The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp

The way The "goal" Background Chinese texts Classical Post-classical Contemporary Zen in Japan Seon in Korea Thiền in Vietnam Western Zen The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp (traditional Chinese: 景德傳燈錄; simplified Chinese: 景德传灯录; pinyin: Jǐngdé Chuándēnglù; Wade–Giles: Ching-te Ch'uan teng lu; Japanese: Keitoku Dentō-roku), often referred to as The Transmission of the Lamp, is a 30 volume work consisting of putative biographies of the Chan Buddhist and Zen Buddhist patriarchs and other prominent Buddhist monks.

It was produced in the Song dynasty by Shi Daoyuan (simplified Chinese: 释道原; traditional Chinese: 釋道原; pinyin: Shì Dàoyuán; Wade–Giles: Shih Tao-Yüen).

[citation needed] Other than the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall, it represents the first appearance of "encounter dialogues" in the Chan tradition, which in turn are the antecedents of the famous kōan stories.

The word Jingde (景德), the first two characters of the title, refers to the reign name of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, which dates the work to between 1004 and 1007 CE.

It is a primary source of information for the history of Chan Buddhism in China, although most scholars interpret the biographies as largely hagiography.