Ebook: The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations

The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations, translated by Shohei Ichimura, is the first English translation of this comprehensive manual which sets forth the rules, offices, rituals, and practices of Chan/Zen monastic life. The Taisho edition of the text relies on a fourteenth-century Yuan-era version, compiled and edited by Dongyan Dehui and Xiaowen Dasu, of the original Chan/Zen monastic regulations, the Ancient Regulations, innovated by the ninth-century Zen Master Baizhang Huaihai. Baizhang was the third lineage holder under the Sixth Patriarch of the Chan tradition in China, Huineng (638-714), author of the well-known Platform Sutra (English translation by John R. McRae, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Taisho No. 2008, Numata Center, 1999). The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations presents a complete set of instructions detailing every aspect of daily life in a Chan temple, from the duties and responsibilities of the various officers and practitioners to the recitation of specific prayers and sacred texts in the annual calendar of events. This text o ers a view of the formation of the early Chan/Zen monastic tradition, which has been passed down through the centuries.