Zen's Chinese Heritage surveys twenty-five generations of enlightened Buddhist teachers through brief biographies and starkly beautiful prose and poetry from Chinese Zen sources. Andrew Ferguson moves chronologically through successive generations of Zen masters, supplementing their core teachings with history, biography, and poetry. The result is an organic understanding of the tradition's evolution as a religious, literary, and historical force.

Capturing the austere beauty of the Zen masters' manner of teaching--their earthy style, humor, and humanity - Zen's Chinese Heritage is an intimate and profound human portrait of the enlightened Zen ancients, and an unprecedented look into the depths of this rich cultural heritage.