Tiantai school flourished during the time of its founder, Zhiyi 智顗 (538-597),and went into decline after his disciple Guanding 灌頂 (561-632) passed away. The ninth patriarch Zhanran 湛然 (711-782) in order to revitalize Tiantai doctrine and adjust it to the changing environment of the Tang China composed a number of exegetic and explanatory works. His effort culminated in his final masterpiece: Jin’gang pi (The Diamond Cutter 金剛錍). In this text, Zhanran presented specifically Tiantai interpretation of the idea that even insentient beings possess the Buddha nature; an argument which opposed the widely accepted interpretation of the Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra statement that only sentient beings possess the Buddha nature. In his work Zhanran provided a reinterpretation of the famous paragraph from the Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra (Niepanjing涅槃經) and showed that the text implies that the Buddha nature exists in all beings without discrimination; Zhanran also referred to the concept of “tathatā according with conditions” (zhenru suiyuan 真如隨緣) from the Awakening Faith of Mahāyāna Treatise (Dacheng qixinlun 大乘起信論); and used Tiantai concepts of the “inclusiveness of nature” (xingju 性具) and the “threefold causes of the Buddha-nature” (sanyin foxing 三因佛性) to show that the Buddha nature is all-inclusive and all-penetrating. Zhanran also addressed the criticism that “the name of tathāta is dharma nature for the insentient beings” (zhenru zai wuqing zhong dan ming faxing 真如在無情中但名法性) by distinguishing between “small” and “great” teachings. In addition to presenting an analysis of these arguments, this thesis also includes a selected translation of the Jin’gang pi, all of which will be done to show how Zhanran attempted to revive the Tiantai school by using Tiantai teachings to support his argument.
目次
Abstract i Acknowledgement iii Table of Contents iv Chapter One Introduction 1 1.1 The Background of the Thesis 1 1.2 Literature Review 4 1.3 Principles of Translation 5 1.4 The Structure of the Thesis 7 Chapter Two Zhanran 9 2.1 Zhanran’s Biography 11 2.1.1 Sources 11 2.1.2 Biography 14 2.2 The Works of Zhanran 17 Chapter Three The Historical Background of the Notion of the Buddha-nature in Tang 20 3.1 History of the Notion of the Buddha-nature 20 3.2 The Faxiang School’s Standpoint on the Notion of the Buddha-nature 23 3.3 The Chan School’s Standpoint on the Notion of the Buddha-nature 24 3.4 The Huayan School’s Standpoint on the Notion of the Buddha-nature 26 3.5 Zhiyi’s Standpoint on the Notion of the Buddha-nature 28 Chapter Four The Analysis of Jin’gang pi 29 4.1 Explanation of the Name of the Text 29 4.2 The Five Categories of Profound Meaning of Jin’gangpi 31 4.3 The Structure of the Jin’gang pi 34 4.4 Important Concepts in Jin’gang pi 36 4.4.1 The Concept of “Advance” and “Negative” 36 4.4.2 The Concept of “Threefold Dharmas” 38 4.4.3 The Concept of “Inclusiveness” 40 Chapter Five The Annotated Translation of Jin’gang pi 42 5.1 Preface to the Schematic Commentary to the Jin’gang pi 42 5.2 Jin’gang pi 43 Chapter Six Conclusion 82 Appendix 85 Bibliography 95
