The blue cliff records : the Hekigan Roku : containing one hundred stories of Zen masters of ancient China / R. D. M. Shaw

"This collection of typically difficult Zen stories was compiled about A.D. 1000 by the Abbot of a Chinese Temple of the Ch'an (Japanese Zen) School of Buddhism. To each numbered story he added his own equally enigmatic Appreciatory Word. About a century later a succeeding Abbot added his own Introductory Words. To these the presnt translator, who spent fifteen years at the task, has added his own interpretation, based, however, on the commentary and writings of well-known Japanese scholars of Buddhism." --- inside of dust jacket.