Three academic characteristics can be extracted from Southern Sung Dynasty Zhi Pan’s Buddhist Patriarchs, a comprehensive masterpiece in Tien Tai historical writings. 1. Incorporated with traditional historical methodology, Buddhist Patriarchs is constructed with biographic records as its frame, with added styles of chronicling and “Hui Yao” (會要體). Initiating a new genre in the Buddhist historiography, this work is categorized by “Benji” (Annals of Emperors), “Shi-jia” (Annals of Aristocratic Families), “Lie Zhuang” (Biographies of the Commons), and “Biao” (Tables). In addition, the inclusion of nine “Zhi” (Descriptions) surpasses in space half of the book. The first eight “Zhi” follow the chronological pattern of The Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government(通鑑). The last “Zhi”—“Chronological Assemblage Zhi”(歷代會 要志), is in the style of “Hui Yao”. 2. The purpose of composing Buddhist Patriarchs follows closely the ideas of the Tien Tai School “Hill Sect” (山家) that sprouted in Northern Sung Dynasty. Following and stating the ideas of “Association of Giving and Receiving”(授受淵源) and “Branches and Sects”(支分派別), this book manifests strongly the religious complex of Zhi Pan as a disciple of Hill Sect. 3. In the main tone of Tien Tai, Buddhist Patriarchs also opens space to sects of Sino Buddhism— the Pure Land Sect, the Zen Sect, the Hsien Shou (Hua Yen) Sect, the Esoteric Sect, the Tzu En (Dharma Laksana) and the Vinaya School. Approving of the respective value of “teaching” and “learning”, this book also worships the founders and predecessors of each sects because of their roles as “being the masters that brighten Buddhism at their time.” “Unobstructed Dharma Zhi” (Vol. 15) (法運通塞) incorporates into one volume great events of the three schools of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism in a chronological order. This Zhi reveals the three schools’ complements to each other and demonstrates the tradition and merits of “moralizing the public.” Buddhist Patriarchs should be therefore regarded as the representative work of historical writings of Sung Dynasty.
