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Tracking Bodhidharma: A Journey to the Heart of Chinese Culture, by Andy Ferguson
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The life of Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, has, with the passing of time, been magnified to the scale of myth, turning history into the stuff of legend. Known as the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma brought Zen from South India into China in 500 CE, changing the country forever. In Tracking Bodhidharma, Andrew Ferguson recreates the path of Bodhidharma, traveling through China to the places where the First Patriarch lived and taught. This sacred trail takes Ferguson deep into ancient China, and allows him to explore the origins of Chan [Zen] Buddhism, the cultural aftermath that Bodhidharma left in his wake, and the stories of a man who shaped a civilization.
Tracking Bodhidharma offers a previously unheard perspective on the life of Zen’s most important religious leader, while simultaneously showing how that history is relevant to the rapidly developing super-power that is present-day China. By placing Zen Buddhism within the country’s political landscape, Ferguson presents the religion as a counterpoint to other Buddhist sects, a catalyst for some of the most revolutionary moments in China’s history, and as the ancient spiritual core of a country that is every day becoming more an emblem of the modern era.
- Sales Rank: #1771579 in Books
- Published on: 2013-06-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.76" h x 1.02" w x 5.70" l, 1.11 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
About the Author
Andy Ferguson is a graduate of the Chinese Language and Literature program at the University of Oregon. He has lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan, and has traveled extensively in East and Southeast Asia since 1978. He has organized and led numerous tours to visit Chinese Zen history sites. He lives in Petaluma, California.
Most helpful customer reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
Fresh, original book on the legendary founder of Zen Buddhism
By A Halaw
When I first received Tracking Bodhidharma in the mail, I quickly scanned its jacket for details about this book I had been very excited to read. I groaned the moment I saw the words "Travel Narrative," expecting the book to be some half-baked story about a Zen enthusiast backpacking through China.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
Tracking Bodhidharma is Andy Ferguson's delightful story about how he traveled throughout China to learn about the legendary founder of Zen, Bodhidharma. The book's subtitle, A Journey to the Heart of Chinese Culture, plays a large role in the the story, as much of the book examines modern China. Ferguson, also the author of Zen's Chinese Ancestors, weaves a fascinating tale about contemporary Communist China, Chinese Buddhism recovering from the ravages of the Cultural Revolution, Emperor Wu, and of course, Bodhidharma.
Ferguson writes with a true storyteller's voice, and as the author of Zen's Chinese Heritage and a fluent Chinese speaker, he has the chops to write about China. As a practitioner of Buddhism for many decades and a frequent visitor to China, rest assured that Ferguson is fully qualified to write this book.
Like few Zen titles, Tracking Bodhidharma is addictive; I tore through its 350 pages in three or four days. For someone who knows very little about China, other than Taoism and Chan, I was fascinated to learn about modern China. Since much of the book follows Ferguson as he visits temples and other holy Buddhist sites, it's both fast-paced and extremely informative.
My favorite parts of the book concentrate on Emperor Wu, who appears as little more than a side note in Zen history. Wu's influence on Chinese, and almost all East Asian, Buddhism was vast; on average he built 10 temples per year. Talk about a loyal patron.
As this suggests, Emperor Wu, commonly known as the "Bodhisattva Emperor," was a fervent supporter of Buddhism, but I was shocked to learn, even a monk at times. I say "at times," because the quirky emperor would ordain--during which time he would literally stop ruling China, thus sending the country into political chaos--and then eventually return to the palace after the court had bribed the Buddhist church for his return. Okay, "bribed" might be a strong word, but that's pretty much how the story went.
Absolutely fascinating!
Ferguson goes on to contrast two types of Chan--imperial, embodied by Emperor Wu, and Bodhidharma Chan. Although the two occasionally dovetailed on certain issues like vegetarianism and farming, overall they had different religious (and political) agendas. This is best personified in the famous story of Emperor Wu and Bodhidharma's first, and only, meeting. I'm referring to the time when Bodhidharma zinged Wu after the latter asked, "What is the true Dharma?", to which Bodhidharma replied, "Vast emptiness, nothing holy." This is only after Bodhidharma told Wu--the great "Bodhisattva Emperor," mind you--that he didn't gain any merit by supporting Buddhism, a claim that deeply challenged Buddhist doctrine, practice, and tradition.
As this tale illustrates, Bodhidharma was an iconoclast, but his true influence on Chan and all of East Asia transcends this episode; it's virtually unfathomable. That's the focus of this book.
Overall, Tracking Bodhidharma is a great read. It's a enticing page turner, which is not a description you often hear about Buddhist titles. Unlike some of the other books I preview, this one is actually a perfect choice for the beach. Bet you never thought you'd hear that about a Zen book!
--Andre Doshim Halaw
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
the road of delusion
By toronto
I loved the author's other book on the Zen Heritage, and looked forward to his travel insights. Tracking Bodhidharma is a mixed bag of a book. It starts off as a very interesting glimpse into contemporary China from someone who is obviously very knowledgeable as an experienced tour guide, but after a while it becomes one bus ride and one lost ruin after another. Some of this reflects the dismal state of modernity's bulldozer, destroying and "improving" as it goes. The reader certainly gets a feeling of the endless ups and downs of Chinese history over millenia, but the overall picture is wearying and depressing. We lose interest in the search for Bodhidharma and the author's theme of Imperial Way Buddhism versus the anti-authority Zen of Bodhidharma. One reason for this is that there is nothing in the book on the author's own spiritual journey or understanding -- it is all him as camera or tour guide. Very few readers are that interested in the very detailed ins and outs of Emperor Wu or the placement of this lost temple or that; for better or worse, readers are interested in the struggles of human beings like themselves. We get little meetings with Chinese people and foreigners wandering around China, all of which liven the book up. But where is the author himself? We get virtually nothing of his interior life in this book.
The other problem with the book is that there are attempts here and there at bringing in the theme of whether Buddhism in Japan had responsibility for the militarism that led to World War II. Given that the author spends time in Nanjing (Nanking), there are good reasons to consider the topic, but the author seems to be trying to make some grand statement that his uncovering of Bodhidharma's whereabouts is the key to the understanding of the future of Asiatic imperialism/militarism. It comes and goes fitfully through the book, but the author doesn't say anything that others haven't said better, and the quality of the argument is not exactly helped by the sudden arrival at the very end of the book of an attack on the Kyoto school of absolute emptiness (in one page), World War II civilian bombing by the allies equated to the rape of Nanking (half a page), and Theodore Roosevelt's imperialist doctrines (one paragraph). To suggest that these topics require -- and have received -- books of their own to consider their validity is an understatement.
The best thing about the book is the short pieces on various Zen masters, reminding us of the complex and deep history of Zen. That's why his other book is so good, and better. In spite of not really being enthusiastic about this book, it's obvious Ferguson would be an amazing and indefatigable tour guide to China. I'd sign up.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
The story and influence of the chief "evangelist" of Zen in China
By Jaime Andrews
This is a masterful monograph on the key figure in Chinese Zen, a person who ought never have been overlooked. Bodhidharma was the "evangelist" of Zen (or Chuan) in China. This book looks into his life and his influence, providing an invaluable resource for any interested in the history of Zen.
The the first of two other key figures who are woven into this history is Daoxuan, Chinese Zen's foremost historian and the biographer of Bodhidharma; of his writings Ferguson makes extensive use, for they are the most reliable and lease "mythologizing" accounts of Bodhidharma's life. The other main historical personage in this book is Emperor Wu. Inevitably, religion and philosophy has a political dimension. This book traces the development of Zen in China as a political movement. Furthermore, it analyzes more modern history in the East in the light of this early politicization of Zen.
Finally, the book looks at influence of Zen in the arts: poetry, fine art, and prose. The contributions of Zen in the arts cannot be understated. Since the late 18th Century, Eastern art has been influential in the West as well. So this again provides a historical perspective that is necessary to understanding the encounter of the two cultures.
For those with little experience or knowledge of Zen or Buddhism in general, this book will provide an invaluable entryway. For those with deeper experience and knowledge, this book will provide a new perspective -- perhaps more grounded in history, and less mythological or ethereal. Highly recommended for any with a historical interest in Zen or Buddhism in general. Those with an interest in the history of Buddhism in the West might also want to check out Batchelor's excellent The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture.
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