1. Introduction

CHANG CHUNG-YUAN

NIRVANA IS NAMELESS

(A Translation of an Early Chinese Buddhistic Treatise)

1. INTRODUCTION

Nirvana Is Nameless is one of the four important essays of Buddhist philosophy which comprise Chao Lun, or The Treatises of Seng-chao. The other three treatises are : Prajna Is Not-Knowledge, Things Are Immutable, and Void Is Not Real. These three essays were translated by Richard H. Robinson in his Early Madhyamika in India and China, but not the treatise on Nirvana Is Nameless. However, Walter Liebenthal did translate all four essays in his Chao Lun, of which the second revised edition was published by the Hong Kong University Press in 1968. The author, Seng-chao (374-414), was originally a lover of Taoism, and well-versed in the Tao-te Ching and The Works of Chuarzg Tzu. Later, he converted to Buddhism, and went to northwest China to become a disciple of the famous Indian Buddhist, Kumarajiva. In 401, Seng-chao accompanied his teacher to Ch’ang-an, then the capital of the Kingdom of Chin in northern China, to establish a leading center of Buddhist study and translation in the north. Although Kumarajiva came from India, he thoroughly mastered classical Chinese thought and language. In addition to his translations of many important Buddhist sutras and sastras, he wrote commentaries on the Tao-te Ching and also on The Works of Chuang Tzu. Under his guidance, Seng-chao wrote his first treatise, Prajna Is Not-Knowledge, which was highly praised by the Indian teacher. In 408, Tao-sheng, a famous Buddhist scholar from the south, took this essay back with him when he returned to Lu-shan, the southern center of Buddhist studies in China. Seng-chao’s essay was highly esteemed by the Buddhist leaders in the south. Therefore, the meaning of Prajna expounded by Seng-chao in his essay played an important role in the development of Chinese Buddhist thought in the early fifth century. When we study this essay, we will find that the meaning of Prajna maintained by Seng-chao identifies with the meaning of Tao in

Taoist philosophy. Thus, we may say that this essay shows the synthesis of the basic thoughts of Buddhism and Taoism. In the essay Nirvana Is Nameless, submitted to the King of Chin in northern China, Seng-chao identifies Nirvana with the One. That is, when the self and others are both diminished, then subjectivity and ob- jectivity disappear into the One. This is called Nirvana. In addition to this idea of the identity of opposites, Seng-chao refers to the mutual relationship of opposites as follows:

Existence is derived from non-existence and non-existence is derived from existence. Apart from existence there is no nonexistence. Apart from non-existence there is no existence. The truth of mutual creation between existence and non-existence is similar to the mutual contrast of high and low. If there is high, there must be low. If there is low, there must be high. This is the relative truth which is stated in the second chapter of the Tao-te Ching and is adapted by Seng-chao. Seng-chao further maintains that the identity of opposites is also freedom from opposites. This idea of freedom from opposites is also stated in the second chapter of the Tao-te Ching. As Lao Tzu says: “The sage deals with things through non-interference, and teaches without words.” Non-interference may be illustrated as letting the crane’s legs remain long, and letting the duck’s legs remain short, as mentioned by both Chuang Tzu and Seng-chao. To teach without words is what Seng-chao calls ‘mystic Tao’, which rests upon subtle awakening. Subtle awakening rests upon immediate identification with the reality of things. When one achieves immediate identification with the reality of things, one sees opposites as one, and one realizes that one’s self and others are not two. Thus, Seng-chao says: “Heaven and earth and I derive from the same root, and ten thousand things and I are one.” This is exactly the idea of the second chapter in The Works of Chuang Tzu. Thus, the One is Nirvana, Nirvana is the One. This is the achievement of subtle awakening to the ‘mystic Tao’. The process of achieving subtle awakening maintained in Seng-chao’s essay is similar to the process of subtle awakening found in the Tao-te Ching. In Seng-chao’s essay we read:

Do we not have the saying from the classics: ‘The student of knowledge learns day by day; the student of Tao loses day by day’? To seek for Too is to act through non-action. The action of non-action is called decreasing day by day.