Whether all sentient beings can attain Buddhahood is a central problem in Mahayana Buddhism. The controversy over this issue came to a head in China during the seventh century, when Hsuan-tsang and his followers put forward the theory of five ”lineages” (gotras) maintaining that there are three groups of sentient beings, i.e. those of sravaka lineage, those of pratyekabuddha lineage and those without lineage, who can never realize Buddhahood due to their lack of Buddhanature. This paper examines the reaction of Fa-tsang (643-713), the actual founder of the Hua-yen School and a fervent advocate of the thesis of universal Buddhahood, to the theory of gotras and its related concepts. The paper begins with an exhaustive account of Fa-tsang's attempt to establish a correlation between various opinions on the subject of gotra with various levels of Buddhist teaching, with a view to relegating Hsuan-tsang's theory of five lineages to an inferior form of Buddhist teaching. It goes on to examine the way Fa-tsang reinterprets concepts in the scriptures often cited to support the theory of five lineages, with an eye to demonstrating that no sentient being is destined to be excluded from Buddhahood forever. It concludes with a discussion of Fa-tsang's replies to a number of criticisms raised against his thesis of universal Buddhahood, and an explanation of Fa-tsang's novel idea of the Buddha-gotra embracing both the realms of the sentient and the non-sentient.
