Editing Koan (section)

=== The "public cases" of the old masters ===
{{transliteration|zh|Gōng'àn}} literature developed at some point in between the late [[Tang dynasty]] (10th century) to the [[Song dynasty]] (960–1279), though the details are unclear.{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=109-111}} They arose out of the collections of the recorded sayings of Chán masters and "transmission" texts like the [[The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp|''Transmission of the Lamp'']]. These sources contained numerous stories of famous past Chán masters which were used to educate Zen students.{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=109-111}} According to [[Morten Schlütter]] "it is not clear exactly when the practice of commenting on old gongan cases started, but the earliest Chan masters to have such commentaries included in the recorded sayings attributed to them appear to be [[Yunmen Wenyan]] and Fenyang Shanzhao (947–1024)."{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=110}}

According to [[Robert Buswell Jr.|Robert Buswell]], the {{transliteration|zh|gōng'àn}} tradition "can be viewed as the products of an internal dynamic within Chan that began in the T'ang and climaxed in the Sung."{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=111}} By the beginning of the Song era, Chan masters were known to use these stories in their sermons, as well as to comment on them and to use them to challenge their students.{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=110}}

[[Morten Schlütter|Schlütter]] also writes:{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=109}}

{{blockquote|[M]uch of the material in the recorded sayings collections of individual Song Chan masters consists of the master quoting ("raising"; {{transliteration|zh|ju}}) a story about a famous past Chan figure's encounter with disciples or other interlocutors and then offering his own comments on it. The stories held up for comment came to be referred to as gongan, "public cases," or {{transliteration|zh|guze}}, "old model cases," both terms borrowed, it would seem, from the language of law.{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=109}}}}

Originally, such a story was only considered a {{transliteration|zh|gōng'àn}} when it was commented upon by another Chán master, i.e. when it was used as a "case" study for enlightenment.{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=109}} This practice of commenting on the words and deeds of past masters also served to confirm the master's position as an awakened master in a lineage of awakened masters of the past.{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=109}}

According to Schlütter, these stories were also used "to challenge Chan students to demonstrate their insights: a Chan master would cite a story about a famous master and then demand that his students comment."{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=109}} Later on, certain questions (like: "Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?") developed independently from the traditional stories and were used in the same fashion.{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=109}} Schlütter also notes that "most commonly used {{transliteration|zh|gongan}} in the Song originally came from the influential [[The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp|''Transmission of the Lamp'']], although the subsequent transmission histories also became sources of {{transliteration|zh|gongan}}."{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=110}}

Over time, a whole literary genre of {{transliteration|zh|gōng'àn}} collection and commentary developed which was influenced by "educated [[Scholar-official|literati]]" of the Song era.{{sfn|McRae|2003|p=131}} These collections included quotations of encounter-dialogue passages (the "cases", {{transliteration|zh|gōng'àn}}) with a master's comment on the case attached. When a prose comment was added, the genre was called {{transliteration|zh|niangu}} ('picking up the old ones'), and when poems were used to comment, the genre was termed {{transliteration|zh|songgu}} ('eulogizing the old ones'). Further commentaries would then be written by later figures on these initial comments, leading to quite complex and layered texts.{{sfn|Schlütter|2008|p=110}}

The style of these Song-era Zen texts was influenced by many Chinese literary conventions and the style of "literary games" (competitions involving improvised poetry). Common literary devices included:{{sfn|Hori|2003|loc=Chapter 4}}{{sfn|Heine|2008|p=52}}

{{Blockquote|
#The extensive use of [[allusion]]s, which create a feeling of disconnection with the main theme;
#Indirect references, such as titling a poem with one topic and composing a verse that seems on the surface to be totally unrelated;
#Inventive wordplay based on the fact that {{transliteration|zh|[[hanzi]]}} (Chinese characters) are homophonic and convey multiple, often complementary or contradictory meanings;
#Linking the verses in a sustained string based on hidden points of connection or continuity, such as seasonal imagery or references to myths and legends.{{sfn|Heine|2008|p=52}}}}

There were dangers involved in such a highly literary approach, such as ascribing specific meanings to the cases, or become too involved in book learning.{{sfn|McRae|2003|p=131}} [[Dahui Zonggao]] is even said to have burned the [[Woodblock printing|woodblocks]] of the ''[[Blue Cliff Record]]'', for the hindrance it had become to the study of Chán by his students.{{sfn|Yampolski|2003|p=20}}