A Study Of Zhan Ran’s Buddhist Ideology In Vajra Scalpel

Jingxi’s Zhan Ran,was a senior monk of the Tiantai sect in Tang dynasty and is credited with the revival of Tiantai.Zhan Ran’s Vajra Scalpel was created in the Tang Dynasty when the Tiantai sect was facing the difficulties of the decline of Tiantai and the rise of the Vaisnava Zen and Huayan sects.This book takes the sharp scalpel "vajra scalpel" for the treatment of eye diseases as an analogy,and based on the dream,it gives a new interpretation of the unique Tiantai thoughts such as "The Buddha-nature remaining in all wheat ","Mindfulness of the world","The nature has good as evil" and so on.Although it is short in length,it is rich in meaning.This article is mainly based on Zhan Ran’s Vajra Scalpel,combined with other works of Zhan Ran,sorts out the unique Buddhist Ideology of Tiantai that it contains.The most distinctive doctrine in the Vajra Scalpel is that of "The Buddha-nature remaining in all wheat";Zhan Ran borrows the Mahayana Theory of Initiation on Enlightenment,which states that "the true nature is unchanging" and that "the unchanging nature follows its destiny" to prove that the true nature is present in all things.This shows that "The Buddha-nature remaining in all wheat",and argues that all ruthless things,including tiles,stones,grass and trees,have Buddha-nature."All things are in the true nature" is a development of Tiantai’s core ideology on mindfulness.Zhan Ran inherited Zhi Yi’s idea of "one mind generates the nature of all dharmas in the world" and incorporated Huayan’s view of "true nature" to form "All things are in the true nature",which completes the Tiantai doctrine of the "The nature of original consciousness".On the basis of the theory of "nature with reality",Zhan Ran clearly put forward the statement of "the three non-differences" and "nature with good and evil",which is in contrast to Huayan’s idea of "nature arising".The Vajra Scalpel is a concentrated expression of Zhan Ran’s Buddhist ideology,which not only enriched and refined the teachings of Tendai at the time,but also played a key role in the revival of Tiantai.When Tiantai’s descendants studied the teachings of their own religion,they often accepted the doctrines of Tiantai that had already been developed by Zhan Ran,and Zhan Ran’s ideology played a huge role in influencing the Song dynasty Shanjia and Shanwai’s controversy and the establishment of the Tiantai sect in Japan.