CultureEast Asia

Zen

520

Buddhism meets Daoism and stops trusting words

In depth

The koans — questions with no logical answer — are meant to wear out conceptual thinking so that something else can appear. The aesthetic that followed, prizing the imperfect and the transient, shaped Japanese culture deeply and reached the West in the twentieth century, where it influenced everything from abstract art to product design.

For children

Zen teaches that insight cannot be explained, only experienced — hence meditation rather than the study of texts. It arose in China where Buddhism met Daoism, and later shaped Japanese art, gardens and the tea ceremony.

Connects to

Buddhism reaches China67
Daoism501 BCE
Heian JapanJan 710 – Jan 1185
The Buddha and the Axial Age484 BCE

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org