Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall

In today's world, Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall has become a topic of great relevance and interest to a wide range of people. Whether due to its impact on society, its historical relevance, its influence in the professional field or its connection with current issues, Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall has captured the attention and curiosity of many. Throughout this article, we will explore different aspects of Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall, from its origin and history to its relevance in the modern world. Without a doubt, Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall is a topic that leaves no one indifferent, and its importance is evident in various contexts.

Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall
Traditional Chinese祖堂集
Simplified Chinese祖堂集

The Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (Chinese: 祖堂集; pinyin: Zǔtángjí; Japanese: Sodōshū) is an ancient Chinese text compiled by two Chinese Buddhist monks in 952 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is the oldest existing collection of Chan encounter dialogues, dating from about half a century before the much better-known Transmission of the Lamp. After being lost for centuries, it was rediscovered by Japanese scholars in the 20th century at the Haeinsa temple in Korea, in a complete form with all twenty chapters. The text survived in the form of printing plates made during the 13th century, and not as a printed book. Much like other Chan Buddhist texts, it is written in the form of daily conversations between masters and students or between students themselves.

The Anthology is particularly important for the study of the history of Chinese, as it contains what is believed to be a good record of what vernacular northern Chinese speech was like in the 10th century. An example of a grammatical phenomenon in the text is the use of 也 as a marker of the perfect, showing a coalescence of the Classical Chinese particles 也 and 矣 .

僧問居此多少年也。
sēng wèn jū cǐ duōshǎo nián yě
monk ask live PROX more-less year PRF
'The monk asked how many years you've lived here.' (book 4 86.5)

See also

Bibliography

  • Sun, Chaofen (1996). Word-Order Change and Grammaticalization in the History of Chinese. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804724180.
  • Yanagida, Seizan (1980). Sodöshü sakuin (An index to Zutangji). Kyoto: Research Institute of Humanities, Kyoto University.