A Study Of The Twofold Truth From Ji Zang’s Twofold Truth

Twofold truth is the core of the truth in Buddhist doctrine. Usually, twofoldtruth refers to the essence and the common meaning. The essence meaning isthat the sage enlightened the state of “kong”, and the common meaning is thatthe mortals are used to persist with the fact of being real or living. This is tworelative theory of knowledge. Due to common people confusing,“the Buddhaaccording to the twofold truth teaching,” they opened up the twofold truth andhoped that the people could understand the state of “kong”. With the IndianBuddhism developed, the twofold truth went through from scratch, from simpleto complex level. As twofold truth is inevitably connected with the Buddhistfactions’ understanding of “the dependent-origination and the emptiness ofnature”, Buddhist factions formed a variety of sectarian ideas. When Buddhismwas introduced to China, Buddhist factions wrote books or preached sermons toexpress their correct views about twofold truth. Ji Zang’s Twofold Truth and Profound Theory of Mahayana’ volume1is the comprehensive interpretation oftwofold truth. Twofold truth is the main view and fundamental theory of JiZang’s Buddhist ideas. He thought twofold truth contained all the Buddhistscriptures. Twofold truth had no name and was established for expressing theMiddle way truth. The truth exists without saying. So according to the context ofMadhyamika-sastra, Ji Zang divided twofold truth into Yu truth and Jiao truth.This deepened the understanding of twofold truth. He thought twofold truth wasjust a convenient teaching and it had no relationship with the truth or state.Twofold truth was used to refute the idea of Attachment to existence and expressthe unique essence of Middle way truth. In order to facilitate understanding andrefute the fallacies, Ji Zang established the Middle third truth which was theultimate truth. There is no different of Middle and Nirvana in Ji Zang’s Buddhisttheory. Nirvana is the method of Middle way. Nirvana is not another real statebeside the life and death. The different view between saints and mortals is due todifferent understanding about the truth. Nirvana will be immediately obtained aslong as the ultimate truth is realized. This is the ultimate destination of Ji Zang’s twofold truth theory.