Li Tongxuan, a 7-8 century Huayan practitioner, established a unique Huayan thought of his own in Tang China. The originality of Li’s tenet classification (panjiao) lies, not only in the structure of his classification based on individual sūtras rather than sets of teachings, but also in his focus on the mundane world (shisu) as the place of actual practices of compassion. It is in the mundane world that the Principle (li) of non-self/emptiness, guided by the transcendental Fundamental Wisdom (genbenzhi) within one’s mind, is given shape in acts of compassion as the Phenomenal (shi). It is this basic idea of the bodhisattvas’ practice that permeates Li’s tenet classification. In the theoretical introductory section ( xuantan) of his New Treatise on the Huayan Sūtra (Xin Huayan jing lun), Li Tongxuan presents his Ten Gates of Differences (of the Huayan Sūtra from others) to assert the primacy of the Huayan Sūtra . His tenet classification is presented in the second gate. There, Li focuses on the integration of the (phenomenal) existence (you) with emptiness (wu) and the integration of the conventional ( jia) with the True (zhen). This return to the mundane is a factor that cannot be underestimated in Li's Hua yan thought. The second point to be noticed is that Li regards the Lotus Sūtra and the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra as gateways from the Expedient teachings (quan) to the Real (shi). Li explains the Expedient as "erroneous views of discriminating between Pure Land/Defiled Land, Self - Buddhahood/Other -Buddhahood, likes/dislikes that do not correspond to the truth." On the other hand , Li claims that the Real teaching expounds the view that "all sentient beings have Buddha nature and have no difference with the Buddha; only that they cannot see this being o verwhelmed b y ignorance." Li asserts that the realm of Real teachings as found in the Huayan Sūtra is "without corners like a perfect globular jewel, directly illuminates like a clear mirror, without distance like the void, boundless like an echo, unobstructed like a shadow; as the essence of the dharmadhātu is without obstruction." Li severely criticizes the obsession with the distinction between Pure Lands and Defiled Lands, of the here and there, namely, of the transcendental and the mundane. Based on the chapter "Entr y into the Dharmadhatu" (rufajie pin) of the Huayan Sūtra , Li laid out a theory of bodhisattvahood which elaborates on the process of mutual cultivation of wisdom and compassion, which culminates in the practice of "pure altruism" in the mundane world "without longing for Buddhahood in a transcendental realm". Although hitherto, much of the focus on Li Tongxuan's Hua yan thought has been placed on his notion of the Fundamental Wisdom, from his tenet classification, too, we can see how he believed that a bodhisattva's practices should be based on the mundane world which i s "a great ocean of endless suffering in repeated births and d