Nagarjuna And Chinese Buddhist Philosophy

Either the origin or the development, or the spread of Nagarjuna's philosophy is the main area of study in my dissertation. Since the dissertation involves two main cultural systems: the Indian civilization and the Chinese civilization, I have focused my study on some specific cases such as the origination and theoretical characters of Nagarjuna's philosophy and its influence over the early Chinese Buddhist Schools by adopting a way of comparative studies either philosophically or religiously.Concerning the biographical event of Nagarjuna, there are a number of versions either in Chinese or Tibetan. Even though those stories are full of myths and fairy tales, there are, of course, some historical facts still behind. According to some Chinese materials and the archeological studies of India, we have reached a conclusion that the epoch of Nagarjuna is related probably from the beginning of the second century A.D. to the beginning of the third century A.D. after 'having carefully studied those materials.We have also examined the social background and some other causes paved a way for the birth of Nagarjuna's philosophy after comparing Madhymika-sastra and the theories of other schools of the day. We believe that both religious and philosophical systems of Nagarjuna were established on the basis of some fundamental ideas of the traditional Buddhist scriptures such as Prajnapramita-sutra and inspired even by none Buddhist traditions such as Upanishads. We have also pointed out that there are mainly three aspects of the characters of Nagarjuna's philosophy: to preach to have a direct contact with Suynata; not to believe any form of worldly name and concept; and to adopt both dialectic and negative methods in order to show reality, after having examined carefully some basic concepts of Nagarjuna such as Suynata. We can say that the idea of Suynata is somewhat a dialectical and trans-rational idealism. It is neither absolutism nor mysticism, nor nihilism, but full of logics and dialectics.As concerns to the theoretical and philosophical influences of Nagarjuna over the Chinese Buddhism, we consider that a criticism of Sengzhao to the philosophic Buddhist schools of "Liu-jia-qi-zong" shows that the situation of interpreting Buddhism with Xuanxue in the early time had been shifted to that of to interpret Xuanxue with Buddhism. The systematical and methodological ways of Sengzhao'sphilosophy followed the tradition of Nagarjuna and gave a birth to the Three Treatises School during the Sui and Tang Dynasties had enriched and given a supplement to the theoretical aspect of Xuanxue.On the area of relationship between Nagarjuna's philosophy and Sengzhao's philosophy, we consider that some philosophical aspects stressed by Sengzhao were based on the theoretical absorption from the ideas of Nagarjuna after making a comparison between some of works of Nagarjuna's and Sengzhao's. The philosophy of Sengzhao had enriched a great deal and forged ahead to both Buddhism and Chinese philosophy.Concerning the formation and development of both the Chinese Buddhist Schools and Sects either during the period of the Chinese Southern and Northern Dynasties or the Sui and Tang Dynasties, we have focused on the theoretical origination and philosophical characters of both Tiantai School and the Three Treatises School. We consider that the teachings of Tiantai School related very much more even to both Madhymika-sastra and Mahaprajnapramita-sastra of Nagarjuna although the School based its doctrine namely on Saddharmapundarika-sutra. As to the Three Treatises School, it shows that the school had a direct lineage with Nagarjuna's Madhyamika tradition either from the aspect of theoretical origination or the aspect of its sectarian character.