Yongjia Xuanjue (665-713):An Introduction And Analysis Of The Yongjia Anthology's Method Of Contemplative Practice

This tihesis explores the biography of a Tang era Buddhist monk named Yongjia Xuanjue????(665-713),the historical and religious context of his monastic career,and his doctrinal background and approach to contemplative practice contained in his written work,the Yongjia Anthology ???.Although he is an important monastic figure of medieval Chinese Buddhism,Xuanjue's biographies and the two written works attributed to him,the Yongjia ji and the Zhengdao ge have received scant scholarly attention,thus his legacy is predominantly based on the perspective of the orthodox Chan tradition.Its interpretation emphasizes Xuanjue's discipleship and acknowledgement of awakening under Huineng ??(638-713),the Sixth Patriarch of the Chan School,as well as the celebrated "Song of the Realizing of the Way" ??? which skillfully summarizes Chan ideology and is traditionally regarded as the work of Xuanjue.Eventually the overshadowed Yongjia Anthology was deemed to be a mere by-product of Xuanjue's previous association with the Tiantai School that had become a rival of Chan.It is this flawed depiction that has been perpetuated by sectarian contention until the present.As such,this thesis seeks to begin the process of reevaluating Xuanjue's life and legacy in the East Asian Mahayana tradition by arguing that the core chapters of the Yongjia Anthology concerning meditative praxis are not simply emblematic of the early Tiantai School,but are instead an amalgamation of doctrinal influences,methodologies,and styles that lacks several key characteristics of the typical Tiantai approach to spiritual cultivation.Moreover,analysis of the religious milieu during Yongjia Xuanjue's own lifetime indicates there was a general atmosphere of intellectual creativity as well as sectarian fluidity that the Yongia Anthology appears to exemplify.