Do you want to stay informed about this journal? Click the buttons to subscribe to our alerts.
The Prevalence of Huayan-Chan 華嚴禪 Buddhism in the Regions of Northern China during the 11th Century
Focusing on Chinese Language Texts from the Song, Liao and Xixia (Tangut) Kingdoms
In: Journal of Chan BuddhismAbstract
In the 11th century, the dissemination of Buddhism in the territories of Northern Song 北宋 dynasty (960–1127) China, Khitan 契丹 Liao 遼 (907/916–1125), and Xixia 西夏 (Tangut 党項, 1038–1227) kingdoms each reached a peak. What united the learned peoples of these three kingdoms in terms of religious and intellectual development was the comparatively widespread study and adoption of the teachings of Huayan Buddhism, or studies of and commentaries to the translations of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra into Chinese in 60-, 80-, and 40-rolls (Huayan jing 華嚴經, esp. T nos. 278, 279, 293). In this article I address some of my earlier research concerning two treatises composed by Bensong 本嵩 (active ca. 1083–1085), the Huayan guan tongxuan ji 華嚴觀通玄記 (Record of the Profundities of Total Meditative Insight [or Contemplation] of the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra Flower Garland Sūtra) and Fajie guan sanshimen song 法界觀三十門頌 (Verses Praising the Thirty Contemplative Approaches or Gates presented in the Gaṇḍavyūha Chapter on Entry into the Realm of Reality), among other examples from the period, to illustrate how these Huayan teachings were actually the product of Huayan and Chan Buddhist ideological frameworks, which fruitfully can be called Huayan-Chan. In order to demonstrate why the rubric ‘Huayan-Chan’ can be productive, I examine a range of commentarial Buddhist texts in Chinese to show who the patriarchs of Huayan-Chan were considered to be during the 11th century across the ethnically and linguistically diverse region of Northern China, and bring to the fore what some of these key teachings were. My main goal is to present the specific circumstances within which Huayan-Chan developed within the three kingdoms of Northern Song China, the Khitan Liao, and the Tangut Xixia.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Adamek, Wendi Leigh. The Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan History and Its Contexts. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
-
Adamek, Wendy Leigh. “Robes Purple and Gold: Transmission of the Robe in the Lidai fabao ji (Record of the Dharma-Jewel Through the Ages).” History of Religions 40, no. 1 (2000): 58–81.
-
Brose, Benjamin. “Crossing Thousands of Li of Waves: The Return of China’s Lost Tiantai Texts.” Journal of the International Association for Buddhist Studies 29, no. 1 (2006 (2008)): 21–62.
-
Cheen, Guo. Translating Totality in Parts: Chengguan’s Commentaries and Subcommentaries to the Avatamsaka Sutra. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2014.
-
Dai Nihon zokuzōkyō 大日本續藏經, 150 vols., eds. Nakano Tatsue, et al., Kyoto: Zokyō shoin, 1905–1912. Xinbian wanzi xu zangjing 新編卍字續藏經 [Newly Compiled Supplement to the [Buddhist] Tripiṭaka], Taipei: Xinwenfeng, 1968– 1978. Rpt., Chinese Buddhist Electronic Texts Association 中華電子佛典栛會, CBETA Electronic Tripiṭaka Collection 電子佛典集成, Taipei: 1998–2019; abbreviated as X.
-
Dong Qun 董群. “Lun Huayan Chan zai foxue he lixue zhijian de zhongjie zuoyong 论华严禅在佛学和理学之间的中介作用” [Discussion of the Intermediary Role of Huayan-Chan Thought between the Buddhist and Neo-Confucian Schools]. Zhongguo zhexue shi 中国哲学史 (History of Chinese Philosophy) 2 (2000).
-
Dunnell, Ruth W. “44. Esoteric Buddhism Under the Xixia (1038–1227).” In Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, edited by Charles D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen and Richard K. Payne. Handbook of Oriental Studies, 465–477. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
-
Dunnell, Ruth W. “Central Asia in World History.” Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 1 (Feb 1994): 155.
-
Dunnell, Ruth W. “The Fall of the Xia Empire: Sino-Steppe Relations in the Late 12th–early 13th Centuries.” In Rulers from the steppe: state formation on the Eurasian periphery, edited by Gary Seaman and Daniel Marks, 158–185. Los Angeles, Calif.: Ethnographics Press, Center for Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California, 1991.
-
Dunnell, Ruth W. The Great State of White and High: Buddhism and State Formation in Eleventh-century Xia. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawai’i Press, 1996.
-
Dunnell, Ruth W. “The Hsi Hsia.” In The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368, edited by Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett, 154–214. Cambridge, England and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
-
Dunnell, Ruth W. “Who Are the Tanguts? Remarks on Tangut Ethnogenesis and the Ethnonym Tangut.” Journal of Asian History 18, no. 1 (1984): 78–89.
-
Fang Guangchang 方廣錩. “Defining the Chinese Buddhist Canon: Its Origin, Periodization, and Future. Translated by Xin Zi and Jiang Wu.” Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies 28 (2015): 1–34.
-
Faure, Bernard. “Shen-hsiu et l’Avatamsaka-sutra.” Zinbun Kagaku Kenkyusho (Memoirs of the Research Institute for Humanistic Studies) 19 (1983): 1–15.
-
Faure, Bernard. The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism. Translated by Phyllis Brooks. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.
-
Feng Guodong 冯国栋, and Li Hui 李辉. “Ecang Heishuicheng wenxian zhong Tongli dashi zhuzuo kao 俄藏黑水城文献中通理大师著作考” [Investigation of the Works by Tongli Dashi in the St. Petersburg Collection of Documents from Khara-khoto]. Wenxian 文献 2011–3 (2011): 162–169.
-
Franke, Herbert. “Two Sons of Heaven: Studies in Sung-Liao Relations.” Journal of Asian Studies 48, no. 1 (Feb 1989): 151.
-
Gakujutsu Furontia jikkō iinkai 学術フロンティア実行委員会, ed. Nihon genson hasshu issaikyō taishō mokuroku fu Tonkō bukkyō bunken 日本現存八種一切経対照 目録 [付] 敦煌仏教文献 [Catalogue Comparing Eight Buddhist Canons Currently Available in Japan with Buddhist literature from Dunhuang]. Tokyo: Kokusai bukkyōgaku daigakuin daigaku, 2006.
-
Gimello, Robert M., and Peter N. Gregory, eds. Studies in Ch’an and Hua-yen, Studies in East Asian Buddhism, no. 1. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawai’i Press, 1983.
-
Gong Juan 龚隽. Chan shi gouchen: yi wenti wei zhongxin de sixiang shilun 禅史钩沉: 以问题为中心的思想史论述 [Investigation of Lost Profound Principles in the History of Chan Buddhism]. Beijing and Shanghai: Sanlian shudian 三联书店, 2006.
-
Hamar, Imre. A Religious Leader in the Tang: Chengguan’s Biography. Studia Philologica Buddhica: Occasional Paper Series no. 12. Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2002.
-
Ishii Shūdō 石井修道. “Sugyōroku ni oyoboshita Chōkan no chosaku no eikyō ni tsuite: Emei Enju no kyōzen itchi yomu seiritsu katei no gimon「宗鏡録」におよ ぼした澄觀の著作の影響についてー永明延寿の教禅一致読成立過程の疑問” [On the Influence of Chengguan’s Writings on the Records of the Mirror of the Source: A Question about the Process in the Formation of Yongming Yanshou’s Reading of ‘Zen and the Teachings Match’]. Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū 印度学仏教学研究 17 (1969): 575–576.
-
Itō Takatoshi 伊藤隆壽, and Lin Mingyu (Rin Meiu) 林鳴宇, eds. Zhaolun jijie Lingmo chao jiaoshi 肇論集解令模鈔校釋 [Annotated edition of Lingmo Notes Collected Annotations to the Treatise of Sengzhao, Shinpuku 真福寺 ed.]. Shanghai: Guji chubanshe 古籍出版社, 2008.
-
Kamata Shigeo 鎌田茂雄. Kegongaku kenkyū shiryō shūsei 華嚴学研究資料集成 [Collected Materials for the Study of Huayan and Kegon Buddhism]. Tokyo: Tōkyō daigaku Tōyō bunka kenkyūjo hōkoku 東京大学東洋文化研究所報告, 1983.
-
Lü Cheng 呂澂. Zhongguo foxue yuanliu lüejiang 中国佛教源流略讲 [Brief Introduction to the Origins of Chinese Buddhism]. Rpt. 1995, 2003, 2007 ed. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979.
-
McBride II, Richard D. Doctrine and Practice in Medieval Korean Buddhism: The Collected Works of Uichon. Korean Classics Library Series. Edited by Robert E. Jr. Buswell. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016.
-
McRae, John R. The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch’an Buddhism. Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism, no. 3. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawai’i Press, 1986.
-
Mei Ninghua 梅宁华, Lu Yinghong 卢迎红, Xu Peiren 徐佩仁, and Liu Yiquan 刘义全, eds. Beijing Liao Jin shiji tuzhi 北京辽金史迹图志 [Historical Sites in Beijing from the Liao and Jin dynasties]. 2 vols. Beijing: Beijing Yanshan chubanshe 北京燕山出版社, 2003.
-
Morrison, Elizabeth. The Power of Patriarchs: Qisong and Lineage in Chinese Buddhism. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
-
Nishida Tatsuo 西田竜雄. Seikabun Kegongyō 西夏文華嚴經 [The Avataṃsaka-sūtra in the Tangut Language]. Kyoto: Kyōto daigaku bungaku-bu 京都大学文学部 (Faculty of Literature at Kyoto University), 1977.
-
Nishida Tatsuo 西田竜雄. Seikago no kenkyū: Seikago no saikōsei to Seika moji no kaidoku 西夏語の研究: 西夏語の再構成と西夏文字の解讀 [A Study of the Xixia Language: Reconstruction of the Xixia Language and Decipherment of the Xixia Script]. Kyoto: Zaūhō kankōkai 座右宝刋行会, 1964–1966.
-
Nogami Shunjō 野上俊靜. Ryō Kin no bukkyō 遼金の佛敎 [Buddhism during the Liao and Jin Dynasties]. Kyoto: Heirakuji shoten 平楽寺書店, 1953.
-
Ran Yunhua 冉雲華. Zongmi 宗密 [On Zongmi]. Taipei. Dongda tushu gongsi 東大圖書公司 1988.
-
Robson, James. “Brushes with Some ‘Dirty Truths’: Handwritten Manuscripts and Religion in China.” History of Religions 51, no. 4 (2012): 317–343.
-
Shanghai guji chubanshe 上海古籍出版社, ed. Ecang Dunhuang wenxian 俄藏敦煌 文獻 Dunhuang Manuscript Collections of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences]. 17 vols. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1992–2001.
-
Shi Jinbo 史金波. Xixia fojiao shilüe 西夏佛学史略 [An Introduction to the Buddhism of the Xixia Kingdom]. Xining, Qinghai province: Renmin chubanshe 人民出版社, 1988.
-
Shiina Kōyū 椎名宏雄. Sō-Gen ban zenseki no kenkyū 宋元版禅籍の研究 [Studies in the Chan editions of the Song and Yuan dynasties]. Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1993.
-
Solonin (Suoluoning 索羅寧), Kirill J. “Baiyun Shizi sanguan jiumen chutan 白云释子三观九门初探” [Primary Research on Baiyun Shizi Three Contemplations and Nine Methods or Gates]. Xixia xue 西夏学 8 (2011): 9–22.
-
Solonin (Suoluoning 索羅寧), Kirill J. “The Formation of Tangut Ideology: Buddhism and Confucianism.” In Buddhism in Central Asia I: Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, and Pilgrimage, edited by Carmen Meinert and Henrik H. Sørenson, 123–148. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
-
Solonin (Suoluoning 索羅寧), Kirill J. “Tangut Chan Buddhism and Guifeng Zongmi.” Zhonghua foxue xuebao 中華佛學學報 (Chung-hwa Buddhist Journal) 11 (1998): 365–424.
-
Solonin (Suoluoning 索羅寧), Kirill J. “Xixia fojiao de zhenxin sixiang 西夏佛教的 “真心 ‘思想’ ” [On the Notion of the “Sincere Mind” in Tangut Buddhism]. Xixia xue 5 (2010): 163–172.
-
Solonin (Suoluoning 索羅寧), Kirill J. “Xixiawen Yuanxin jing kao 西夏文「圆心镜」考” [An Investigation of the Chart of the Perfect Mind in Tangut]. Zhongguo chanxue 中国禅学 7 (2014): 179–190.
-
Solonin, Kirill J. “‘Chan Contemplation’ in Tangut Buddhism.” Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences 7, no. 2 (2014): 203–245.
-
Solonin, Kirill J. “Hongzhou Buddhism in Xixia and the Heritage of Zongmi (780–841): A Tangut Source.” Asia Major, Third Series 16, no. 2 (2003): 57–103.
-
Solonin, Kirill J. “The Teaching of Daoshen in Tangut Translation: The Mirror of Mind*.” In Avataṃsaka Buddhism in East Asia: Huayan, Flower Ornament Buddhism Origins and Adaptation of a Visual Culture, edited by Robert M. Gimello, Frédéric Girard and Imre Hamar, 137–187. Weisbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012.
-
Sørensen, Henrik H. “43. Esoteric Buddhism Under the Liao.” In Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, edited by Charles D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen and Richard K. Payne. Handbook of Oriental Studies, 456–464. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
-
Sun Bojun 孙伯君. “Heishui cheng chutu xixiawen Jinzi zhang yunjian lei jie kaoshi黑水城出土西夏文「金师子章云间类解」考释” [Investigation Regarding an Artifact Unearthed in Heishui City Containing the “Abstracts from the Songjiang 松江 Area of the Golden Lion Treatise”]. Xixia yanjiu 西夏研究 7 (2010): 131–146.
-
Sun Bojun 孙伯君. Xixia wenxian congkao 西夏文献丛考 [A Collection of Tangut Documents]. Shanghai: Guji chubanshe 古籍出版社, 2015.
-
Tackett, Nicolas. The Origins of the Chinese Nation: Song China and the Forging of an East Asian World Order. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
-
Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎, Watanabe Kaikyoku 渡辺海旭, et al., eds. Taishō shinshū dai zōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. 100 vols. Tokyo: Taishō Issaikyō Kankōkai, 1924–1935. Rpt., Chinese Buddhist Electronic Texts Association 中華電子佛典栛會, CBETA Electronic Tripiṭaka Collection 電子佛典集成, Taipei: 1998–2019; abbreviated as T.
-
Takamine Ryoshu 高峰了州. Kegon to Zen tono tsūro 華厳と禅との通路 [Passages Between Huayan and Chan Thought]. Nara. Nanto Bukkyō Kenkyūkai 南都仏教研究会 1956.
-
Tao, Jing-shen. “Barbarians or Northerners: Northern Sung Images of the Khitans.” In China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th–14th Centuries, edited by Morris Rossabi, 66–86. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, 1983.
-
van Schaik, Sam. The Spirit of Zen. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2018.
-
van Schaik, Sam. Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2015.
-
Wakiya Kiken 脇谷撝謙. “Ryō Kin bukkyō no chūshin 遼金仏教の中心” [On the Central Themes in Liao and Jin dynasty Buddhism]. Rokujō gakuhō 六条学報 135 (1913): 2–9.
-
Wang Song 王頌. “Bensong yu Fajie guan men tongxuan ji: Riben Lizheng daxue zang Tongxuan ji ji qi zhoubian de kaocheng 本嵩与法界观门通玄记 – 日本立正大学藏 <通玄记> 及其周边的考察” [Bensong’s Record of the Profundities of Complete Meditative Insight of the Dharmadhātu: An Investigation of the Edition kept in the Risshō University Archives in Japan]. Foxue yanjiu 佛学研究 23 (2014): 47–63.
-
Wang Song 王頌. “Hokusō Seika Ryō ni okeru Kegon to Zen to no kōshō: Honshū no futatsu no chosaku to Sankan kyūmon to no hikaku o chūshin to shite 北宋・西夏・遼における華厳と禅との交渉——本嵩の二つの著作と「三観九門」との比較を中心と して” [Negotiations between Hayan and Chan Thought in Northern Song China, Xixia, and Liao: Focusing on Two Books by Bensong and Especially the Case of the Three Contemplations and Nine Gates]. Unpublished paper.
-
Wang Song 王頌. “Songdai Bensong huitong Huayan yu chan – yi Huayan qizi jingti fajie guan sanshi mensong kaocha wei zhongxin 宋代本嵩会通华严与禅 – 以「华严七字经题法界观三十门颂」考察为中心” [The Song dynasty Buddhist monk Bensong on Huayan and Chan Thought: A Case Study of his Thirty Verses Praising the Seven Characters from the Avataṃsaka-sūtra about the Contemplative Approach to the Dharmadhātu]. Pulgyo hakpo 佛教學報 (Dongguk University, Korea) 73 (2015): 9–32.
-
Wang Song 王頌. Songdai Huayan sixiang yanjiu 宋代华严思想研究 [Studies on Huayan Thought during the Song Dynasty]. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe 宗教文化出版社, 2008.
-
Wu, Jiang. “From the ‘Cult of the Book’ to the ‘Cult of the Canon’: A Neglected Tradition in Chinese Buddhism.” In Spreading the Buddha’s Word in East Asia: The Formation and Transformation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, edited by Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia, 46–78. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016.
-
Wu, Jiang, Greg Wilkinson, Fang Guangchang, J. Frederick, Tomoo Kida, Richard D. McBride II, A. Charles Muller, et al., eds. Reinventing the Tripitaka: Transformation of the Buddhist Canon in Modern East Asia. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017.
-
Yoshida Takeshi 吉田剛. “Hoku Sōdai ni okeru Kegon kōryū no keii – Kegon kyōgakushi ni okeru Chōsui Shisen no ichi zuke 北宋代に於ける華厳興隆の経緯 – 華厳教学史に於ける長水子璿の位置つけ” [The Circumstances of the Flourishing of the Huayan school during the Northern Song dynasty: The Situation of Changshui Zixuan and the History of Huayan Scholarship]. Komazawa daigaku zen kenkyūjo nenpō 駒沢大学禅研究所年報 9 (1998): 193–214.
-
Yoshizu Yoshihide 吉津宜英. Kegonzen no shisōshi teki kenkyū 華厳禅の思想史的 研究 [Studies on the Intellectual history of Huayan-Chan]. Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1985.
-
Yuan Shiwei 袁世伟. “Xixia Huayan Chan sixiang yu Dangxiang minzu de wenhua gexing – Xixia wenxian Jiexingzhaoxintu ji Hongzhou zongshi jiaoyi jiedu 西夏华严禅思想与党项民族的文化个性 – 西夏文献「解行照心图」与「洪州宗师教仪」解读” [Tangut Huayan-Chan Thought and the Ethnic and Cultural Character of Tanguts – Interpreting the Tangut Texts Chart of Mind Contemplation Understanding and Practice and Ordinances of the Hongzhou School Patriarchs]. Qinghai minzu yanjiu 青海民族研究 2017–1 (2017): 203–207.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 701 | 318 | 24 |
| Full Text Views | 30 | 11 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 77 | 32 | 3 |
The Prevalence of Huayan-Chan 華嚴禪 Buddhism in the Regions of Northern China during the 11th Century
Focusing on Chinese Language Texts from the Song, Liao and Xixia (Tangut) Kingdoms
In: Journal of Chan BuddhismAbstract
In the 11th century, the dissemination of Buddhism in the territories of Northern Song 北宋 dynasty (960–1127) China, Khitan 契丹 Liao 遼 (907/916–1125), and Xixia 西夏 (Tangut 党項, 1038–1227) kingdoms each reached a peak. What united the learned peoples of these three kingdoms in terms of religious and intellectual development was the comparatively widespread study and adoption of the teachings of Huayan Buddhism, or studies of and commentaries to the translations of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra into Chinese in 60-, 80-, and 40-rolls (Huayan jing 華嚴經, esp. T nos. 278, 279, 293). In this article I address some of my earlier research concerning two treatises composed by Bensong 本嵩 (active ca. 1083–1085), the Huayan guan tongxuan ji 華嚴觀通玄記 (Record of the Profundities of Total Meditative Insight [or Contemplation] of the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra Flower Garland Sūtra) and Fajie guan sanshimen song 法界觀三十門頌 (Verses Praising the Thirty Contemplative Approaches or Gates presented in the Gaṇḍavyūha Chapter on Entry into the Realm of Reality), among other examples from the period, to illustrate how these Huayan teachings were actually the product of Huayan and Chan Buddhist ideological frameworks, which fruitfully can be called Huayan-Chan. In order to demonstrate why the rubric ‘Huayan-Chan’ can be productive, I examine a range of commentarial Buddhist texts in Chinese to show who the patriarchs of Huayan-Chan were considered to be during the 11th century across the ethnically and linguistically diverse region of Northern China, and bring to the fore what some of these key teachings were. My main goal is to present the specific circumstances within which Huayan-Chan developed within the three kingdoms of Northern Song China, the Khitan Liao, and the Tangut Xixia.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 701 | 318 | 24 |
| Full Text Views | 30 | 11 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 77 | 32 | 3 |