As the main doctorine of Tiantai buddhism, theory of inherent evil in the buddha-nature which Guanzong temple sticked to, was challenged by Neixue School in the period of the Republic of China. The key point of the debate which was regarded as the part of the debate of Awakening of Faithin Mahāyāna in morden china, was how to understand the relationship between essence and funtion. According to Neixue School, buddhua-nature is essenc but not funtion, so the theory of inherent evil in the buddha-nature can't be accepted, whereas Guanzong temple persisted in the theory of inherent evil and resolved the problem of confusing essence and function by intergrating the concept of bīja and the thory of inherent inlusion, so as to give morden buddhism a new function.
