試論南山律家之「大乘圓教」戒體論 ── 為紀念弘一大師「專弘南山」而作=The Concept of Precept Substance in Mahayana Complete Teachings according to the Nanshan Vinaya School: In Memory of Venerable Hong Yi’s Devotion to the Nanshan Vinaya
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the spiritual journey of Venerable Hong Yi when he switched his attention away from the new Mūlasarvāstivāda-Vinaya to promulgate instead the old Cāturvargīya-vinaya (Four-Part Vinaya in Chinese). We sometimes oversimplify his diversion by reducing it to only follow a Buddhist layman Xu Wei Ru’s advice: to build on the contributions of his predecessors, not to blaze a new trail. In reality, however, the Venerable master should have more complex arguments to support his choice.His devotion to spreading the Nanshan Vinaya as we know today should be a result following his thorough study of vinaya collections. After having compared two versions of monastic rules, Venerable Hong Yi should perceive a core value in the old vinaya, a value inherently related to the substance of precepts. To elucidate the Venerable master’s vision, this paper discusses the substance of precepts in more detail. It begins by tracing the ideological differences of early Buddhist schools about the property of precept substance (avijñapti in Sanskrit). It explores then three philosophic outlooks on the issue illustrated by the Real Dharma School, the Unreal Names School and the Complete Teaching School, as defined in Nanshan Vinaya texts. Such research is based on evidence retrieved from the book the Venerable master compiled: the Guide to the Nanshan Vinaya for Lay Buddhists (Chinese edition). By referring to the Buddha’s basic teachings in āgama sutras, the law of dependent origination, this paper ends with a deliberation on the property of precept substance, and offers some observations over disagreement between different schools. It seems that the specific definition from the doctrine of Tathāgata-garbha (embryo of Tathāgata ) is the most controversial as it is estranged slightly from the principle of causality; nevertheless, the idea has been held in high esteem by Venerable Hong Yi.
