Chan Practice through Literary Commentary: A Buddhist Rereading of a Romantic Drama in Seventeenth-Century China

ABSTRACTS: This paper investigates how a group of Buddhist practitioners transformed the romantic drama Xixiangji 西廂記 ( Story of the Western Wing ) into a religious text using various hermeneutic strategies in seventeenth-century China. I focus on a commentary edition of the drama, retitled Xilaiyi 西來意 ( Intention of Coming from the West ), which was annotated by a Buddhist layman named Pan Tingzhang 潘廷章 (1612–after 1702) and repackaged with numerous prefatory materials penned by Pan's friends, family, and students. Drawing on close readings of these paratexts, I argue that this edition not only reframes the romance as Buddhist allegory with soteriological power but that it also presents literary commentary as a method of Chan practice. Pan's commentaries creatively take the meaning of "west" in the play's title to be the geographical West as opposed to China, alluding to the legend that Bodhidharma came to China from India to transmit Chan teachings. One of the preface writers, the Chan master Dangui Jinshi 澹歸今釋 (1614–1680), compared the play to the Buddha-Dharma and portrayed Pan as a buddha-like figure. Moreover, Pan's students created a Chan master identity for him by placing him in a kōan -style dialogue. Together, these efforts sought to elevate the play to the stature of a scriptural text and to cast the commentator in the role of an awakened Buddhist teacher. This study enriches our understanding of the renowned play's reception history from a less-noted religious perspective and sheds new light on the interaction between religious and literary practices in early modern China.