The Study Of Li Tongxuan's Hua-yan Thought

This paper mainly discussed the Hua-yan thought of Li Tongxuan who was a Buddhist scholar in the Tang Dynasty.Li Tongxuan's Hua-yan thought was discussed from the following aspects:Li Tongxuan's cannon classification;Li Tongxuan's philosophic thinking,including the wisdom as a fundamental concept of origin,the thought of "The Absolute Dharmadhatu" etc;his theory of liberation based on Theory Enlightenment;Li Tongxuan's "Notion of Representation",and the thought of"Observe the Mind according to Dharma" etc.Lastly,the influence upon later generations of Li Tongxuan's Hua-yan thought.Li Tongxuan was an important figure in the history of Chinese Buddhism and the Hua-yan Sectarian.A lot of people have studied the Hua-yan thought of Li Tongxuan.Through researching and analysis,it can be inferred that the dates of birth and death of Li Tongxuan is about A.D.635-730.During the early Tang Dynasty when the whole social economy,politics and culture was very prosperous.Buddhism culture has been greatly developed at the time because of the strong support of the rulers,and all the Buddhism Sectarians also had gradually matured.It is under this background,Li Tongxuan had noted the new translation of the 80 volume Hua-yan Sutra,and wrote the 40 volumes of The Theory of New Hua-yan,and also wrote a number of separate small books.Li Tongxuan had left a large number of Buddhism works and cultural resources.In modern society,the study of Li Tongxuan's thoughts still has much room for further exploration.The first part of the paper is about Li Tongxuan's classification of Buddha's teachings.The classification of Buddha's teachings is a very important objective in the history of the Chinese Buddhism.The purpose of Li Tongxuan's Classification of Buddha's teachings is to enable scholars to understand the significance of "the real teaching",and then approach to "the real teaching".Li Tongxuan respected to the Hua-yan Sutra very much,he classified the Avatamsaka Sutra for the "Perfect Teaching",and inherited the teaching classification of "the unique road of special teaching" of Zhi Yan and Fa Zang,and further discussed the theory of "the unique road of special teaching".Li Tongxuan's teaching classification still included the road of Sectarian,the aim of Sectarian,teaching object,entrusting object and so on.He thought that Avatamsaka Sutra is included in "dharmadhatu of Vairocana",and it was unlike the Personal disciple of Buddha and watered-down initial preaching of Buddha Bodhisattva.So he called this road as the first road,the most remarkable and outstanding road,the interests of all sentient beings road and so on,giving Avatamsaka Sutra the supreme compliment.The most important in Li Tongxuan's teaching classification is that he has established the thought of "ten dogmas and ten Sectarians",the "ten dogmas and ten Sectarians" is often contrasted with Fa Zang's"five dogmas and ten Sectarians".In addition,there also runs through a main line named "ten programs theory",it is proposed in this paper for the first time.It is due to the fact that he accepted the concept which regarded "ten" as the round number in Avatamsaka Sutra,and regarded "ten" as the round and perfect harmony.In Li Tongxuan's classification of Buddha's teaching,he classified the Buddha's teaching through a main line of Avatamsaka Sutra,through "ten ten",model to contrast Avatamsaka Sutra with other Mahay ana sutras,incorporating the whole Sectarians from the theory of the round doctrine.Therefore,there runs though a lot of philosophical thought in his thought of classification of Buddha's teaching,this is the intrinsic reason of his teaching classification of total Sectarians.Moreover,the paper studied the thought of Li Tongxuan's Hua-yan philosophy.Li Tongxuan's Hua-yan philosophy is very important and it is the core of his whole theory.But his philosophy thought is neglected by the contemporary scholars.The core concept of Li Tongxuan's Hua-yan philosophy is "fundamental wisdom".Li Tongxuan thought that "the fundamental wisdom"is possessed by the Buddha and sentient beings at the same time,empty and clearing,is the base and source of everything.The concept of "fundamental wisdom" is most widely used in Yogacara originally.But in Li Tongxuan's Hua-yan philosophy system,"the fundamental wisdom " is not only regarded as the evidence to the meaning of Thusness wisdom,but also gives the "fundamental wisdom" the connotation of Hua-yan Tathagatagarbha system,with the meaning of "noumenon of mind".Influenced by the faith in Mahayana theory,it also contained the meaning of "awareness of mind".Li Tongxuan thought that the key point to understand the "fundamental wisdom" is to recognize that the noumenon and nature of "Avidya".He thought that the noumenon of "Avidya" is the fundamental wisdom,this very "round" and "sudden" view point is worthy of attention.The thought of " there is no solidity in the ontology of wisdom"proposed by Li Tongxuan also made clear the close connection between his Hua-yan philosophy and the faith in Mahayana theory.This theory can also be referred to Fa Zang's thought of the real and the false,the stained and the clear.The aim of this is to solve the eternal problem in the Buddhist theory concerning how the pure and eternal truth originally generate the defilement delusion.Another important view in Li Tongxuan's Hua-yan philosophy is the concept of origin of "Ontology and Phenomenon are one." Hua-yan Sectarian is famous of origin of harmadhatu and endlessness,the concept of origin of Li Tongxuan is different from the concept of origin which is based on the theory of "everything unimpeded everything" in" four harmadhatu" of Hua-yan sectarian,which is fundamentally based on the concept of origin of“Ontology and Phenomenon are one.This determined the tendency of Li Tongxuan who paid attention to the Ontology and noumenon,and also determined that the practical features of Hua-yan philosophy is very strong.In addition,Li Tongxuan's "the absolute true dharmadhatu"thought is also very worthy of attention.At first,the concept of "the absolute true dharmadhatu" is used in Dharmalaksana.Li Tongxuan gradually gives its meaning to Hua-yan philosophy in noting Avatamsaka Sutra.And then," the absolute true dharmadhatu"thought has become one of the core concepts of Hua-yan philosophy through the further development of Cheng Guan and Zong Mi.Li Tongxuan's Hua-yan philosophy determined his theory of freedom.Although Li Tongxuan's Hua-Yan philosophy has the inherit relationship with Fa Zang,concerning the theory of freedom,Li Tongxuan put more emphasis on "sudden enlightenment".Li Tongxuan paid special attention to "the Ten positions of faith" and"the Ten positions of station" of the Hua-yan five Stage.Because the "the Ten positions of faith," is not only the first start of primary confidence,but also the foundation and guide of the Hua-yan five Stage.Li Tongxuan believes that "the final mind of ten faith" would not retreat in Hua-Yan round doctrine."the Ten positions of station" is also extremely important.Li Tongxuan emphasized especially the important point that "the primary faith became correct consciousness" which the Hua-yan round doctrine is different from the Three Road,and "the Ten positions of station" is the position of the Buddha,that is "on the stage of Buddha' s stage".The"sudden enlightenment" thought was particularly noticeable in here.Li Tongxuan's"sudden enlightenment" thought was reflected in the points of "one time of dharmadhatu law and no time of dharmadhatu law".A very obvious feature that Li Tongxuan interpreted in classic is his though,t of" representation notation”.Li Tongxuan thought all the things in Avatamsaka Sutra which there is nothing would not represented notation.Li Tongxuan's thought of" representation notion" could be roughly divided into several aspects such as representation notion of character,representation notion of things,representation notion of position(i.e.Interpreting Hua-yan by The book of changes),representation notion of color,representation notion of shining and so on."Interpreting Hua-yan by The book of changes" also is the hermeneutic method which was used in the solution process by Li Tongxuan,which also belonged to one of the whole thought of " representation notation" of Li Tongxuan.There is another very important solution method of Li Tongxuan,which is the thought of" To observe the mind in dharma "----all phenomena are attributed to the "Citta".Li Tongxuan's Huayan thought has given a great influence on every sectarian of later generations.Although Li Tongxuan was regarded as collateral in the Hua-yan scholars,his thoughts still has a certain influence on Cheng Guan and later Hua-yan scholars.Li Tongxuan's thought caused the greatest impact on Chan Sectarian,he has a great influence on the many important figures in history of Chan Sectarian.Although other Sectarian could not completely accepted some of Li Tongxuan's viewpoints,they are still influenced by the thoughts of Li Tongxuan.Li Tongxuan annotated Avatamsaka Sutra with the identity of Upasaka,and spread to the later generations,he who is not only the typical representative of the Upasaka Buddhism,but also the eternal model of the Upasaka.In contemporary society,Li Tongxuan' s Hua-Yan thought is also very important and worthy of attention as cultural resources,and needs for further mining and research.