Main Rhetorical and Lyrical Elements

Abstract The second chapter examines the structure and functions of the 100 Questions in order to provide readers with several hermeneutic tools for deciphering the meaning and significance of the gong’an cases contained in the collection. It takes a closer look at some of the major literary elements of Tongxuan’s 100 Chan Questions in light of an overall assessment of how the collection conveys the Caodong school’s basic philosophical standpoint with regard to using paradoxical expressions in order to convey a view of accepting and finding enlightenment in terms of, rather than in contrast to, concrete everyday situations and decisions. The most important feature of Chan teaching was an emphasis on attaining an outlook of harmony (yuanrong) in that all possible polarities, such as light and darkness, the ordinary and extraordinary, and enlightenment and delusion, are ultimately reconciled.