Zen expected to become familiar with the classics of the Zen canon". A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were well versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras, including Madhyamaka. Especially the Lotus Sutra played a large role in the development of East Asian Buddhism, including Zen. Nevertheless, Zen is often pictured as anti-intellectual. This picture of Zen emerged during the Song Dynasty (960–1297), when Chán became the dominant form of Buddhism in China, and gained great popularity among the educated and literary classes of Chinese society. The use of koans, which
Katsu (Zen) Katsu (Zen) Katsu (Japanese: 喝; Cantonese: "", Pinyin: "hè", Wade-Giles: "ho") is a shout that is described in Chán and Zen Buddhism encounter-stories, to expose the enlightened state (Japanese: "satori") of the Zen-master, and/or to induce initial enlightenment experience in a student. The shout is also sometimes used in the East Asian martial arts for a variety of purposes; in this context, "katsu" is very similar to the shout "kiai". The word in Chinese means literally "to yell" or "to shout". In Japanese it has also developed the meaning of "to browbeat", "to scold", and "hoarse". In the context of