| Chinese simplified: |
| Chinese pinyin: |
| Japanese romaji: |
| English: |
| oshobob The Living Workshop |
| Zen Books--original Chinese |
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| Blue Cliff Record |
| Biyan Lu |
| Hekigan Roku |
| 碧岩录 |
| The Blue Cliff Record is a well known Chinese Chan (Zen) collection of anecdotes, commentaries, and verses. It was compiled at the end of the Song Dynasty, going through a number of revisions to reach its final form. A Zen poet, considered a master in his own right according to the literature, Xuedou Chongxian (Jap., Setcho Juken) 980-1052, collected about 100 known Zen stories, added his own verses to each, and had it all written down in Chinese characters. About a hundred years later, another Zen master, Yuanwu Keqin (Jap., Engo Kokugan), 1063-1135, added his prose commentaries to Xuedou's book, and this was eventually printed, becoming known as the Blue Cliff Record. The actual "Blue Cliff" where these stories were collected is located on Jiashan Mountain, in present day Hunan Province, China. A number of English translations exist of this important Zen work, including Katsuki Sekida's effort, published in the book Two Zen Classics (1977). This is only a partial translation, leaving out much of the original. Also worth noting is that this is the text that is used extensively by Osho in his commentaries on the Zen masters given the last two years of his public discourses in Pune, India. As this translation of the Blue Cliff Record was done by a Japanese Zen adept from the original Chinese, the names in the stories are all transcribed using the Japanese romaji system. This is probably the primary reason that the misconception exists that these were stories from Japan of Japanese Zen masters, when in fact, they were all Chinese Chan masters from China. A more recent, and complete English translation of the Blue Cliff Record, using Chinese pinyin throughout the book, has been done by the American translator Thomas Cleary, Blue Cliff Record (1998). The enigmatic Cleary is probably the most prolific translator of Chinese Zen/Buddhist/Daoist texts alive today--his output is enormous. Interestingly too, his brother, J.C. Cleary is the man who translated the 12th century Chinese Zen master Dahui's writings, under the title Swampland Flowers, which was used in its entirety by Osho for his extraordinary series of talks entitled The Great Zen Master Ta Hui. |