Nagarjuna's Contribution towards the Chinese Buddhism（作者：成建华）

1. Introduction

It was, during the Sui and Tang dynasties the eight kinds of Buddhist Schools like Tian-tai, San-lun, Vijnana, Hua-yen, Chan and Pure Land schools came into existence. All these Chinese Buddhist Schools declared that Nagarjuna was their first Patriarch. However, strictly speaking, out of these eight Buddhist Schools, there are only two or three more Chinese Buddhist schools which have something to do with Nagarjuna either directly or indirectly, such as Three Treatise School and Tian-tai School. A so called the Three Treatise School was actually in direct line of succession of Nagarjuna that based its doctrine on Madhyamikasastra, Satasastra, and Dvadasanikayasastra. The Tian-tai School based its doctrine on Sadharmapundarikasutra. The central concept of this school "Yi-xin-san-guan" (to view from three aspects with a mind) is actually come from or inspired by Mahaparjnaparamitasastra and the Verse No. 24 of Madhyamikasastra. The early development of Chinese Buddhism, therefore, has some thing to do, more or less, with Nagarjuna. This shows that Nagarjuna had given a great influence over the Chinese Buddhism and because of his great contribution, he deserves to enjoy high prestige in the Chinese Buddhist society.
In my paper I will focus on three aspects: spread of Nagarjuna's philosophy in its early stage in China, characteristics of the Three Treatise School and Nagarjuna's influence to both Tian-tai and other Chinese schools.

2. Spread of Nagarjuna's philosophy in its early stage in China

Madhyamika School was introduced into Tibet in the 8th century and even today the school plays still a dominant role in Tibetan Buddhism.
Buddhism was introduced into China around the beginning of the first century, and that for roughly a thousand years the Chinese mind was largely dominated by Buddhism. It was, however, during the Wei and Jun dynasties, when Xuanxue, the Chinese philosophical trend of the day based its doctrine on Taoism dominated the Chinese intellectual circle, the concept of parjna and sunyata were introduced into China successively. The metaphysic question of Xuanxue like "You" (existence) and "Wu" (non-existence) together with its relation were extensively discussed in the Chinese intellectual circle. For the Buddhist term sunyata (kong) or emptiness is literally quite close to that of Xuanxue, the devout Buddhist scholars interpreted Buddhism by making a farfetched comparison of some Taoist terms in order to propagate Buddhism. This kind of irrelevance caused a big quarrel in the Chinese Buddhist community and as a result several philosophic schools of Buddhism Called "Liu-jia-qi-zong" held in difference on the concept of sunyata were occurred one after another.
When the great Buddhist scholar Kumarajiva came to China and translated some important Buddhist books such as Mahaparjnaparamitasastra, Madhyamika Sastra, Dvadasamukha Sastra and Sata Sastra into Chinese, the so-called Xuanxuelized Buddhism was restored to order. Seng-zhao, a great disciple of Kumarajiva wrote a book Zhao-lun in which it has introduced systematically the origin of the concept of sunyata and criticized clearly the miscomprehension of Buddhism of the day. In order to avoid any confusion and to explain clearly the true concept of sunyata, Seng-zhao had created a term "bu-zhen-kong" (not real but empty) in terms of explaining Nagarjuna's philosophy. According to his philosophy, "bu-zhen" (unreal) is actually "conception" or "name". Either name or conception is nothing but man-made which is unreal in nature. What is unreal is actually empty (sunyata). By adapting this new term in explaining sunyata, it shows that Seng-zhao had apprehended correctly the real sense of Nagarjuna's philosophy. Although Seng-zhao took measure for thorough-going reform on study of the theory of prajna and sunyata, yet his philosophy had not broken away 100 percent from the influence of Chinese Xuanxue. That is to say that the situation in its early stage when Nagarjuna's philosophy was introduced to China was somewhat hard for any foreign religion like Buddhism to spread. That's why Buddhism could run only side by side with the local Chinese sorcery in the very beginning.

3. Characteristics of Three Treatise School

Indian Madhyamika Buddhism was introduced into China in the 4th century. The so-called "San-lun-zong" (Three Treatise School) or "Kong-zong" (the School of Emptiness) was actually based its doctrine on these three books: Madhyamika Sastra, Dvadasamukha Sastra and Sata Sastra. The three books, served as the basic doctrine of Three Treatise School which were translated by Kumarajiva were originally written by Nagarjuna and his disciple Aryadeva. The original Sanskrit copy of the books was not existent today. It is, therefore, the Nagarjuna's philosophy or Madhyamika Buddhism we talk about today is actually in accordance with the work of Candrakirti, "Ming-ju-lun" (Prasannapada).
When the three treatises were introduced and translated into Chinese by Kumarajive, it brought a big attention to the Chinese intellectual circle and caused a great interest in the area of philosophy of Buddhist studies. There are a number of great scholars exerted their interests in the three treatises, such as Hui-yuan, Seng-rui, Seng-zhao, Dao-seng, Seng-lang, Ji-zang and Fa-lang. Hui-yuan, Seng-rui, Seng-zhao and Dao-seng were early Chinese Madhyamikas. All four people were Kumarajiva's contemporaries, the first his correspondent and follower and the other three his disciples. Dao-seng advanced a number of original theories, but it was Seng-zhao who incorporating Taoism into Madhyamika developed a systematic philosophy. But the most important thinker of this school was Ji-zang who was very much honored by emperors of the Sui and Tang dynasties. The philosophy of Ji-zang was completely Indian in viewpoint, though he too quoted some from Taoism. It was Ji-zang who had carried forward Madhyamika philosophy in vague and founded Three Treatise School in China. Since then, Three Treatise School had played a dominant role in the Chinese Buddhist society until its decline in the ninth century.
According to Three Treatise School, any philosophy or doctrine is not a systematical consummation, but it should be approached with a critical sense of study. Generally, what approached by Mahayana or Hinayana is only an interest in its content of the doctrine. What they seek after is to establish a permanent truth. However, in accordance with Three Treatise School, there is no such which can be treated as the permanent. In this case, Three Treatise School criticized not only the traditional Indian philosophy, but Buddhist orthodox as well. In order to avoid any arbitrary and bias, Three Treatise School attaches its importance especially to means and methods, but not the annotation of the doctrine itself. Three Treatise School rejects any fixed form of logic for they do not consider that logic has a priori truth of knowledge. Any kind of metaphysics should be criticized, too. According to them, either logic or language is nothing but sunyata. Either deduction or induction is but man-made which has no permanent value of truth. Therefore, man's mind should not be obstructed by it. Strictly speaking, Three Treatise School has no unique method of philosophy itself. From the logical point of view, the theoretical method of Three Treatise School adapted usually is the practice of "empty logic". When they come to debate or to criticize the view of others they utilize always the method that is customarily used by their opponents. In their opinion, any philosophical method has only the pragmatic value. Any theoretical method by which one can remove any kind of attachment from either oneself or others that deserves value of usage. The aim of the debate or criticism of the school is not necessarily to establish any viewpoint of themselves, but to point out and correct the theoretical contradictory of others.

China since the 2nd century, but the Pure Land School which taught the worship of Amitabha was founded by Hui-yuan and some of its most important teachers began as students of San-lun-zong, the Three Treatise School and then became Amitabhaists. The Amitabha sects hold the doctrine of salvation by faith in Amitabha and their goal is the attainment of his paradise (Sukhavati) by his grace. Nagarjuna's Suhrllekha distinctly countenances Amitabha cult.





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Some materials referred:

1. T.R.V.Murti, The Central Philosophy of Buddhism, London, Allen and Unwin, 1955.
2. K.N. Jayatilleke, Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge, London, Allen and Unwin, 1963.
3. Hsueh-li Cheng, Nagarjuna's Twelve Gate Treatise, Boston, D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1982.
4. Frederick J. Streng, Emptiness: A Study in Religious Meaning, New York, Abingdon, 1967.
5. Richard Robinson, Early Madhyamika in India and China, University of Wiscosin-Madison Press, 1967.
6. Hajime Nakamura, Buddhist Logic Expounded by Means of Symbolic Logic, Jounal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, No 7, 1958.

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