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Revisiting Chan Buddhism of the Ninth Century Lin, Pei‐Yin (2011) Precepts and lineage in Chan tradition: cross‐cultural perspectives in ninth century East Asia. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/14241 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Precepts and Lineage in Chan Tradition: Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Ninth Century East Asia PEI-YING LIN Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in Study of Religions YEAR 2011 Department of Study of Religions School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1 Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________Date: _________________ 2 Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to shed new light on the early stages of the development of Chan Buddhism in China by adducing a wider range of sources than has been usual hitherto and by seeking a better understanding of the correlations between the key elements which were eventually fused into “Chan Buddhism.” This thesis points out two problems in current scholarship on early Chan Buddhism: the first is that of discussing Chan Buddhism within a framework of “the” Chan School; the second is that of analysing Chinese Buddhism without including perspectives from Japan and Korea. In the Japanese bibliographies by Saichō (767–822), Ennin (794-864) and Enchin (814 – 891), there is a pattern of linkage between the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and the Brahmā’s Net Sūtra. Three chapters are devoted to the role of these scriptures in a wider intellectual and political context. Both scriptures served functions in the acquisition of authority in a period understood as the “end of the dharma.” The following two chapters probe into the theme of “Dharma flowing east,” which emerged around the sixth century and then took shape in the reincarnation story concerning Shōtoku Taishi (573-621) in the eighth century and in the biographies by Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn (857-?) in the Silla Kingdom. The logic of occupying Buddhist centre position by using Chan Buddhism turned out to be a continuing process from China to Japan and Korea. This is about the paradoxical relationship between the transmission of “enlightenment” “from mind to mind” and the persistent role of precepts, lineage lines, and various institutional perceptions, including international ones. The result is a redefinition of the implications of the figure of Bodhidharma, of the ways in which Chan Buddhism functions, and the approach of Chan to the acquisition and assertion of authority. 3 Table of Contents Introduction General introduction 6 Historiography of Chan studies 7 Cross-sectarian approach 11 Preview of the main arguments 14 Chapter 1. Literature Review 1 The secondary literature on early Chan studies 19 Eighth century China 25 Huineng 27 Mazu 28 Zongmi 30 2 “Chan” and “Chan zong” 34 3 Japanese perspectives 39 Japanese bibliographies 42 4 Concluding remarks: Buddhist precepts and lineage Encounter and identity 53 Institutionalisation through regulations 54 Lineage and authority 56 Chapter 2. Two Themes in the Rise of Chan Buddhism: The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and Bodhidharma 59 1 The retrospective images of Bodhidharma and Huineng 65 2 The threefold learning 70 3 Huisi, Xinxing and the Rise of Chan 71 4 Anti-scholasticism 81 5 The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and the notion of practice 87 6 Chan transmission and the Vinaya tradition 93 7 The notion of lineage 98 8 Textual transmission 101 9 Concluding remarks 106 Chapter 3. The Bodhisattva Precepts: the Origin of the Platform Sūtra 109 1 The doctrinal context of Bodhisattva precepts 111 2 Bodhisattva Ideal according to Huisi 121 3 Daoxuan’s concept of the “ordination platform” 125 4 Daoxuan’s monasticism 127 4 5 Simplification of rituals for the laity 131 6 Reductionism in the Platform Sūtra 135 7 Concluding remarks 144 Chapter 4. The Synthesis of Chan Buddhism and Precepts: Saichō’s Perception 147 1 Ordination Platforms and the Kenkairon 149 2 Threefold-Learning: Dōsen’s influence on Saichō 155 3 Daosui and Saichō’s Kenkairon engi 161 4 “Perfect and Sudden Precepts” (Endonkai) 166 5 Daoxin’s inflence on Saichō: the lineage of Bodhidharma 170 6 Bodhidharma in the lineage accounts A) Saichō’s Naishō Buppō Sōjō Kechimyakufu 175 B) Bodhidharma in Kōjō’s Denjutsu isshinkaimon 177 C) Annen’s Futsū jubosatsukai kōshaku 178 7 Concluding remarks 183 Chapter 5. The Image of Huisi in the Reincarnation Story of Shōtoku Taishi: Patriarchs from across the Sea 185 1 The Reincarnation Story 192 2 Du Fei (c.710 – 720) and Huisi 200 3 Jianzhen (688-763) and Huisi 203 4 Situo (722-809) and Jianzhen 205 5 Saichō and Huisi 210 6 Concluding remarks 214 Chapter 6. The Writings of Kōjō (779–858) and Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn (b. 857): The Role of Chan Buddhism in the Buddhist World 217 1 Kōjō (779–858) and Japanese Buddhism 221 2 The Denjutsu isshin kaimon 222 3 Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn and Korean Sŏn Buddhism 229 4 The “Four mountain steles” (Sasan pi’myŏng) 235 5 Concluding remarks 244 Chapter 7 Conclusion. Chan Buddhism: A Mobile Religion 247 Cited Works 261 5 Introduction General Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to shed new light on the early stages of the development of Chan Buddhism in China by adducing a wider range of sources than has been usual hitherto and by seeking a better understanding of the correlations between the key elements which played a role in its formation. In spite of the excellence of much recent scholarship focusing on particular aspects of Chan during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the overall picture is fragmentary. Even recent scholarship on important Tang monks, in particular Mazu 馬祖 (709– 788) and Zongmi 宗密 (780-841), provides only a partial perspective and is problematic when it comes to representation of the whole sweep of the development of Chan before the innovations of the Five Dynasties (907-960) period. Of course, it is widely recognised that the very idea of Chan Buddhism, with a history, was constructed retrospectively during the Song Dynasty (960- 1279). However in the construction of this picture, the influence of the scholar monk Zongmi was considerable, and later scholars have therefore tended to follow his picture of things. Zongmi, being himself of the Huayan (Skt. Avataṃsaka) persuasion, tended towards an integrative view. On the one hand he began to integrate the doctrines and histories of ten diverse Chan schools into one grand narrative, and on the other hand he was strongly in favour of an integration of scholasticism and meditation. However, his presentations do not correspond to earlier realities, which were more diffuse, even though there was a certain logic to the patterns of elements which retrospectively can be seen to have been relevant. 6 In general, modern scholarship has overlooked what Zongmi overlooked. This occurred not least because contemporary Japanese sources have not been adduced, which could have provided a corrective. We should remember that Zongmi was a contemporary of the visiting Japanese monk Saichō 最澄 (767-822) and that Saichō’s memorials and bibliographies provide important evidence of the development of Buddhism in China up to his time, including “Chan” Buddhism, which for him was simply a part of the whole. Thus we are calling here for a new categorisation of the sources for early Chan Buddhism. Although the Japanese perspective presented by Saichō and his disciples is also a partial view, it has not been considered enough in current scholarship. Beyond that, the dissertation as a whole seeks to provide a new correlational analysis of the leading elements of Buddhist thought and practice, for the early period, which were eventually fused into “Chan Buddhism.” An important finding in this research is that the way existent perceptions were integrated by Japanese and Korean writers reveal a logic consistent with that of Chinese precedents regarding their sense of legitimacy. Here the benefit of using non-Chinese sources is that it shows that before the construction of a Chan school, the concerns that fed into this school reached beyond China and indeed had their impact in the absence of any school organisation: lineage and precepts in Japan and Korea. Only by reconsidering the sources from outside China do the characteristics of Chan Buddhism as a cross- cultural transmission become truly intelligible. Historiography of Chan Studies Some fundamental questions regarding earlier stages of the formation of the Chan School have not been answered satisfactorily. The greatest difficulty 7 in studying Chan history comes from the nature of Chinese sources. Firstly, the development of Chan Buddhism over several centuries resulted in an organic religion which cannot possibly fit into any static definition without considering the differences in particular phases.
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