Both Jizang 吉蔵 and Tanluan 曇鸞 relied upon Nagarjuna's system of Sunya thought, transmitted through the San-lun 三論 or Shi-lun 四論 schools, for their own Buddhist interpretation and practice. They were also influenced by distinctively Chinese interpretations of Sunya thought by Kumarajiva's disciples. However, their backgrounds differed completely in terms of their lineage and geographical setting. Although they had the same academic starting point, they arrived at slightly different conclusions. It is interesting that Jizang, who was 70 years younger, regarded it as a serious matter. In this paper, I shall examine the theory of Two Truths 二諦 found in the Wangsheng lun-zhu『往生論註』by referring to Er-di yi『二諦義』, in which Tanluan is quoted. I will further compare it with Jizang's Pure Land writing, the Guan-wu-liang-shou-jing yi-shu『観無量寿経義疏』, in order to consider, the differences in the thought of these two individuals.
