Tibetan Buddhist Apostasy

Division of the Buddha's teachings refers to classify, compare and va lue the substance, form, time period, depth of different thoughts, schools and classics of the Buddhism. Generally, it is one of the distinctive featur es in the world of the Chinese Buddha. The Tibetan Buddha, as one impor tant part of the Chinese Buddhism, has its teachings directly inherited fro m relevant teachings of the Indian Buddhism, based upon which it was in novatively constructed and formulated as for the fundamental principles i n terms of the Tibetan characteristics. The system of division of the Budd ha's teaching plays an important role in the thinking history of the Tibetan Buddha.The paper will interpret the connotations of division of the Tibetan B uddha's teaching. It is held that division of the Tibetan Buddha's teaching is the inheritance and reconstruction of four divisions of the Indian Budd ha, i.e. teaching classification by tenets, by classics, by Shingon sect, and by natural capacity. The thoughts of the Tibetan Buddha'teaching classifi cation originated from relevant statements of the Indian Buddhism. Based upon these standpoints, the paper divides the Tibetan Buddha's teaching i nto the individual-based and the sect-based from the angle of teaching cla ssifiers who conducted division of the Buddha's teaching. With a prerequi site of highlighting inner logics of the Tibetan Buddha thoughts and its de velopment, typical cases will be chosen to serve for interpreting and show casing the details of two types of the Tibetan Buddha's teaching division, and eventually their features will be analyzed and summarized. Meanwhil e, in order to define the localized traits of the Tibetan Buddha's teaching d ivision, the paper makes outlined analysis of and comparisons between th e Han people's Buddha and the Tibetan Buddha in terms of the history of thoughts within a broad horizon of the entire Chinese Buddha.The paper consists of six parts. The first chapter is an introduction of the significance, status quo, structure of the research.The second chapter focuses on the root of the Tibetan Buddhism, int erpreting and elaborating on the immediate influence of the Indian Buddh ism's teaching division upon the Tibetan Buddhism.The third chapter is to narrate, showcase and analyze details and feat ures of the individual-based division of the Tibetan Buddha's teaching thr ough examining four individual translators. They are Zhi Jun, the first per son who addressed the thoughts of division of the Tibetan Buddha's teach ing, Jixiangji, the first person who classified Shingon sect's teaching, Zan bu Chisongdezan, the first person who directed the Buddha thoughts by m eans of administrative intervene, and Facheng, the first person who combi ned theories of division of the Han People's Buddha teaching and the Tib etan Buddha teaching.The fourth chapter is to elaborate on, showcase and analyze the sect- based division of the Tibetan Buddha teaching by concentrating on three s ects of the Tibetan Buddhism. They are the Shingon-focused Min-ma Sec t, the Jonang sect equally focusing on the Shingon sect and the exoteric se ct, and the exoteric-sect-dominant Gelu sect.The fifth chapter will study the Tibetan Buddhism within the horizon of the entire Chinese Buddhism, and compare the backgrounds, contents and influences of division of the Han people's Buddhism teaching and the Tibetan Buddhism teaching.