Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s1.t2: Tiantai School

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s1.t2

Language: English

Tiantai School

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Tien-Tai School is the earliest Buddhist schools established in China and is named after Mount Tiantai because its founder Zhiyi of the Sui Dynasty lived there.

Tien-Tai School honoured Indian Longshu (Nagarjuna) as its initial patriarch, Huiwen in the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577) the second, Huisi the third, Zhiyi the fourth, Guanding the fifth, Zhiwei the sixth, Huiwei the seventh, Xuanlang the eighth and Zhanran the ninth.

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In the first year of Tian Jia Period of Emperor Wen of Chen Dynasty (560 CE), Zhiyi, the founder of the school, followed Huisi, his teacher to study Fahua Samadhi at the Dasu Mount (present-day Xinyang, Henan) and finally gained the true essence. He came to Jinling (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu) in the first year of Guangda Period (567 CE) and was invited to live in the Waguan Temple to deliver lectures on *Saddharma Pundarika* and paraphrase *Mahāpraj¤āpāramitā Upadeśa* where he not only addressed speeches but also wrote books and set up his own theories. In the seventh year of Taijian Period of Chen Dynasty (575 CE), Zhiyi led his over 20 disciples including Huibianto to live in Mount Tiantai for 10 years and established the Tien-Tai School. Finally, Zhiyi died in Sui Dynasty and was buried at the foot of Xinchang Buddha in Zhejiang. His disciple Guanding who was faithful in promoting his theories and essences built the Guoqing Temple. The Tien-Tai School then blossomed to its peak but declined soon after his passing away. With support from emperor Xuanzong, Suzong and Daizong of Tang Dynasty, the ninth patriarch of the school Zhanran began to revive it by following transmitted knowledge, spreading their doctrines and confronting other schools. During the Song Dynasty, the Tien-Tai School was divided into two wings: Shanjia Wing and the Shanwai Wing. The Zhili branch living in Siming (present-day Ningbo, Jiangsu) considered itself to be the straight successor of the Tien-Tai School and called itself, the Shanjia Wing, while the other branch with Wu'en, Hongmin, Yuanqing, Tianzhao and Zhiyuan as representatives and holding different thoughts was degraded as the Shanwai Wing. These two wings violently debated on various aspects of Tien-Tai doctrines when the Zhili branch moved ahead. However, after that, the the Tien-Tai School gradually tended to fall in silent oblivion. In Ming Dynasty, the founder pavillion of the Tien-Tai School was rebuilt and its ancestral temple with carved scriptures was repaired towards the end of Qing Dynasty. Guxu and Dixian of early Republic of China further advanced the School and spread its doctrines across China. Today, Yanxu, Xingci, Jingquan and a number of eminent monks are expanding doctrines of this school with great commitment. Since the Yuan Dynasty, the Tien-Tai School has, however, been not as popular as ever before. It later grew in the form of a religion. The contemporary development of the school has been emphasised and studied in detail by modern scholars.

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When Zhiyi was alive, he simply made narration instead of writing so that his disciple Guanding recorded and edited the “Three Major Masterpieces of Tien-Tai School” namely *Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra Sentences*, *Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra Doctrines* and *Maha Samatha Vipasyana* which were considered as the essential classics of Tien-Tai School. Besides, there are “Five Short Classics of Tien-Tai School”, namely, Guan Yin Xuan Yi, Guan Yin Shu, Jin Guang Ming Xuan Yi, Jin Guang Ming Sentences and Guan Jing Shu. The Tien-Tai School regarded *Saddharma Puṇḍarīka* (The Lotus of the True Law) as its basis so it was also called Nichiren Buddhism.

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The Tien-Tai School took *Saddharma Puṇḍarīka* as its tenets, *Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra* (Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom) as its guidelines and the *Nirvana Sutra* as its basis and *Prajna Sutra* as its method to visualise the truth. Varieties of *sutras* were cited to increase creditability and various scriptures were referred to gain success. In addition to inheriting and developing the *One Noting Mind and Three Reflections* of Huiwen and Huisi, the School also absorbed thoughts of the “Three Treatises” that was popular in the Southern Dynasty and *Prajñā* and inherited critically the ten Panjiao (analysis and judging on for teaching) of North and South. As a result, theories of the Tien-Tai School are combination of the Southern philosophical connotations and the Northern’s emphasis on the practices in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589 CE). It proposed to make use of *Samatha* and *Vipasyana* equally for learning theories and contemplating.

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According to Huisi, all things in the world were unreal. All phenomena were seen as the substratum of existence and phenomena were empty of self-nature. Phenomena were seen as unchanging and undifferentiated substratum of existence which was untruth designation. All things arose from causes and there was no constantly unchanged substance, which was called as “emptiness”. But “emptiness” was also a part of the dharma-nature instead of being beyond the nature or being produced and worked out, which was called the “Middle Path”. Therefore, all things were neither totally empty nor entirely untruthful, but half-empty, half-untruthful. It was empty, untruthful and half-empty and half-untruthful at the same time. None of these three elements may exist if they are independent without relying on the other two. Reflecting emptiness and untruthfulness from the middle path showed the wholeness of these three elements which was regarded as their integration. As regards to meditation and practice, the Tien-Tai School demanded “reflecting emptiness, untruthfulness and the middle with one mind” to cast off *avidya* and acquire liberation and Nirvana.

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The Tien-Tai School stressed that thoughts and true suchness were the same because that all things were products of the moment of thought, existed in the “Ten Realms”, of which were composed by the six mortals like gods, human beings, *asuras*, hell denizens, hungry ghosts and animals and the four immortals like *śrāvakas*, *pratyeka-buddhas*, *bodhisattvas* and *buddhas*. The six mortals could ascend to the level of the Buddha and the Buddha could also appear in the six mortals. The “Ten Realms” were composed by themselves mutually and all constituted the “Hundred Realms”. What the “Ten Realms” relied on were form, sensation, conception, conduct and consciousness which further constituted the “secular world” while rivers, mountains and lands constituted the “non-sentient world”. All the three worlds existed in the “Ten Realms”, thus totally having 30 varieties of worlds. There were 3,000 varieties of worlds in the “Hundred Realms” that’s “one mind creates 3,000 worlds”. Meanwhile, this “one mind” is neither outside the three thousand worlds nor in the front of them but contains them.

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Guoqing Temple, Tiantai mountain, Zhejiang Province, China

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Tiantai mountain

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The Tien-Tai School was also divided into five different Buddhist periods ie the period of Avatamsaka, the period of Agamas, the period of Vaipulya, the period of Prajā and the period of Dharma-pundarik/Nirvana period and declared that the Tien-Tai School lied in the highest Avatamsaka period. It was divided by the four-fold methods and four doctrines, the former meant such forms or methods as employed by Śākyamuni, including sudden enlightenment teaching, gradual teaching, secret teaching and variable teaching; the doctrines were explanations made by Śākyamuni based on the profoundness, including tripitaka teaching, shared teaching, distinctive teaching and perfect teaching. The eight teaching methods were integrated in the four periods of *Dharma-pundarik*. *Saddharma Puṇḍarīka* was the saying at the last term and was considered as the ultimate of teaching with pure perfection and exclusiveness and the best among the eight teaching methods. The Tien-Tai School thus belonged to a complete Buddhism with perfect doctrines. It was founded by Zhiyi, spread widely by its fifth patriarch Guanding and prevailed for a time but gradually perished. At the middle of Tang Dynasty, Zhanran further proposed that Buddha existed everywhere in the nature, that is, Buddha was ubiquitous in all realms, never blocked by the consciousness or by the nature. Therefore, it could be said that Buddha existed in even a single grass, a rock or a dust. All contained 3,000 worlds and defilement, purity, virtuousness and evilness could all be seen as natural virtues. Śākyamuni never got rid of evil but could avoid conducting evils and Icchantika never lost the goodness but stopped to conduct goodness. So it could be said that goodness and evilness existed in everything. The three *dharma* ie, *citta-dharma*, Buddha Dharma and Sattva Dharma, all have the 3,000 worlds and integrate with each other in spite of their differences in nature, cause and effect. That is why no difference exists in the three *dharma*. Siming Zhili (960-1028) of Shanjia Wing in Song Dynasty proposed the theory of “following other theories according to the conditions” which means that the truths proposed by other schools are not contained in the different things and are separated with the things. Therefore, it was also called the “other theory” or “but theory” or “one theory”. According to the perfect teaching, the true suchness contained different phenomena which combined into each other. All *dharma* were left alone to be what they really were, that is, all performed according to conditions and remained unchanged. To be unchanged was to follow conditions which meant to be unchanged. This was “following one theory according to the conditions”. On the contrary, the Shanwai Wing insisted on contemplation out of true thought and valued the spirit of natural thought. From the Yuan Dynasty period onwards, the theoretical aspect of the School failed to make any significant new additions and the successors approached Tien-Tai by means of deep meditation which promoted the blending of deep meditation and theories of the Tien-Tai School.

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In respect of meditation and practice, Tien-Tai School proposed the three contemplations in one thought and the 3,000 worlds in single thought, there were such four kinds of meditative formats as long-sitting, long-walking, sitting-waking and half-sitting and half-walking. Prior to the beginning of meditation, the 25 varieties of conducts ought to be made including acquiring five favourable conditions, cleaning five desires, casting five coverings, adjusting five matters and doing five *dharmas*. The 10 objects were contemplated at the time of formal practice namely five *skandhas*, vexation, sickness, *karma*, *mara*, *samatha*, all evil sight, arrogance, two vehicles and Bodhisattva. Ten contemplation methods were used including meditating inconceivable objects, arousing *buddhi* heart, resting the thought beyond *samatha* and *vipasyana*, cutting persistence, recognising block, adjusting aids, aiding against blocks, placing, tolerating, and liberation from love while the precedence obtained were the six contained in perfect teaching including principle Buddha, name Buddha, contemplation Buddha, similarity Buddha, breaking-demonstrating Buddha and ultimate Buddha.

Linked texts (5)

大方廣佛華嚴經 — Classical Chinese
Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra — Sanskrit
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra — Sanskrit
Śvetāmbara Āgama — Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra (sixteen assemblies) — Sanskrit