Shōbōgenzō

Shōbōgenzō as a General Term

In Mahayana Buddhism the term True Dharma Eye Treasury (Japanese: Shōbōgenzō) refers generally to the Buddha Dharma, and in Zen Buddhism, it specifically refers to the realization of Buddha's awakening that is not contained in the written words of the sutras.

In general Buddhist usage, the term "treasury of the Dharma" refers to the written words of the Buddha's teaching collected in the Sutras as the middle of the Three Treasures of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. In Zen, however, the real treasure of the Dharma is not to be found in books but in one's own Buddha Nature and the ability to see this Correct View (first of the Noble Eightfold Path) of the treasure of Dharma is called the "Treasure of the Correct Dharma Eye".

In the legends of the Zen tradition, the Shōbōgenzō has been handed down from teacher to student going all the way back to the Buddha when he transmitted the Shobogenzo to his disciple Mahākāśyapa thus beginning the Zen lineage that Bodhidharma brought to China.

The legend of the transmission of the Shōbōgenzō to Mahākāśyapa is found in several Zen texts and is one of the most referred to legends in all the writings of Zen. Among the famous koan collections, it appears as Case 6 in the Wumenguan (The Gateless Checkpoint) and Case 2 in the Denkoroku (Transmission of Light). In the legend as told in the Wumenguan, the Buddha holds up a flower and no one in the assembly responds except for Arya Kashyapa who gives a broad smile and laughs a little. Seeing Mahākāśyapa's smile the Buddha said,

I possess the Treasury of the Correct Dharma Eye , the wonderful heart-mind of Nirvana, the formless true form, the subtle Dharma gate, not established by written words, transmitted separately outside the teaching. I hand it over and entrust these encouraging words to Kashyapa.

Dahui's Shōbōgenzō and Dōgen's Shinji Shōbōgenzō

Dahui Zonggao, the famous 12th century popularizer of koans in Song Dynasty China, wrote a collection of kōans with the Chinese title Zhengfa Yanzang (正法眼藏). In Japanese this is read as Shōbōgenzō, using the same kanji for its title as Dōgen's later work. When Dōgen visited China in 1223, he first studied under Wuji Lepai, a disciple of Dahui, which is where he probably first came into contact with Dahui's Zhengfa Yanzang. In his book Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation, the modern scholar Carl Bielefeldt acknowledges that Dōgen likely took the title from Dahui for his own kōan collection, known now as the Shinji Shōbōgenzō. He later used the same title again for what is now his most well known work, the Kana Shōbōgenzō (now almost always referred to simply as "the Shōbōgenzō"):

Indeed the fact that Dōgen styled his effort "Shōbō genzō" suggests that he had as his model a similar compilation of the same title by the most famous of Sung masters, Ta-Hui Tsung-kao [Dahui Zonggao]. Unlike the latter, Dōgen was content here simply to record the stories without interjecting his own remarks. A few years later, however, he embarked on a major project to develop extended commentaries on many of these and other passages from the Ch'an literature. The fruit of this project was his masterpiece--the remarkable collection of essays known as the kana, or "vernacular", Shōbō genzō.

Compilation of the Shōbōgenzō

The different component texts—referred to as fascicles—of the Kana Shōbōgenzō were written between 1231 and 1253—the year of Dōgen's death (Dōgen, 2002, p. xi). Unlike most Zen writings originating in Japan at that time, including Dōgen's own Shinji Shōbōgenzō and Eihei Koroku, which were written in Classical Chinese, the Kana Shōbōgenzō was written in Japanese. The essays in Shōbōgenzō were delivered as sermons in a less formal style than the Chinese language sermons of the Eihei Koroku. Some of the fascicles were recorded by Dōgen, while others were recorded by his disciples.

Dōgen rearranged the order of the fascicles that make up the Shōbōgenzō several times during his own lifetime, and also edited the content of individual fascicles. After his death, various editors added and removed fascicles to make different versions of the Shōbōgenzō. In pre-modern times there were four major versions that consisted of 60, 75, 12, and 28 fascicles, with the 60 fascicle version being the earliest and the 28 fascicle version the latest. The first two were arranged by Dōgen himself, with the 75 fascicle version containing several fascicles that had been edited from the earlier 60 fascicle version. Several copies of both the 60 and 75 fascicle versions exist, including one containing Dōgen's handwriting and that of his student, Koun Ejō. On the other hand, the 12 fascicle version, also known as the Yōkōji manuscript after the temple where it was found in 1936, is known from only two examples, one copied in 1420 and the other recopied from that in 1446. This version contains 5 fascicles not found in the older versions, including the only surviving manuscript of Ippyakuhachi Hōmyō Mon'. It also contains a note at the end of Hachi Dainin Gaku written by Koun Ejō indicating that it was to be the last fascicle of a 100 fascicle version; this was never completed due to Dōgen's illness near the end of his life. It is unclear which chapters this 100 fascicle version would have included and in what order. Finally, the 28 fascicle version, also known as the Eihei-ji manuscript or the "Secret Shōbōgenzō" (Japanese: Himitsu Shōbōgenzō), dates from the mid-1300's and actually only contains 26 fascicle because Shin Fukatoku appears twice and Butsudō is included twice in two different versions. The fascicles of the Eihei-ji manuscript were taken from the 75 and 12 fascicle versions and still retain the numbering system used from their source collections. Yoibutsu Yobutsu is an exception and is numbered as fascicle 38, which does not correspond to any extant version.

Other pre-modern versions of the Shōbōgenzō exist, all of which were rearrangements of the four main versions discussed above, often with additional material from Dōgen that he did not intend to include. Bonsei, who died in the early 15th century, created an 84 fascicle version consisting of the 75 fascicle version plus 9 books from the 60 fascicle version. Four copies of Bonsei's collection survive, with the oldest dating from 1644. An 89 fascicle version called the Daijōji manuscript was put together in 1689 by Manzan Dōhaku based on Bonsei's version of 84 plus 5 additional fascicles, including Bendōwa, Jūundō Shiki, and Jikuin Mon, which were not previously considered part of the Shōbōgenzō. He also ordered the books based on the date they were written and not on the order Dōgen intended, suggest he likely believed the ordering was a later decision not made by Dōgen himself. Hangyo Kōzen, aiming to make the most comprehensive version of the Shōbōgenzō, compiled a 96 fascicle version called the Komazawa University Library manuscript containing every known book from previous versions except Ippyakuhachi Hōmyō Mon. It also included more additional writings, including the apocryphal Chinzo and several variant versions of other chapters. Kōzen's version became the basis for the first printed version of the Shōbōgenzō, the Honzan edition. Finally, a 78 book version was made by Tenkei Denson while he was preparing his commentary, Benchū, on the text. He thought that the 60 fascicle version was compiled by Giun and was the oldest, most correct version, and as result his version is identical for the first 59 fascicles except for two replacements from other versions and one combination of two fascicles into one. The remainder is added from the 12 and 75 fascicle versions with 10 fascicles from those being specifically excluded.

Modern editions of Shōbōgenzō contain 95 fascicles based on the late 17th century 96 fascicle version of Hangyo Kozen, the 35th abbot of Dōgen's monastery Eihei-ji. This began as a 90 fascicle version, the first to be printed on woodblocks rather than hand copied, beginning in 1815 and known as the Honzan edition. The six fascicles that were removed included the inauthentic Chinzo as well as five chapters regarded as secrets of the Sōtō School. The original woodblocks are now stored at Eihei-ji. In 1906 the revised Honzan version of 95 fascicles including the five "secret" chapters was published. The only chapter originally intended to be part of the Shōbōgenzō missing from the revised Honzan version at this stage was Ippyakuhachi Hōmyō Mon because it was not discovered until 1936. In 1929, the Sōtōshū Zensho edition was released adding back Chinzo. It was removed again in a revised edition in 1970, and then added again in the 1974 Zoku Sōtōshū Zensho along with Ippyakuhachi Hōmyō Mon. Many other versions were made in the 20th century, some of which indiscriminately combined sections from different manuscripts. Today, arguably the most faithful printed version in Japanese is the 1988 edition compiled by Kōdō Kawamura consisting of the original 75 fascicle version from the single 1547 Ryūmonji manuscript, the 12 fascicle 1446 Yōkōji manuscript, nine uncollected works not originally intended for the Shōbōgenzō, and initial drafts of seven chapters.

History of Textual Analysis

For centuries, all of Dōgen's work, including the Shōbōgenzō, was known only to a very small number of monks. Beginning in the 1700s, a movement began to reform the Sōtō school of Zen that Dōgen had founded half a millennium earlier. Specifically, monks such as Manzan Dōhaku sought to remove influences from other Zen schools and return practice back to the way they believed it would have been during Dōgen's time. One of the earliest commentaries on the Shōbōgenzō was in opposition to the movement by Tenkei. Using the 60 fascicle version, he harshly criticized the text and made his own revisions. This version was soon denounced by the Sōtō School. Around the same time Menzan Zuihō was dedicating much of his life to analyzing the Shōbōgenzō in order to uncover Dōgen's source material. Menzan's student Fuzan and his students put this extensive study into writing in the 1770s. Within a few years the monk Honkō made a commentary on the text and translated it into what was at the time the more respectable language of Classical Chinese. Commentaries were also made by the monks Zōkai and Rōran. An abridged collection of a variety of Dōgen's work appeared at this time called The Record of Eihei Dogen, which the famous poet Ryōkan wrote a verse on.

English Translations

The Dōgen Zenji Zenshu contains all 95 Japanese fascicles, untranslated. There are now four complete English translations of the Kana Shobogenzo. A translation by Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross is available under two titles, Master Dogen's Shobogenzo and Shōbōgenzō: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury. The latter is freely distributed digitally by Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) with many other Mahāyāna texts. Kosen Nishiyama and John Stevens have a translation titled Shobogenzo (The Eye and Treasury of the True Law). Shasta Abbey has a free digital translation of the Shobogenzo and offers other Soto Zen works. A translation by a "team of translators that represent a Who’s Who of American Zen" and edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Shobo Genzo, was released in mid-2011. Additionally, the Stanford-based Soto Zen Text Project, a project to translate Dōgen and other Sōtō texts, has completed several fascicles, freely distributed in digital format.