Flowers Blooming on a Withered Tree

This book provides a translation and critical bilingual edition on the Verse Comments on the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. The Verse Comments by Giun (1253-1333), the fifth abbot of Eiheiji temple, is an important early medieval Japanese commentary on the 60-chapter edition of the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shobogenzo), one of the main versions of the masterwork written by Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), the founder of the SotoZen sect in Japan who established Eiheiji in the mid-1240s.Giun's Verse Comments was one of only two commentaries of the Treasury written during the Kamakura era, with the other being a prose analysis of the 75-chapter edition, called Prose Comments on the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, often abbreviated to Distinguished Comments (Gosho). While Distinguished Comments fell into disuse rather quickly and was only revived nearly three hundred years later, the Verse Comments was circulated widely from the timeof its composition and read by many Soto monks over the next couple of centuries. Offering poems and cryptic expressions that seek to capture the spiritual flavor and essential meaning of Dogen's thought as suggested in each chapter, the Verse Comments is crucial for understanding how Dogen's Treasury was received and appropriated in thereligious and literary context of medieval Japan.In this book, Steven Heine's careful interpretations, historical investigations, and theoretical reflections demonstrate the significance of Giun's writings in light of the history of pre-modern and modern commentaries on Dogen's masterwork, the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.

Very importantly for English readers, Heine elucidates the complex history of the many varied editions of ShÅbÅgenzÅ. One of the key portions of this valuable book are the epilogues, which provide translations of other verses by Giun and other early SÅtÅ teachers. Heine includes an extremely valuable, comprehensive, and detailed essay about the history of the many commentaries on DÅgen up to modern times, including during the SÅtÅ school's banning of ShÅbÅgenzÅ from 1722 to 1796. This essay alone will be a major benefit for all English speakers interested in SÅtÅ history., In a substantial introduction, Heine examines the Shōbōgenzō honmokuju , explores in detail the origins of the 60- fascicle edition alongside other editions, thoroughly introduces Giun- thereby highlighting the influence of the Wanshi (C. Hóngzhì; i.e., the twelfth- century Chinese Cáodòng master Hóngzhì Zhēngjué)- ha as an important mediator in Sino- Japanese literary affairs- and addresses the purpose of Zen poetry, especially Hóngzhì's approach., This magisterial study is much recommended to students and scholars of East Asian Buddhism.... elegant translations, insightful glosses and elaborations, Flowers Blooming on a Withered Tree can be read as many things, being as multilayered as Zen language itself. It is certainly recommendable for poetry lovers and admirers or followers of Zen.... Heine's translations and comments on the verses are certainly elucidating in terms of their meaning, not only of the symbolic meaning or metaphysical message of the poems but also of the literal meaning of the words and phrases, which, to complete the circle, is often a reflection of the symbolic and metaphysical expression of both Dōgen's and Giun's Zen., Steven Heine's recent monograph, Flowers Blooming on a Withered Tree, is a welcome addition to his already prolific scholarship on Dogen (1200–1253) and Zen poetry, offering an accessible, engaging, and poetic study that pursues new directions in Dogen studies...Within a relatively slim volume, Heine provides a comprehensive study on the formation of Dogen's Treasury and the significance of its commentarial tradition, along with his lively translations and insightful glosses on Giun's verses.

Steven Heine is Professor and Director of Asian Studies at Florida International University, and an expert on East Asian religions, especially the origins and spread of Zen Buddhism from China to Japan. He has published more than thirty monographs and edited volumes, including several works specializing in the life and thought of Zen master Dogen (1200-1253) such as Did Dogen Go to China? and Dogen: Textual and HistoricalStudies.