Title: Nice "Word Portrait" of a Soto Zen Patriarch
Review: This thin little volume is a fine example of the "recorded sayings" genre of Chan/Zen literature. Enigmatic yet humorous, unpretentious yet profound, terse yet poetic. William Powell really catches the flavor of the text in his translation, and his introduction and annotations helpfully orient the reader and fill in the knowledge that the anonymous writers/compilers would have assumed on the part of their readership. The approach is scholarly and sensitive to the work's literary qualtities and religious significance at the same time. An afternoon with "The Record of Tung-shan" is an afternoon well-spent.
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