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Today, Korean dharma lineages all trace themselves back to Seosan Hyujeong 西山休靜 (1520–1604). Although some claim that Hyujeong’s own lineage should be traced back to Taego Bou 太古普愚 (1301–1382), others claim that it should be traced back to Naong Hyegeun 懶翁慧勤 (1320–1376) instead. The present article will demonstrate that both claims are flawed. They fail to take an important fact into account: the assumptions that guided lineage practices in the fourteenth century were no longer guiding lineage practices in the seventeenth century, which is when both claims were first made. Attempts to trace Hyujeong’s lineage to either Taego or Naong mistakenly accept the veracity of seventeenth-century lineage claims and assumptions. In pre-seventeenth century Korea Seon masters who received dharma transmission in China officially recognized not only their Chinese Chan lineage but also their Korean Seon lineage(s). As shown in this article, there was nothing wrong with having two or more dharma lineages in Korea. Hyegeun is a good example. He claimed to have inherited two different dharma lineages and may have even had a third. Hyegeun’s lineage began to lose favor, this article argues, because it did not accord with the new assumptions that began to guide lineage practices in seventeenth-century Korea.

This article shares the author's research in Korean Buddhism and his approach to the study of history, as he emphasises the continued relevance of seemingly distant (both historically and geographically) topics for the modern world. He exhorts readers to trust in the “messianic potential” of past religions and to consider ways in which the study of historical religions can challenge our preconceptions today.

Although the Buddhist monastic elite practiced self-cultivation in many different ways during the Song, Jin, and Yuan, the accumulation of merit and the pursuit of enlightenment were generally considered to be the main reasons for practicing virtually all forms of Buddhist self-cultivation. But Juhn Ahn’s essay shows that the rise of new Buddhist institutions such as the ten directions or public monastery (shifangcha), and intensifying lineage rivalry affected this pursuit of self-cultivation in an important way. As the abbacies of these public institutions became highly desirable, self-cultivation came to focus less on personal development than on the individual’s spiritual accomplishments (the Way) and his ability to garner respect (virtue). One popular way of garnering respect and demonstrating one’s spiritual accomplishments during this period was the perfection of chan or koan locution. To compete, the rival Tiantai tradition, however, had to develop their own methods and institutions of self-cultivation such as the hall of sixteen contemplations and the hall for pure land cultivation.

In his Yasenkanna and other writings Zen master Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) relies on two seemingly conflicting analogies to speak of the art of nourishing life (yojo). On the one hand, he maintains that vital energy (ki) must be stored in the cinnabar field (tanden). On the other hand, he maintains that one must circulate vital energy in the body by engaging in labor lest it become stagnant. A similar tension can be observed in Kaibara Ekken's (1630-1714) immensely popular manual of nourishing life, Yojokun. Although Shigehisa Kuriyama points to the industrious revolution and what he calls the "anxiety of stagnation" that swept through the Tokugawa populace as a possible cause for the rise of this tension, the present article will suggest a fundamental redefinition of labor (ro) and, more specifically, reading practices that took place during this period as another possible factor behind this development. Labor, be it meditation or reading, had to demonstrate a sense of self-mastery for it to be true labor and failure to do so would result in exhaustion (ro) or what Hakuin preferred to call the malady of meditation (zenbyo). KEYWORDS: Hakuin Ekaku - Kaibara Ekken - labor - Zen - meditation - naikan (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) IN HIS LETTER to Nabeshima Naotsune ... (1701-1749)., the ailing governor of Settsu ...,1 Zen master Hakuin Ekaku ... (1686-1769) relies on two seemingly conflicting analogies to speak of what he calls the "malady of meditation" or zenbyo ... On the one hand, Hakuin likens the treatment of zenbyo to the art of governing a country: "The spirit (shin ...) represents the prince, the essence (sei ...) the ministers, and the vital energy (ki ...) the people. When the people are loved and cared for, then the country is perfected; when the vital energy is guarded, then the body is perfected. When the people are scattered, the nation is destroyed; when the vital energy is exhausted (ki tsukuru ...), the body dies."2 The sagely lord (seishu ...) thus always keeps his mind focused on what is below-the people. Otherwise, the people become resentful. Vital energy must likewise be made to accumulate fully below. On the other hand, Hakuin also likens the stubborn attachment to what he calls "meditative-work in the midst of quietude" (jochu no kufu ...) to a man who tries to guard his gold (that is, his resolve to carry out meditative- work) by shutting himself in a room (see YOSHIZAWA 2001a, 200-201; also YAMPOLSKY 1971, 34). Like the sravaka who strives only for his own awakening, this man, says Hakuin, may be able to guard the gold but not his vital energy. He will thus succumb to the malady of meditation. What, then, constitutes a genuine investigation of Zen (shinsho sanzen ...)? According to Hakuin, the bodhisattva approach and hence the genuine approach is to take the gold and march straight through a road infested with thieves, that is to say, delusions, desires, and wrong views. Unless one carries out such "meditative-work in the midst of activity" (dochu no kufu ...), all vital energy, he claims, will be lost like a lotus touched by fire.3 In fact, Hakuin insists that the practitioner who wishes to investigate genuine Zen must strive to be like "a lotus that blossoms from the midst of flames."4 Lest inherent awakening (the gold) and desires form a duality, the practitioner, in other words, must be able to cultivate a mind of purity without abandoning the various desires and the objects of the senses. What we seem to have here in Hakuin's letter to Nabeshima, then, are two potentially conflicting images of vital energy: whereas one takes vital energy to be in need of preservation, protection, and accumulation "below," the other regards this defensive attitude as the very cause of the loss of vital energy and the outbreak of the malady of meditation. To be sure, what Hakuin hoped to eventually accomplish by promoting meditative work in the midst of activity was to rise above this seeming contradiction, but this should not keep us from paying closer attention to the subtle yet unmistakable difference between the two views of vital energy that we find in Hakuin's letter. …