The most famous practice of meditative cessation and observation in East Asia was the Tiantai system called zhiguan 止観, established by Tiantai Zhiyi 天台智顗 (538–597). Moreover, the type of zhiguan taught in the section on the aspect of practice and the attitude of faith within the Dasheng qi xin lun 大乗起信論 (Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith), which in recently years has been shown to have been produced in northern China, was important since it greatly influenced the later Buddhist world. It is thought that the reception and proliferation of zhiguan in the Northern and Southern Dynasties period occurred with the background of this meditative practice.
Zhiguan is generally regarded as a translation of śamatha and vipaśyanā, but the source terms were not limited to these. In addition to examples that correspond to sthāna and upalakṣaṇā (listed among the the six breath meditations or liu xinian 六息念), similarly the parts translated as zhiguan in the Chinese translations of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa by Zhi Qian, Kumārajīva and Xuanzang are all identified as śamatha-vidarśanā in the corresponding Sanskrit text. Having rendered zhiguan from different source words, awareness of the differences in the original vocabulary were lost in the interpretations by Chinese monks. We can consider this one reason underlying the development of the unique system of zhiguan in East Asia.
