In Chinese Buddhism from Sui隋to Tang唐, the view of buddha-kaya (buddha's body) and buddha-ksetra (buddha's land) was one of the main themes. It was especially important whether Amitabha should be interpreted as either sambhoga-kaya報身or nirmana-kaya化身. This interpretation was closely related to the problem of whether or not ordinary people (prthag-jana凡夫) would be able to go to the pure land of Amitabha. The interpretation of the Buddha-kaya and buddha-ksetra of Amitabha by Ji基who is the founder of the Chinese Hosso school of Buddhism, is found in the chapter on Buddha's land (Fo-tu-zhang仏土章) in Da-cheng-fa-yuan-yi-lin-zhang大乗法苑義林章. This has attracted much attention. In this chapter, it is written that Amitabha's pure land combines the land of sambhoga-kaya and nirmana-kaya. However, in the chapter of buddha-kaya, San-shen-yi-lin三身義林, there is a description which emphasizes that Amitabha is sambhoga-kaya, and this opinion is based on two or more sastras. The contents overlap with Mi-le-shang-sheng-jing-zan弥勒上生経賛, and we can guess that his faith to Maitreya is deeply related to his interpretation of the Buddha-kaya of Amitabha. I wish to point out in this paper that Ji's central opinion is that Amitabha is sambhoga-kaya, and he advocated this opinion from the different viewpoint than that of Pure Land Buddhism (Jing-tu-jiao浄土教).
