The simplification of knowledge involves a process of selection, which is based on particular considerations or a particular perspective. The Buddhist tradition abounds in systematic introductions to Buddhist scriptures. Taking the Huayan school as an example, The Huayan Lunguan, written by Fu-an in the Song Dynasty, contains just over 4,000 words providing a survey of the Huayan Sutra. While many contemporary followers of the Huayan school regard it as a helpful introductory book for understanding the Sutra, some ancient masters held different views. This study aims to explore the editorial ideology embedded in the Huayan Lunguan, taken as a guide to reading the Huayan Sutra. The study will take the form of a critical discourse analysis, a method widely applied to contemporary educational research. Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis focuses on the study of textual ideology, asserting that the ideology of a text is hidden beneath its linguistic expression, and that the process of textual construction is often influenced by external factors such as history or social culture. As a summary treatise on Huayan, the interpretations and even the quotations in the Huayan Lunguan are necessarily subjective in nature. This paper uses Fairclough's three-dimensional framework (Text, Discourse practice, and Sociocultural practice) to illustrate the composition of the Huayan Lunguan from the perspective of textbook compilation, discussing its editorial features and the author's academic orientation. Through this case study of the analysis of the Huayan Lunguan, this paper discusses the various dimensions of teaching materials which teachers should take into consideration.
