A Critical Study on Wǒnch'ǔk's Life and His Doctrinal Classification In
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A Critical Study on Wǒnch’ǔk’s Life and his Doctrinal Classification in his Commentary on the Jieshenmi jing Dissertation zur Erlangung der Würde des Grades des Doktors der Philosophie an der Fakultät für Geisteswissenschaften der Universität Hamburg im Promotionsfach Sinologie vorgelegt von Wang Ying aus Lanzhou Hamburg, Dezember 2017 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Michael Friedrich Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Michael Zimmermann Weitere Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Steffen Döll Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 26 Juni 2018 Acknowledgements Now, having finalized my dissertation after so many years, it gives me great pleasure to express my gratitude to all of those who supported me to bring to completion this work. First of all, no doubt, my profoundest thankfulness is directed to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Michael Friedrich. Not only because he gave me generously of his time to supervise my thesis from its inception, but also for his extreme erudition, insights, and his patience. He was the first teacher who drew my attention to the field of intellectual history and also inspired me to deal with Wǒnch’ǔk in the context of the political developments of his time. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to study under his guidance, and his deep-going way of scholarship will always set the standard for me. Of equal importance is my mentor Prof. Dr. Zhan Ru at the University of Beijing. I am in many ways deeply indebted to him. I would like to say that he has always stood behind me at every crucial turn of my studies. Prof. Dr. Zhan Ru was so kind as to permit me to attend his classes on the Introduction to the Japanese Buddhism from the year 2007 to 2008, at the time, when I was studying at the Tsinghua University in Beijing. He was the first teacher who not only shared his prodigious philological, historical, and philosophical expertise on Indian, Chinese, and Japanese Buddhism with me, but also his precious books and materials relating to Buddhist studies. Prof. Dr. Zhan Ru guided my studies with important practical advice, and encouraged me to understand Wǒnch’ǔk in a broad and profound way. He also recommended me to learn at the University of Hamburg, thereby opening a new door to me, letting me learn the methodologies that Western scholars use and getting me to know their most profound insights. After my departure from Beijing, Prof. Dr. Zhan Ru continually acted as an inspiring mentor, and took time out of his extremely busy schedule to advise and encourage me in many ways to overcome the difficulties I had encountered in my research. He also provided me financial support, and gave me valuable advice for future studies. I cannot imagine how I could have been able to finish my dissertation without Prof. Dr. Michael Friedrich’s and Prof. Dr. Zhan Ru’s help and support. I would also like to show my special thankfulness to Prof. Dr. Michael Zimmermann for the support, suggestions, and encouragement he gave to me. I will always remember his great kindness towards me. My gratitude goes to Prof. Dr. Harunaga Isaacson for his help with learning Sanskrit. Of great help were my meetings with Prof. Dr. Lambert Schmithausen who gave me much of his time for explaining to me important terms and concepts from the Jieshenmi jing. I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Chen Jinhua at the University of British Columbia. He was so generous and kind as to send me most of the works both from him and Prof. Dr. Antonino Forte since Acknowledgements our first chance meeting at the University of Hamburg. This enabled me to get acquainted both their research, which provided the background for my thesis. My special gratitude is directed to my former mentors at the Tsinghua University, Prof. Dr. Wang Xiaochao, and Weilun Visiting Prof. Andrew L. C. Wong for their help throughout the years. I wish to express special thanks to Prof. Dr. Wang Xiaochao for accepting me as his student and for all his guidance. During the year I stayed in Beijing, I have benefited immensely from his insights and knowledge in Western Philosophy in a delightful way, which helped me a lot for understanding Western thinking. It was he who provided me the chance to stay at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where I for the first time collected some of the English articles on my topic. Following his suggestion, I went to Beijing University to engage in the Buddhist studies in the Philosophy department. I have accumulated a great many debts to Weilun Visiting Prof. Andrew L. C. Wong at the Tsinghua University. He in particular shared his expertise on Chinese Yogācāra, Chinese Buddhism in general, and traditional Chinese literature with me, and gave me his wise advice and patience. He suggested me to conduct the research on Wǒnch’ǔk and his commentary on the Jieshenmi jing. He has shown his generosity while I was preparing this dissertation, facilitating textual materials to me since I first met him. In this connection, I also want to mention that Weilun Visiting Prof. Andrew L. C. Wong donated the Maitreya Library to the Hamburg University. This library was very helpful for me during my studies because it provided me with a lot of important Chinese books. I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Shengkai. I still remember vividly how he encouraged me at the first time we met at the Tsinghua University. He acted in a very kind and supportive way, and shared his research experience with me. Much of my graduate knowledge concerning Buddhism came from my M.A. advisor Prof. Dr. Li Li’an at the Northwest University in Xi’an. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to him for his generous guidance and support during my time there and beyond. I also want to extend my gratitude to Prof. Dr. Guangxing at University of Hong Kong, Prof. Dr. Xueyu at Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Prof. Dr. Lin Zhenguo at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan for their generous help and support. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Wang Ding for talking about the manuscripts of Dunhuang to me, and also for sending me a collection of his writings. My thanks are also due to Prof. Dr. Kim Jongmyung for sending me a letter which provided me with a brief introduction concerning the research of Korean scholars on the topic of the relationship between Bulguk-sa and Buddhist thought. I also wish to express my great appreciation to my friends Hans-Jörg Stein M.A. and Ms. Sharnon Mentor-King for reading my drafts and giving me suggestions on my English. In particular for Hans-Jörg Stein, his patience, kindness, and encouragement helped me throughout the work. My thanks are also due to three librarians at Hamburg University, Dr. Felix Erb, Dr. Ruth Cordes, and Helene Kang M.A. Acknowledgements I need also to mention Ms. Grace Zhang and her family. They helped me a lot in different aspects concerning my life in Hamburg. I wish this short sentence could convey my deep thanks to them. Special thanks to Mr. Wang Gang in Beijing have to be expressed also for his generous and kind financial support. I am greatly indebted to the China Scholarship Council and the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst e. V., German Academic Exchange Service. Without their financial support, it would have been impossible for me to stay in Hamburg for conducting this research. My sincere thanks also go to my friends Benedikt Skowasch M.A, Dr. Christian Streif, Dr. Hodo Nakamura, Dr. Kenichi Kuranishi, Dr. Jung Lan Bang, Sakun Pakeekham M.A, Dr. Xiong Mingxin, Dr. She Shiqin, Prof. Dr. Li Jinshan, Zhou Chunyang M.A, Dr. Zhang Huina, Nicolas Ihle, Dr. Max Jakob Fölster, Dr. Christian Textor, Daisy Cheung M.A, Joo-Young Lim M.A, Dr. Li Mengyan, Dr. Dagmar Schwerk,Vivi, and Alice Chang for their various support and encouragement. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and the other family members from my heart and my whole being for their love, understanding, and support. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER ONE: CRITICAL STUDY OF THE TRADITIONAL IMAGE OF WǑNCH’ǓK ..................... 5 1 SOURCES ................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 The scattered primary sources related to Wǒnch’ǔk ............................................................................ 5 1.2 Later biographical sources .................................................................................................................. 5 2 NAME ...................................................................................................................................................... 10 3 ORIGIN .................................................................................................................................................... 12 4 LEAVING HOME AND ENTERING THE SAMGHA ........................................................................................... 15 5 TWO EARLY TEACHERS ............................................................................................................................ 15 5.1 Fachang ............................................................................................................................................. 16 5.2 Sengbian ............................................................................................................................................. 19 6 WǑNCH’ǓK’S ORDINATION AND STUDIES AT THE YUANFA 元法 MONASTERY .......................................