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Review: [untitled]

Author(s): T. Griffith FoulkSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 114, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1994), pp. 487-489Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/605107 .

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Reviews of Bookseviews of Books

But in the first, the genitive is clearly linked with the preced-

ing noun, and in the second, with the following. The double

senses he speaks of should rather be explained by suppletionthan by a kind of slesa or play on meaning.

Treatment of thesyntax (or any feature)

of aspecial

text

calls for the linguist to relate the features properto the text to

features of the language in general (or a recognized subset of

it). Aklujkarwould have done better to focus more narrowlyon any one of the several features he discusses, trim his

examples more closely and compare them more carefully to

examples in other texts. The evidence he cites fails to estab-

lish that the Vrtti has a distinctive style and fails to make

known previously unknown features characteristic of exposi-

tory prose.In contrast, Jamison's Syntax of direct speech in Vedic

(pp. 95-112) admirablydemonstrates the value for the studyof the Vedic language as a whole, of isolating smaller corpora

of stylistically unified discourse and examining their proper-ties (p. 108). She shows the prevalence of a hitherto unno-

ticed distinction in the use of the particles eva and vai in

mythological direct speech versus in narrative prose. Simi-

larly, Bubenik's Nominal and Pronominalobjects in Sanskrit

and Prakrit (pp. 19-30) shows that analysis of word order

must take into account both the genre of the literature and the

function of the expression.I cannot discuss all the papers included in this volume.

However, let me at least mention the high-point of the book,

Klein's excellent paper, Syntactic and discourse correlates of

verb-initial sentences in the Rigveda (pp. 123-43). He iden-

tifies eight aspects of the surroundingdiscourse structurethatare correlated with the fronting of verbs, including contexts

for the use of the imperative, rhetorical repetition, juxtaposi-tion of sentence-initial verb with sentence-final, correlation

between an event referred to in the hymn and an action in the

yajia, introduction of a quotation, abrupttransition, etc. He

supplies an exact description of the characteristics and extent

of his large sample, precise statistics concerning each corre-

late identified, and ample examples to round off his thoroughtreatment of the topic.

Given what Hock notes in his introduction, that contribu-

tions to the study of Sanskrit syntax published in different

journals and presented at very different professional meetingsare often unnoticed or inaccessible to others working in the

area, the current volume is a welcomed and useful collection.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cardona,George. 1988. Pdnini: His Workand its Traditions,vol. 1: Background and Introduction. Delhi: Motilal Ba-

narsidass.

Coulson, Michael. 1976. Sanskrit: An Introduction to the

Classical Language. Kent: Hodder and Stoughton.

But in the first, the genitive is clearly linked with the preced-

ing noun, and in the second, with the following. The double

senses he speaks of should rather be explained by suppletionthan by a kind of slesa or play on meaning.

Treatment of thesyntax (or any feature)

of aspecial

text

calls for the linguist to relate the features properto the text to

features of the language in general (or a recognized subset of

it). Aklujkarwould have done better to focus more narrowlyon any one of the several features he discusses, trim his

examples more closely and compare them more carefully to

examples in other texts. The evidence he cites fails to estab-

lish that the Vrtti has a distinctive style and fails to make

known previously unknown features characteristic of exposi-

tory prose.In contrast, Jamison's Syntax of direct speech in Vedic

(pp. 95-112) admirablydemonstrates the value for the studyof the Vedic language as a whole, of isolating smaller corpora

of stylistically unified discourse and examining their proper-ties (p. 108). She shows the prevalence of a hitherto unno-

ticed distinction in the use of the particles eva and vai in

mythological direct speech versus in narrative prose. Simi-

larly, Bubenik's Nominal and Pronominalobjects in Sanskrit

and Prakrit (pp. 19-30) shows that analysis of word order

must take into account both the genre of the literature and the

function of the expression.I cannot discuss all the papers included in this volume.

However, let me at least mention the high-point of the book,

Klein's excellent paper, Syntactic and discourse correlates of

verb-initial sentences in the Rigveda (pp. 123-43). He iden-

tifies eight aspects of the surroundingdiscourse structurethatare correlated with the fronting of verbs, including contexts

for the use of the imperative, rhetorical repetition, juxtaposi-tion of sentence-initial verb with sentence-final, correlation

between an event referred to in the hymn and an action in the

yajia, introduction of a quotation, abrupttransition, etc. He

supplies an exact description of the characteristics and extent

of his large sample, precise statistics concerning each corre-

late identified, and ample examples to round off his thoroughtreatment of the topic.

Given what Hock notes in his introduction, that contribu-

tions to the study of Sanskrit syntax published in different

journals and presented at very different professional meetingsare often unnoticed or inaccessible to others working in the

area, the current volume is a welcomed and useful collection.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cardona,George. 1988. Pdnini: His Workand its Traditions,vol. 1: Background and Introduction. Delhi: Motilal Ba-

narsidass.

Coulson, Michael. 1976. Sanskrit: An Introduction to the

Classical Language. Kent: Hodder and Stoughton.

Sharma,Rama Nath. 1987. The Astddhyiyl of Panini, vol. 1:

Introduction to the Astadhyiyi as a GrammaticalDevice.

New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.

Shastri, CharuDeva. 1990. Panini Re-Interpreted.Delhi: Mo-

tilal Banarsidass.

Whitney, William Dwight. 1924. Sanskrit Grammar, 5th ed.

Leipzig. [Ist ed., 1879].

PETER M. SCHARF

BROWN UNIVERSITY

Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. By PETERN.

GREGORY.rinceton: PRINCETONNIVERSITYRESS,1991.

Pp. 368. $49.50.

This comprehensive, meticulously researched study of the

life and thought of the scholar monk Kuei-feng Tsung-mi

(780-841) shines a well-deserved spotlight on a multi-faceted

thinker who was, by any standard,a major player on the intel-

lectual stage in medieval China. In doing so, the book also il-

luminates the social, political, and religious contexts in which

Tsung-mi's writings were produced and shows how his work

representedan adaptationof Buddhist doctrines and practicesto the Chinese cultural milieu.

Previousresearch on Tsung-mi,most of it publishedin Japa-

nese, has focused largely on his role as a historian who chron-

icled the lineages of early Ch'an(Zen) andchampionedhis ownline of filiation (the Ho-tse branchof the southern ineage of

Ch'an)as the best. Considerableattention has also been paid to

Tsung-mi'scontribution o the Hua-yen(Kegon)tradition,which

subsequentlyclaimed him as its fifth patriarch. Author Peter

Gregory s very well versedin the Japanesescholarshipanduses

it to good advantage.He is not takenin, however,by its simplis-tic caricatureof Tsung-mi as a syncretist who tried to bridgethe gap between Ch'an(characterizedas a mind-to-mind rans-

mission of enlightenment)and the textually based teachingsof exegetical traditionssuch as Hua-yen. Gregory'selucidation

of the complex philosophical, ethical, and social considerations

thatinfluencedTsung-mi's

ntellectualproject

is both broader n

scope and morenuanced than the accountsfound in most previ-ous studies.

Thebook is dividedinto fourparts.Partone, entitled Tsung-mi's Life, collates autobiographicaldata gleaned from Tsung-mi's own writings, references to the monk found in other con-

temporaneousdocuments,and formalaccountsof his life givenin laterChinese biographies.Gregorybracketsthe hagiographi-cal elements and normative udgmentsthatarefoundin both the

classical Chinese and modern Japanesebiographies of Tsung-mi and declines to engage in the gratuitous psychologizing

Sharma,Rama Nath. 1987. The Astddhyiyl of Panini, vol. 1:

Introduction to the Astadhyiyi as a GrammaticalDevice.

New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.

Shastri, CharuDeva. 1990. Panini Re-Interpreted.Delhi: Mo-

tilal Banarsidass.

Whitney, William Dwight. 1924. Sanskrit Grammar, 5th ed.

Leipzig. [Ist ed., 1879].

PETER M. SCHARF

BROWN UNIVERSITY

Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. By PETERN.

GREGORY.rinceton: PRINCETONNIVERSITYRESS,1991.

Pp. 368. $49.50.

This comprehensive, meticulously researched study of the

life and thought of the scholar monk Kuei-feng Tsung-mi

(780-841) shines a well-deserved spotlight on a multi-faceted

thinker who was, by any standard,a major player on the intel-

lectual stage in medieval China. In doing so, the book also il-

luminates the social, political, and religious contexts in which

Tsung-mi's writings were produced and shows how his work

representedan adaptationof Buddhist doctrines and practicesto the Chinese cultural milieu.

Previousresearch on Tsung-mi,most of it publishedin Japa-

nese, has focused largely on his role as a historian who chron-

icled the lineages of early Ch'an(Zen) andchampionedhis ownline of filiation (the Ho-tse branchof the southern ineage of

Ch'an)as the best. Considerableattention has also been paid to

Tsung-mi'scontribution o the Hua-yen(Kegon)tradition,which

subsequentlyclaimed him as its fifth patriarch. Author Peter

Gregory s very well versedin the Japanesescholarshipanduses

it to good advantage.He is not takenin, however,by its simplis-tic caricatureof Tsung-mi as a syncretist who tried to bridgethe gap between Ch'an(characterizedas a mind-to-mind rans-

mission of enlightenment)and the textually based teachingsof exegetical traditionssuch as Hua-yen. Gregory'selucidation

of the complex philosophical, ethical, and social considerations

thatinfluencedTsung-mi's

ntellectualproject

is both broader n

scope and morenuanced than the accountsfound in most previ-ous studies.

Thebook is dividedinto fourparts.Partone, entitled Tsung-mi's Life, collates autobiographicaldata gleaned from Tsung-mi's own writings, references to the monk found in other con-

temporaneousdocuments,and formalaccountsof his life givenin laterChinese biographies.Gregorybracketsthe hagiographi-cal elements and normative udgmentsthatarefoundin both the

classical Chinese and modern Japanesebiographies of Tsung-mi and declines to engage in the gratuitous psychologizing

48787

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.3 (1994)

sometimes found in moder Western biographies of religious

figures.The result is a thoroughandjudicious recountingof the

historical evidence: a biography of Tsung-mi which, though

sparse,comes as close as possible to attainingthe ideals of ob-

jectivityand

reliability. Gregorytakes

specialcare to

presentthe

evidence for Tsung-mi's classical Confucian education as a

youth and to documenthis subsequent nteractionswith various

Buddhistteachers, scholar-officials,andpolitical figures.He also

describes the monastic centers and traditionsof Buddhistprac-

tice in Tsung-mi'snative Szechwan that the monk knew most in-

timately. Partone thus provides a social and historical context

for the interpretationof Tsung-mi'sthoughtin the remainderof

the book.

Part two comprises four chapters on Doctrinal Classifica-

tion (p'an-chiao), which is widely regardedby scholars todayas one of the most distinctive features of medieval Chinese

Buddhistthought. Gregory'sprimaryaim is to elucidate Tsung-

mi's p'an-chiao scheme, but his treatment of its antecedents isso thoroughgoing that part two could stand alone as a mono-

graphon the backgroundand progressive development of doc-

trinal classification in the Hua-yen tradition.Gregory carefully

details the various ways in which Tsung-mi's p'an-chiao

differed from those of his Hua-yen predecessors, most notably

Chih-yen (602-68) and Fa-tsang(643-712). His main thesis is

that Tsung-mi's formulation was essentially soteriological in

intent: it mapped out stages of understandingon the path to

Buddhahood. EarlierHua-yen thinkers,in contrast,were either

preoccupied with the hermeneuticalproblem of how to recon-

cile the apparentcontradictions between different sfitras that

were all presumed to be the word of the Buddha, or intent onproving, for sectarianpurposes, the superiorityof the Hua-yenSutra. Gregory concludes that Tsung-mi's concern with soteri-

ology reflected the influence of Ch'an on Chinese Buddhism in

the eighth and early ninth centuries, and that it representeda

radical shift in Hua-yen hermeneutics.

Part three, entitled The Ground of Practice, contains the

most ambitious and potentially controversial chapters in the

book. It begins by outlining what Gregory refers to as Tsung-mi's cosmogonic map. This is a five-stage diagramof the pro-cess of phenomenalevolution throughwhich: (1) the ultimate

groundof being-identified with the one mind of perfect en-

lightenment, the true dharmadhdtu,and the tathdgatagarbha

(2) divided againstitself and producedan aspect of mind that is

subject to birth-and-deathas well as one that is unconditioned

and unchanging, (3) allowed a differentiation in the mind of

birth-and-deathbetween the (relative and conditioned) states of

enlightenmentand delusion, (4) producedin the deluded mind

a false sense of separation between a perceiving subject and

perceived objects, and (5) gave rise in that framework to

(a) mental discrimination, (b) awareness of pleasure and pain,(c) attachment,(d) conceptual elaboration,(e) activity (karma)

based on such attachments and concepts, and finally (f) the

suffering of karmic bondage in which ordinary beings find

themselves. Gregory calls this schematic diagramof the etiol-

ogy of deluded sentient existence a cosmogony because it is

a theory regardingthe birth or creation of the universe or a

descriptionof the original order of the universe (p. 175, n. 5).

InTsung-mi's view,

each of thestages

in theprocess

ofphe-nomenal evolution could be countered and undone by bringing

to bear a particular et of Buddhist doctrinesandpractices,thus

reversing the process in a systematic manner and enabling one

eventually to move from the state of sufferingin karmicbond-

age (stage 5) backwards o a realization of the original state

of perfect enlightenment (stage 1). Gregory holds that Tsung-mi's five-stage diagram,when viewed from the perspectiveof a

practitioner, hus appearsas a map of the pathto liberation.

The central thesis of partthree is that Tsung-mi devised his

five-stage cosmogonic map (as well as a similar etiology of

delusion formulated n ten reciprocal stages) in order to pro-vide an ontological groundfor Buddhistpractice. In particular,

Gregory argues,Tsung-mivalued the doctrines of the tathagata-

garbha and one mind because, by positing an ultimatelyreal

groundof all phenomena(including both deluded and enlight-ened states), it allowed him to counterthe antinomianand neg-ative conative implications of the San-lun (Madhyamaka)doctrineof emptinessand to subordinate he radically apophaticrhetoric of emptiness to a kataphatic(positive) mode of dis-

course. As Gregorydemonstrates,Tsung-mi'sConfuciantrain-

ing and native conservatismput him in opposition to the more

radical tendencies in certain Ch'an movements (especially the

Pao-t'angand Hung-chouschools), which seemed to reject tra-

ditional Buddhistforms of cultivatingmorality,meditation,and

wisdom. By portraying hose modes of cultivation as tools thatwere indispensablefor the progressivedismantlingor reversingof the cosmogonic process, Gregory argues, Tsung-miwas able

to providethem with a firm ontological underpinning hathad

great appealto native Chinese sensibilities.

Gregory does an excellent job of laying out the contents of

Tsung-mi's theoretical formulations, but his interpretationof

them as a cosmogonic map and his thesis that they providedan ontological basis for practice are open to debate. The pro-cess described by Tsung-mi in his five-stage and ten-stage

diagrams was indeed an etiology of delusion (Gregory's

term), but not an account of any quasi-substantive evolution

(again Gregory's term) of the phenomena of sentient exis-

tence. The diagrams, in other words, represent a type of

speculation which, if we want to use Western philosophical

terms, is more epistemological than ontological. Insofar

as Tsung-mi presents an ontology, it is to claim that only the

one mind is ultimately existent: all other, conditioned phe-nomena are merely the ever-changing images reflected on the

surface of the mind, nothing more than the epiphenomena

(mo) of the intrinsically enlightened true mind (p. 252).

Thus, the reversal of the five-stage (or ten stage) process that

Tsung-mi envisioned was essentially a question of succes-

sively lifting the overlaid veils of delusion by cultivating in-

488

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Reviews of Bookseviews of Books

sight into the appropriate, countervailing Buddhist doctrines.

It was not a matter of systematically suppressing or undoing,

say through transic meditation (dhyana) or ascetic practices,

any psychophysiological processes or entities that might be

understood to have evolved in some substantiveway.

Viewed

in this light, one could question the interpretationof Tsung-mi's formulas as maps n the sense of an aid to movement or

a plan of action, although the metaphorof a map as somethingthat conveys knowledge of a territoryin and of itself (thereby

obviating the need to go anywhere or do anything other than

read and understandit) may be apt. As with the Indian Bud-

dhist doctrine of the twelve-link chain of conditioned origi-nation (pratityasamutpada), which Gregory (following the

dubious lead of FrankReynolds) holds up as anotherexampleof a cosmogony, Tsung-mi's schemata might better be

compared to the diagnosis, etiological study, and prescriptionfor the treatment of a disease. The disease in this case is

the suffering of karmic conditioning; the root and ongoingcause of its development is delusion; and the treatment s

the study and understandingof Buddhist doctrines.

It is not clear from the datapresented n part hreehow Tsung-

mi, simply by positing the existence of the originally awakened

one mind or tathagatagarbha,could therebyhave resisted the

antinomian endencies in the Ch'anof his dayor strengthenedhis

case for the traditionalBuddhistpractices of moralityand med-

itation (dhyana). To establish a truly ontological basis for

those practices, one would think, it would be necessary to hold

thatthedelusions andpassionsthat cloud the mind are ust as real

as the mind-ground tself. Such a position was in fact taken bythe Northern school of

Ch'an,or at least imputedto it by Shen-hui andTsung-mi,for it was said to have regarded he impuritiesthat obscure the intrinsicallypuremind(like duston a mirror)as

substantiallyexistent phenomenathatneeded to be removed bya vigorous polishing of themindin meditation.Tsung-mihim-

self, however,rejectedthatstandpointon thegroundsthatthe im-

puritiesareempty (k'ung): they lack any independentrealityof

their own because they arenothingbut a manifestationof the in-

trinsically pure mind as it accords with conditions (p. 233). It

was precisely suchan understanding f theemptinessof delusion

and its essential identitywith the Buddha-nature,moreover,that

informed heapparently adical,antinomianpositiontakenby the

Hung-chouschool. The questionthatarises, then, is how Tsung-

mi could have embraced essentially the same ontology as the

Hung-chou school as a means of refuting that school's laissez-

faire approach o Buddhistpractice.The answeris suggested by

Gregory'sown account: it was not the Hung-chou school's on-

tology thatTsung-mi found objectionable,but rather ts lack of

concern with enlightenmentas an epistemological phenomenon.

Tsung-mi chargedthat the Hung-chouschool, in its acceptanceof the fundamentalontological identity of the one mind and its

deludedthoughts,lost sight of the fact thatcognitively (or expe-

rientially) it is still necessary to see throughthe mind's condi-

tioned functioning,actually to realize or attest to the underlying

sight into the appropriate, countervailing Buddhist doctrines.

It was not a matter of systematically suppressing or undoing,

say through transic meditation (dhyana) or ascetic practices,

any psychophysiological processes or entities that might be

understood to have evolved in some substantiveway.

Viewed

in this light, one could question the interpretationof Tsung-mi's formulas as maps n the sense of an aid to movement or

a plan of action, although the metaphorof a map as somethingthat conveys knowledge of a territoryin and of itself (thereby

obviating the need to go anywhere or do anything other than

read and understandit) may be apt. As with the Indian Bud-

dhist doctrine of the twelve-link chain of conditioned origi-nation (pratityasamutpada), which Gregory (following the

dubious lead of FrankReynolds) holds up as anotherexampleof a cosmogony, Tsung-mi's schemata might better be

compared to the diagnosis, etiological study, and prescriptionfor the treatment of a disease. The disease in this case is

the suffering of karmic conditioning; the root and ongoingcause of its development is delusion; and the treatment s

the study and understandingof Buddhist doctrines.

It is not clear from the datapresented n part hreehow Tsung-

mi, simply by positing the existence of the originally awakened

one mind or tathagatagarbha,could therebyhave resisted the

antinomian endencies in the Ch'anof his dayor strengthenedhis

case for the traditionalBuddhistpractices of moralityand med-

itation (dhyana). To establish a truly ontological basis for

those practices, one would think, it would be necessary to hold

thatthedelusions andpassionsthat cloud the mind are ust as real

as the mind-ground tself. Such a position was in fact taken bythe Northern school of

Ch'an,or at least imputedto it by Shen-hui andTsung-mi,for it was said to have regarded he impuritiesthat obscure the intrinsicallypuremind(like duston a mirror)as

substantiallyexistent phenomenathatneeded to be removed bya vigorous polishing of themindin meditation.Tsung-mihim-

self, however,rejectedthatstandpointon thegroundsthatthe im-

puritiesareempty (k'ung): they lack any independentrealityof

their own because they arenothingbut a manifestationof the in-

trinsically pure mind as it accords with conditions (p. 233). It

was precisely suchan understanding f theemptinessof delusion

and its essential identitywith the Buddha-nature,moreover,that

informed heapparently adical,antinomianpositiontakenby the

Hung-chouschool. The questionthatarises, then, is how Tsung-

mi could have embraced essentially the same ontology as the

Hung-chou school as a means of refuting that school's laissez-

faire approach o Buddhistpractice.The answeris suggested by

Gregory'sown account: it was not the Hung-chou school's on-

tology thatTsung-mi found objectionable,but rather ts lack of

concern with enlightenmentas an epistemological phenomenon.

Tsung-mi chargedthat the Hung-chouschool, in its acceptanceof the fundamentalontological identity of the one mind and its

deludedthoughts,lost sight of the fact thatcognitively (or expe-

rientially) it is still necessary to see throughthe mind's condi-

tioned functioning,actually to realize or attest to the underlying

essence, and to integratethat realization of innateBuddhahood

into one's experience of the phenomenalworld. For Tsung-mi,

then,practicewas necessary,not to effect any real change at the

deepest ontological level (which is immutable)but to know the

structureofbeing

and to effectpositive changes

in themakeupof the conditioned mind: to transform he mindsubjectto birth-

and-death rom that of an ordinarysuffering being into thatof

a Buddha.

Partfour,entitled The BroaderIntellectualTradition, deals

with Confucianism andTaoism in Tsung-mi's thoughtand com-

paresTsung-mi'sattemptto provide an ontological basis for the

affirmationof traditionalBuddhistpractices with a similar turn

of thoughttaken, in opposition to Buddhist antinomianism,bythe seminal Neo-ConfucianthinkerChu Hsi (1130-1200). Gre-

gory does a good job of explainingTsung-mi's critiquesof Con-

fucianism and Taoism and his incorporation of those two

teachings into a p'an-chiao scheme alongside, but subordi-

nate to, Buddhism. The comparison that Gregory draws be-tween Tsung-mi and Chu Hsi is a fruitfulone, noting as it does

a common problematic and certain structuralparallels in

their respective metaphysicalpositions. If, however, one views

Tsung-mi'sdefense of moral principles and practices as an ar-

gument couched more in epistemological than ontological

terms,then the similaritiesbetween his position andthatof Chu

Hsi, while still striking in many respects, may be in need of

some furtherqualifications.In conclusion, it is a measure of the excellence of this book

that it lays out the philosophical positions of Tsung-mi and

many of his contemporaries with such clarity and thorough-

ness that the reader is able, without recourse to any outsidematerials, to formulate interpretationsof Tsung-mi's thoughtthat may differ in some particularswith that given by the au-

thor. With its careful, in-depth discussion of many of the keymoral and metaphysical issues that engendered debate in me-

dieval Chinese Buddhism, the book is an invaluable resource

not only for students of East Asian Buddhism but of Chinese

intellectual history in general.

essence, and to integratethat realization of innateBuddhahood

into one's experience of the phenomenalworld. For Tsung-mi,

then,practicewas necessary,not to effect any real change at the

deepest ontological level (which is immutable)but to know the

structureofbeing

and to effectpositive changes

in themakeupof the conditioned mind: to transform he mindsubjectto birth-

and-death rom that of an ordinarysuffering being into thatof

a Buddha.

Partfour,entitled The BroaderIntellectualTradition, deals

with Confucianism andTaoism in Tsung-mi's thoughtand com-

paresTsung-mi'sattemptto provide an ontological basis for the

affirmationof traditionalBuddhistpractices with a similar turn

of thoughttaken, in opposition to Buddhist antinomianism,bythe seminal Neo-ConfucianthinkerChu Hsi (1130-1200). Gre-

gory does a good job of explainingTsung-mi's critiquesof Con-

fucianism and Taoism and his incorporation of those two

teachings into a p'an-chiao scheme alongside, but subordi-

nate to, Buddhism. The comparison that Gregory draws be-tween Tsung-mi and Chu Hsi is a fruitfulone, noting as it does

a common problematic and certain structuralparallels in

their respective metaphysicalpositions. If, however, one views

Tsung-mi'sdefense of moral principles and practices as an ar-

gument couched more in epistemological than ontological

terms,then the similaritiesbetween his position andthatof Chu

Hsi, while still striking in many respects, may be in need of

some furtherqualifications.In conclusion, it is a measure of the excellence of this book

that it lays out the philosophical positions of Tsung-mi and

many of his contemporaries with such clarity and thorough-

ness that the reader is able, without recourse to any outsidematerials, to formulate interpretationsof Tsung-mi's thoughtthat may differ in some particularswith that given by the au-

thor. With its careful, in-depth discussion of many of the keymoral and metaphysical issues that engendered debate in me-

dieval Chinese Buddhism, the book is an invaluable resource

not only for students of East Asian Buddhism but of Chinese

intellectual history in general.

T. GRIFFITHOULK. GRIFFITHOULK

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

New Leaves: Studies and Translations of Japanese Literature

in Honor of Edward Seidensticker. Edited by AILEEN AT-

TEN nd ANTHONYOOD HAMBERS.nn Arbor:CENTEROR

JAPANESETUDIES,NIVERSITYFMICHIGAN,993. Pp. x +

283.

Edward Seidensticker, in whose honor this Festschrift was

compiled, spent over a decade in postwar Japan pursuing a

New Leaves: Studies and Translations of Japanese Literature

in Honor of Edward Seidensticker. Edited by AILEEN AT-

TEN nd ANTHONYOOD HAMBERS.nn Arbor:CENTEROR

JAPANESETUDIES,NIVERSITYFMICHIGAN,993. Pp. x +

283.

Edward Seidensticker, in whose honor this Festschrift was

compiled, spent over a decade in postwar Japan pursuing a

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