinese terms (kanbun). It was compiled by choosing names and terms from a narrow set of sources (essentially a few selected records of Chinese Zen masters, the f ive major kôan collections, and Dôgen's Shôbôgenzô). Coverage of Zen terms is thus very much dependent on their occurrence in these texts. As a consequence of this compilation method, even very common terms such as "sesshin"ΪSor "rôhatsu"δcͺor "zazen"ΏTare not included in this work... The approx. 5,000 entries of this glossary are not well chosen, and the quality of the entries is uneven. The information that one does find in this dictionary is generally reliable.All lookup phrases of this work are indexed in the IRIZ Zen dictionary tool
Includes a good number of entries on Zen, some of which also touch on Chan written by Western authorities such as Philip Yampolsky and Martin Collcutt.
Pioneering English scholarly work on Chan/Zen which furnishes high quality information on many Chan texts and masters. The bulk of the book is made up by a selection of translated Zen sayings (pp. 79 -122), a bibliography of important original and translated Zen texts (pp. 333 - 447) and many erudite notes (pp. 147 - 329) written by Mrs. Sasaki's research team that included Prof. Iriya, Prof. Yanagida, and Philip Yampolsky. The book was not conceived as a reference work, but for various reasons it grew into something close to it. Its coverage is rather spotty; but the depth and quality of the information it furnishes makes it an indispensable reference work for any Chan or Zen researcher.All Chinese characters (person names, phrases, place names, book titles, etc.) contained in the main text and notes (pp. 79-329) of this work are indexed in the IRIZ Zen dictionary tool
- Shigematsu, Sôiku. 1981. A Zen Forest.. Sayings of the Masters. New York / Tokyo: Weatherhill.
This is supposedly a translation of the Zenrin kushûTΡεWcollection of sayings and poetry lines. Many have deplored the almost total absence of annotation and the questionable quality not only of the English but also of the translation itself by an author who appears to lack knowledge of classical Chinese. See Hori (work in progress) for an attempt at something better. In Japanese, Iriya and Sanae (work in progress) will soon publish an authoritative annotated translation . Shigematsu has also published a translation of the Japanese haiku, dodoitsu and waka poems contained in the Zenrin segoshûTΡ’κWunder the title A Zen Harvest (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1988)- Velte, Herbert. 1985. Budo-Weisheiten und kleines Zen-Lexikon. Bad Homburg: Velte.
- Wood, Ernest. 1957. Zen Dictionary. Harmondsworth/New York: Penguin.
Though out of date in much of its historical information, this slim (127 pp.) volume is surprisingly informative in some matters. The author, who spent much of his life in India and died in 1965, was much influenced by D.T. Suzuki's translations and analyses and R.H. Blyth's works. Some of Wood's discussions of Zen masters, their teaching, and certain terms are worth reading (for example one full page each about karma, prajna, and seer-seen). However, the narrow coverage, inconsistent spellings (sometimes Japanese, sometimes Chinese, sometimes Sanskrit), and a general unevenness make this book hardly useful as a dictionary.- Yokoi, Yûhô
‘δYυ. 1991. The Japanese-English Zen Buddhist DictionaryϊpβWκηT. Tokyo: Sankibô Buddhist Bookstore.The approx. 10,000 entries of this work contain a mixed bag of names of famous masters, titles of Zen texts, kôans, Zen terms, place names, objects used in Zen monasteries, functions of monks, Chinese particles, etc. Though the author used Fukami Yôgen's Zenshû jiten (see below) and the Zengaku daijiten (see below) as his main sources, many famous terms, texts, and persons are not included here. Numerous wrong spellings, cryptic or wrong references, and strange English further diminish the value of this work. Many references to source texts are nowhere explained. Includes indices of Chinese characters arranged by stroke number, Sanskrit terms, and a Wade-style index to some Chinese person, place, and text names.All lookup phrases of this work are indexed in the IRIZ Zen dictionary tool