Since the sparking of water on the head (guan ding)，the sect of tian tai has been inspired for over a hundred years. With the appearances of Zen，Hua Yian and Wei Shi，Jing Xi and Jing Ran from the sect of Tian tai tried to restore themselves by introducing the thought of on the awakening of the faith into the Buddhism of Tian Tai. Interpreting the doctrine of “possession of a certain kind of nature” with “going with the flow,” he sowed the seed of the struggle between the “within the sect” clan and the “without the sect” clan in the Tian Tai sect in the Sung Dynasty. The subsequent theories of “reason as a whole” and “reason as whole with different applications” of the “within the sect” clan were related to Zhan Ran. In his critique of the sect of Hua Yian，Zhan Ran proposed the theory of “riddance of desires and feelings while keeping the nature”，unconsciously pushing the thought of Tian Tai to pantheism. According the situation then，Zhan Ran developed the idea of “evil as nature” in the doctrine of “evil in application” and truth transcending the eight evils”to consolidate the superior status of the sect of Tian Tai Buddhism.
