Note f83 — HISTORY OF ZEN BUDDHISM FROM BODHI-DHARMA TO HUI-NENG (YENO) (520 A.D.–713 A.D.)

The author of this story or prefatory note is T‘an-lin (Donrin), who, according to Dr. Tokiwa, of the Tokyo Imperial University, was a learned scholar partaking in the translation of several Sanskrit works. He is also mentioned in connection with Yeka (Hui-k‘ê) in the biography of the latter by Tao-hsüan. If Donrin were more of a scholar as we can see by this identification than a genuine Zen master, it was quite natural for him to write down this “Meditation on Four Acts,” which mainly appeals as it stands to the scholarly interpretation of Zen. While the doctrine of Pi-kwan is emphatically Zen, there is much in the “Meditation” that lends itself to the philosophising of Zen.