Research On Chapters About Mahayana Doctrines Of Kuiji

Yusik chong was established by Xuanzang and his disciple Kuiji in Tang Dynasty. But Xuanzang devoted all his life to the Journey to West and the translation of Buddhist scriptures, so Kuiji played a decisive role on the establishment of Yusik chong. Kui Ji’s works focused on the mainly vital issues of China Buddhism, especially in the 《Chapters about Mahayana Doctrines》, which dealed many import issues of Chinese Buddhism according to the Yogacara theory. The meaning of Kuiji’ argument, in fact, was to promote the pure dharma and carry forward Yogacara theory. That is to say, Kuiji wanted to encourage the merging of different theories by means of conveying new thoughts.Although the theory of Yusik chong had a strong "transplantation" color,because of facing many new problems in new conditions, it developed new theory, which was different from Yogacara school. As a faithful continuer, Kuiji would inevitably follow the former doctrine, but facing many new problems of Chinese Buddhism, he was bound to put forward some new theories to deal with them, and ultimately formed unique ideas of Kuiji and Yusik chong.Kuiji criticized the Chinese Buddhism many theories of teaching classification, and tried to demonstrate orthodoxy and reasonableness of "three period teaching classification" Through these various interpretations that Kuiji illustrated the levels of Mahayana and Theravada, and also, fully illustrated Yogacara thoughts should occupy the position in the theory of Buddhist thoughts. Kuiji demonstrated the main ideas of Yogacara in detail, and incorporated other important concepts and religious practices explication into the theoretical system of Yogacara,in this way he complete idea of the Chinese Buddhist community in one.Considering the textual basis of teaching classification, Yusik chong was based on the Buddhist scripture 《Samdhinirmocana-sutra》 that clearly taught "Three period teaching classification", which had fully classical basis of scriptures and more advantages than other sects of Buddhism. In other words, these advantages also limited the further development of Yusik chong. Because of the widespread dissemination of Buddhist thoughts in China,there was showing a trend of convergence among several important theories, but Yusik chong denied this historical trend, and tried to rebuild the historical context of the Indian Yogacara instead, which didn’t achieve genuine exchange with the Chinese cultural and intellectual tradition, at last resulting in rapid decline and fall of Yusik chong in China.Buddhism had a variety of expressions of the twofold truth which scattered in many classics. Based on these classics and own thinking, Kuiji put forward quadruple twofold truth theory, unifying all Buddhist twofold truth theories.Of course, Kuiji was influenced by these classics, especially the 《Yogacara-bhumi-sastra》 and 《Discourse on the Theory of Consciousness-only》, but the most fundamental was that his own thinking.Quadruple twofold truth theory was indeed a comprehensive summary of all the twofold truth theories, and could to be treated as a theoretical model to show the fundamental Buddhist purport, which is thepurpose of putting forward quadruple twofold truth theory. Kuiji euphemistically criticized_previous doctrine of twofold truth, which didn’t fully understand the meaning of Buddha,with many issues.Based on the translations by Xuanzang and his own thinking, Kuiji regarded Quadruple twofold truth theory as the best expression of twofold truth theory, which had a comprehensive representation and to be a theoretical model of the entire Buddhism.By this way,Kuiji thus established a crucial position of the quadruple twofold truth theory.Considering religious practice, the literatures of Yogacara school focused on the instructions of continuity and entry into nirvana, lacking of detailed practical explanations of the religious practice.Drawing lessons from 《Compendium of the Great Vehicle》《Samdhinirmocana-sutra》,《Yogacara-bhumi-sastra》 and《Discourse on the Theory of Consciousness-only》, Kuiji put forward an importan theory that named five levels of consciousness-only meditation."Five levels of consciousness-only meditation" enriched and promoted the Yogacara theories, and it had a special significance for and to be an important of the foundation of Yusik chong, which was separated from Buddhist schools by practical theory.Five ranks was another theory summary of the whole Yogacara practice, there was also a corresponding relationship between the five ranks and five levels of consciousness-only meditation. Given the complexity of the various stages during consciousness-only meditation, K uiji made a further division and description for the various stages during consciousness-only meditation, including three levels, which made the theories of practice get forward so much.Buddhahood is the ultimate goal of Buddhism, however, the instructions of Buddhist scriptures on the Buddhahood was not clear before the foundation of Yusik chong. Integrating all that thoughts of Buddha body said in main Mahayana classics, especially 《Yogacara-bhumi-sastra》 and《Fo di jing lun》, Kuiji discussed the nature of the Buddha body and Buddha land from multiple aspects, showing consciousness-only theory the most excellent.Before the foundation of Yusik chong, theories of Buddha body and Buddha land were not rich, the same to that Chinese Buddhism was lack of clear and powerful instructions Amitabha land. According to the Yogacara theory,Kuiji made clear and detailed instructions to the nature of Amitabha and the Amitabha land, with affluent and powerful argumentation. In contrast with Jingtu zong, Kuiji’s arguments emphasized on rational thinking instead of strong faith. Cmparing to Kuiji’s theory of Amitabha land, traditional thoughts of Amitabha land placed too much emphasis on the role of faith in persuading and practicing,which became more and more simplistic, resulting in the Pure Land faith to be somewhat superstitious and negative in the later time.With social progress and development, living space of religious beliefs is getting smaller and smaller. In view of this situation, pure Land believers should reflect the bias of the historical development and consider which theory form of Pure Land ideas should be in modern society,to which Kuiji’s summary of the pure Land theory has a very important reference at this point.