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 A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were well versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras, including Madhyamaka.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
An Introduction to Zen Buddhism after the 1927 publication of his book "Zen Essays", which he decided would be "too heavy" as an introduction to Zen for beginners. Suzuki intended the resultant volume, 1934's "An Introduction to Zen Buddhism", to be used as a companion with the contemporaneously published "Manual of Zen Buddhism". "An Introduction to Zen Buddhism" was published in 1934 in Kyoto by the Eastern Buddhist Society. The Marshall Jones Company of Boston oversaw first publication in the United States. The 1939 German language edition was published with a preface by Carl Jung. In 1949, the book was reprinted in London and New