A Study On Jizang Thought

Jizang was the comprehensive synthesist of the Sanlun school Buddhism, who lived in the Chen and Sui Dynasty when the Nirvana Sutra and the Lotus Sutra were prevail in China and the theory of dependent origination in terms of womb of Buddhahood(tathagata-garbha) and the theory of inherent realization of the mind-nature(citta-prakrti) became popular gradually. There is an obvious difference between the negative thinking mode of the madhyamaka and the affirmative thinking mode of Buddhahood. We should consider whether Jizang persisted in the principle of the unattainability of madhyamaka or whether he got away from it in the influence of Tiantai and Nirvana school. The Sanlun Sect declined soon after Tang Dynasty. So it is important to look into the causation of the declination. Was it due to the disagreement between the Sanlun teaching and the womb of Buddhahood in the Tang Dynasty or to the conversion of Jizang's thought?Considering the problems mentioned above, this paper reviews Jizang's text and brings out a framework that corresponding to Jizang's thought which is composed of the unattainability, the Two-truth-Mean structure, and the gradual-abnegation. The unattainability is the principle of Jizang's thought, and the Two-truth-Mean structure is the body of his thought while the Gradual-abnegation is the methodology of Jizang's teaching.The structure of Two-truth-Mean is composed of three parts again.Firstly, it is called"Rudiment", which indicates the two truths are dependent by each other;Secondly, it is called"Mean-Temporal", which means the mean (madhyama-pratipad) goes beyond both side of two truths which summed up as"temporal( prajnapti)".Thirdly, it is the"Gradual-abnegation", which is expressed thoroughly in the concept of"hierarchical-two-truth". And it is just the"Gradual-abnegation"does describe the mean and ultimate-reality in Jizang's meaning."Rudiment"expresses the meaning that everything is dependent without svabhava, it is also called as Dependent-Origination (pratitya-samutpada)."Mean-Temporal"has two meanings. One is that the mean goes beyond the two-truth, four-sentence and hundred-negation. While the other meaning is that the mean depends on the temporal again.As the mean-temporal develops into the upper mean-temporal and the reality-teaching also do, it is written as a recursion expression in the way of"Gradual-abnegation"represented by the concept of hierarchical-two-truth. In the structure of Two-truth-Mean, the third truth acts as a foothold in the transition from the lower mean truth to the upper absolute-truth (paramartha-satya). And so the third truth temporarily expressed is abnegated. Just as a ladder should not be hold after climbing, the linguistic conception should be caste away after the mean(madhyama-pratipad) is described linguistically and temporarily. The mean is described step by step in the way of gradual abnegation.In Jizang's teaching, the mean cannot be described without the methodology of gradual-abnegation. It is a process approaching the truth without termination. So this paper thinks that Jizang has testified the mean in Mulamadhyamaka-karika written by Nagarjuna with methodology. Only in the hierarchical structure the relation between the mean as reality and the two-truth as language can be explained dynamically. So the conception of three-truth in the theories of Jizang and Tiantai have different contents. Jizang's thought of mean is a development on Nagarjuna.Under the principle of the unattainability, Jizang amalgamated the conception such as Nirvana, the womb of Buddhahood, Buddha-nature, alaya, and the single-vehicle in his idea of mean. Jizang annotated the principle of each sutra under the way of the mean. Although he said some paradoxes such as the Dharmakaya is eternal, the Buddha-nature is not void on the convenient and temporary occassion, he still considered these categories to be non-eternal and non-destructible, non-existent and non-void, non-causative and non-resultant, non-coming into being and non-going out of being, non-objective and non subjective in the ultimate meanings. So Jizang refused the transition to the theory that declared the origination from the mind-nature and comeback to the mind-nature. His insistence to the asvabhava of madhyamaka was unusual in Tang Dynasty when the theory of True-Eternalism and Mentalism was popular. And so, the declination of Sanlun sect was inevitable.Sanlun sect declined because of the academic diversity after the Tang Dynasty, but we can feel the precious value of Jizang's thought when we review the significance of philosophy, which declared the weltanschauung of the unattainability and the delicate combination of the reality and the teaching in his hierarchical structure.