Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan BuddhismThe Chan (Zen in Japanese) school began when, in seventh century China, a small religious community gathered around a Buddhist monk named Hongren. Over the centuries, Chan Buddhism grew from an obscure movement to an officially recognized and eventually dominant form of Buddhism in China and throughout East Asia. It has reached international popularity, its teachings disseminated across cultures far and wide. In Monks, Rulers, and Literati, Albert