Chapter 1 An Invented Tradition: Hva shang Mahāyāna and His Teachings in Tibetan Literature
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Abstract
Cultural exchanges between the Chinese and Tibetans stemmed from a time when Tibetan civilization was still in a very primitive stage. To learn from Chinese and absorb Chinese cultural elements was one of the most important driving forces behind the rapid development of Tibet, both as a nation and as a cultural entity. For a time, Chinese Chan Buddhism was very popular among Tibetan Buddhists. However, it eventually provoked serious philosophical questioning on the various paths towards enlightenment and intense intellectual confrontation between different Buddhist traditions, and it led ultimately to the famed bSam yas debate between the Chinese Chan Master Hva shang Mahāyāna and the Indian Madhymakanist Kamalaśīla. A close scrutiny of contemporary Chinese and Tibetan sources reveals that the bSam yas debate was actually a series of internal and rational dialogues and arguments between two major Buddhist traditions. Judged even by today’s standards, it can be considered a sophisticated intercultural dialogue between Chinese and Indian Buddhists. Unfortunately, the bSam yas debate evolved into a life-or-death struggle in late Tibetan historical and religious literature, in which it was claimed that justice vanquished evil and orthodoxy excluded heterodoxy. Hva shang Mahāyāna and the Chinese Buddhist tradition was continuously demonized as a synonym for all heretical beliefs and often used as a tool of vicious attacks among different schools of Tibetan Buddhism. This study aims at further clarifying the real face of the Chinese Chan doctrine propagated by Hva shang Mahāyāna in Tibet, analyzing Tibetans’ understandings and misunderstandings of Hva shang Mahāyāna’s teaching and exploring why and how Hva shang Mahāyāna and his teaching became demonized in Tibetan literature through the scrutinizing of numerous accounts of Hva shang Mahāyāna’s life and teaching in Tibetan historical and religious texts. This chapter concludes that the long-established tradition of Hva shang Mahāyāna and his teachings in Tibetan literature was artificially invented and manipulated.