Tsung-mi (780 ~ 841) is the fifth patriarch of the Hua-yan / Avatamsaka School，also he is a Chan master of Buddhism. He took a very important position in the history of Chinese Chan Buddhism. In his works such as Yuan Jie Da Shu Cao (the Great Commentary to the Sublime Bodhi Scripture)，Zhu Hua Yuan Fa Jie Guang Men (the Commentary to the Perception of Dharma-Dhuda Door of Avatamsaka Sutra) and Yuan Ren Lun (On Human Being)，etc.，Tsung-mi elucidated the teachings of the Avatamsaka school. In answering to the request of Pei-xiu (797 ~ 870)，he wrote Zhong Hua Chuan Xin Di Chan Men Shi Zi Cheng Xi Tu (the Chart of the Lineage of Teaching Masters of Mind School of China). About the seventh year of Tai-he (833) of the T'ang Dynasty or later，Tsung-mi collected and edited Chan Yuan Zhu Quan Ji (the Collection of Original Teachings of Chan Buddhism) with a important summarizing preface called Chan Yuan Zhu Quan Ji Du Xu. At Tsung-mi times, there were many different views and debates among the Chan school and between Chan Buddhism and other Buddhist schools which made Tsung-mi worried，thus he formulated a theoretical frame with double levels to integrate Chan (meditation techniques or ways) and Jiao (Buddhist doctrine or teachings). On th first level，Tsung-mi regarded the sect of He-ze (Master Shen Hui) as orthodox，and he integrated the Chan and Jiao traditions by the way of holding all other thinking trends in Chan Buddhism subordinated to the sect of He-ze. He put emphasis upon that all sects of Chan school were complementary and reciprocal. They were adaptable to different people with differentiated insights. On the second level，his theory of integrating Chan and Jiao divided into two directions：one was the homogeny of Chan and Jiao，the other was the inter-permeation into each other of the two. According to his interpretation，Tsung-mi classified Chan Buddhism into three Zongs (adhering lines) from low to high levels, and different Buddhist saying into three Jiao (teaching traditions) at various levels. He held that Zong and Jiao were should be complementary and harmonious. So they can be identical at the last. Tsung-mi verified the identity of the three sects of Chan Buddhism with the different teachings at the three levels and come to eliminate any artificial distinctions about Zong (sects) and Jiao (teachings).Once a cultivator disregards intuitively difference between Zong and Jiao，and identifies all sects, he，thus, achives the mental state agreeing with Wu-nian (no ideas)：forgeting both Chan and Jiao，stilling mind and Buddha. At this state，every idea from the inner world tallies with the Buddha's mind. In practical level of preaching Buddhism，every word enjoys harmony with both Chan and Jiao. Chan and Jiao come to become a sublime whole，and the three sects melt into each other. Thereby，the best way leading to the Buddha's state is exposed to all living beings, where there is neither northern and southern sects, nor rivalry between the sects of He-ze and Jiang-xi. If anyone deviates the standpoint and confines himself in a narrow viewpoint of a certain sect or doctrine，he will find it harmful and not beneficial to learn about any teaching to enlightenment.
