This book provides a translation and critical bilingual edition on the
Verse Comments on the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
. The
Verse Comments
by Giun (1253-1333), the fifth abbot of Eiheiji temple, is an important early medieval Japanese commentary on the 60-chapter edition of the
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
(
Shobogenzo
), one of the main versions of the masterwork written by Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), the founder of the Soto Zen sect in Japan who established Eiheiji in the mid-1240s.
Giun's Verse Comments was one of only two commentaries of the Treasury written during the Kamakura era, with the other being a prose analysis of the 75-chapter edition, called
Prose Comments on the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
, often abbreviated to
Distinguished Comments
Gosho
). While
fell into disuse rather quickly and was only revived nearly three hundred years later, the
was circulated widely from the time of its composition and read by many Soto monks over the next couple of centuries. Offering poems and cryptic expressions that seek to capture the spiritual flavor and essential meaning of Dogen's thought as suggested in each chapter, the
is crucial for understanding how Dogen's
Treasury
was received and appropriated in the religious and literary context of medieval Japan.
In this book, Steven Heine's careful interpretations, historical investigations, and theoretical reflections demonstrate the significance of Giun's writings in light of the history of pre-modern and modern commentaries on Dogen's masterwork, the
.