The Research On The Surangama Sutra Study In Song Dynasty

The Surangama sutra is an important sutra in Mahayana and occupies a special place in Chinese buddhism. Since its appearance in Tang Dynasty, it is widely accepted by monks and laymen in China. It has a profound impact on almost every sect of Chinese buddhism including zen, pure, ritsu and Vajrayana. In Song Dynasty, the Surangama sutra was more widely spread with more notes and commentaries and had more influence to many thoughts. This thesis is divided into three parts.The first part is a overview of the Surangama sutra, which mainly concerns about the appearance of Surangama sutra in Tang Dynasty and the issue of true and false after it, then state its construction and the main content of every volume.The second part discusses the spread of the Surangama sutra study in Song Dynasty. It had an extensive popularity among Confucian scholars and monks in Song Dynasty, the widely use of Surangama sutra in literary sketches of Song Dynasty and other recordation implied that it had an extensive impact on people's daily life. Anti-Buddha scholars criticized Buddhism by rebuking the Surangama sutra was false while worshippers of Buddhism quoted it into their literary creation to express their personal Buddhism opinions. The spread of Surangama sutra study in Song Dynasty among monks was presented in two aspects: the emergence of many notes and commentaries involve with avatamsa, Tendai and zen; another was monks in Song Dynasty, especially those from zen, explained Buddhism with Surangama sutra and taught sekhas.The third part discusses the development of Surangama sutra study in Song Dynasty' s influence to the thoughts of that time. The core of Surangama sutra was a presentation to tathagatagarbha and gave a specific and comprehensive explanation to ontology, oringin and cultivation of the tathagatagarbha, which promoted the advance of buddhist theories in Song Dynasty. The development of Surangama sutra study provided a theoretical basis for the integration of Confucianism and Buddhism and accelerated this progress. People in Song Dynasty analogized the similarity in Surangama sutra and Confucian classics to prove that Confucianism and Buddhism were similar.By researching the Surangama sutra study in Song Dynasty, we can have more understanding on the development of Buddhist thought in Song Dynasty and the relation between Confucianism and Buddhism.