Jizang
Encyclopedia
Jizang (549–623) was a Chinese
Buddhist
monk
and scholar who is often regarded as the founder of the Three Treatise School. He is also known as Jiaxiang or Master Jiaxiang (嘉祥, Chia-hsiang), because he acquired fame at the Jiaxiang Temple.
). Although his father had emigrated from Parthia
, he was educated in the Chinese manner. He was quite precocious in spiritual matters, and became a monk at age seven. When he was young, he studied with Falang (法朗) at the Xinghuang Temple (興皇寺) in Nanjing, and studied the three Madhyamaka
treatises (The Treatise on the Middle Way
, The Treatise on the Twelve Gates, and The One-Hundred-Verse Treatise) which had been translated by Kumarajiva
more than a century before, and it is with these texts that he is most often identified. He became the head monk at Xinghuang Temple upon Falang's death in 581. At age 42, he began travelling through China giving lectures, and ultimately settled at Jiaxing Temple, in modern Shaoxing
(紹興), Zhejiang
province.
In 597, Yang Kuang, later Emperor Yang
, the second son of Emperor Wen
of the Sui Dynasty
, ordered four new temples in the capital Chang'an
, and invited Jizang to be in charge of one of them, called Huiri Temple (彗日寺). Jizang accepted, despite the fame of Yang's harshness. Zhiyi
, a respected figure of the Tiantai
school, had accepted to become monk at another one of the new temples, and Jizang sought to visit him, but unfortunately he died before Jizang was able to meet him. He was, however, able to correspond with him regarding the Lotus Sutra
. Later he moved to another new temple, Riyan Temple (日嚴寺). When the Sui Dynasty was succeeded by the Tang Dynasty in 617, he gained the respect and support of the new emperor, Gaozu
as well, and became head abbot of four temples.
Between ages 57 and 68, he sought to make more copies of the Lotus Sutra so that more people could be familiar with it. He produced 2,000 copies of the sutra. He also made copies of some of his own commentaries.
Jizang was a prodigious writer, producing close to 50 books in his lifetime. He specialized in commentaries on the three treatises as well as texts from other Buddhist traditions, such as the Lotus and Nirvana sutras. His students included Ekan
, Korean by nationality, who brought the Three Treatise School to Japan.
al viewpoint, lead to dukkha
(suffering). In commenting on Buddhist treatises, Jizang developed a general methodology of poxie xianzheng ("refuting what is misleading, revealing what is corrective"), by-passing the pitfalls of asserting the truth or falsehood of certain propositions in a final or rigid sense, but using them if they pragmatically lead to the ability to overcome the commitment to dichotomy. He noted that the tendency of many Buddhists to become committed to becoming unattached (shunyata
or "emptying") is also itself a commitment that should be avoided. One can avoid this by engaging in the same deconstruction that allowed liberation in the first place, but applied to the false dichotomy between attachment and non-attachment (shūnyatā shūnyatā, or "emptying of emptiness").
Applying this to the traditional two levels of discourse inherited from the Madhyamaka tradition (the conventional, regarding everyday thoughts, and the authentic, which transcends this by analyzing the metaphysical assumptions made in the conventional thinking), Jizang developed his sizhong erdi ("four levels of the two kinds of discourse"), which takes that distinction and adds meta
distinctions on three more levels:
Thus, the attachment to any viewpoint is considered detrimental, and is a cause of life's suffering
. To repudiate the misleading finality of any viewpoint, on any level of discourse, is thus corrective and helps overcome destructive attachment.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
and scholar who is often regarded as the founder of the Three Treatise School. He is also known as Jiaxiang or Master Jiaxiang (嘉祥, Chia-hsiang), because he acquired fame at the Jiaxiang Temple.
Biography
Jizang was born in Jinling (modern NanjingNanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
). Although his father had emigrated from Parthia
Parthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
, he was educated in the Chinese manner. He was quite precocious in spiritual matters, and became a monk at age seven. When he was young, he studied with Falang (法朗) at the Xinghuang Temple (興皇寺) in Nanjing, and studied the three Madhyamaka
Madhyamaka
Madhyamaka refers primarily to a Mahāyāna Buddhist school of Buddhist philosophy systematized by Nāgārjuna. Nāgārjuna may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the āgamas...
treatises (The Treatise on the Middle Way
Mulamadhyamakakarika
The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā , or Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, is a key text by Nagarjuna, one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.-Competing interpretations:...
, The Treatise on the Twelve Gates, and The One-Hundred-Verse Treatise) which had been translated by Kumarajiva
Kumarajiva
Kumārajīva; was a Kuchean Buddhist monk, scholar, and translator. He first studied teachings of the Sarvastivada schools, later studied under Buddhasvāmin, and finally became a Mahāyāna adherent, studying the Madhyamaka doctrine of Nagarjuna. Kumārajīva settled in Chang'an, which was the imperial...
more than a century before, and it is with these texts that he is most often identified. He became the head monk at Xinghuang Temple upon Falang's death in 581. At age 42, he began travelling through China giving lectures, and ultimately settled at Jiaxing Temple, in modern Shaoxing
Shaoxing
Shaoxing is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. Located on the south bank of the Qiantang River estuary, it borders Ningbo to the east, Taizhou to the southeast, Jinhua to the southwest, and Hangzhou to the west. It was once known as "越"...
(紹興), Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
province.
In 597, Yang Kuang, later Emperor Yang
Emperor Yang of Sui
Emperor Yang of Sui , personal name Yang Guang , alternative name Ying , nickname Amo , known as Emperor Ming during the brief reign of his grandson Yang Tong), was the second son of Emperor Wen of Sui, and the second emperor of China's Sui Dynasty.Emperor Yang's original name was Yang Ying, but...
, the second son of Emperor Wen
Emperor Wen of Sui
Emperor Wen of Sui — personal name Yang Jian , Xianbei name Puliuru Jian , nickname Naluoyan — was the founder and first emperor of China's Sui Dynasty . He was a hard-working administrator and a micromanager. As a Buddhist, he encouraged the spread of Buddhism through the state...
of the Sui Dynasty
Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty was a powerful, but short-lived Imperial Chinese dynasty. Preceded by the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it ended nearly four centuries of division between rival regimes. It was followed by the Tang Dynasty....
, ordered four new temples in the capital Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
, and invited Jizang to be in charge of one of them, called Huiri Temple (彗日寺). Jizang accepted, despite the fame of Yang's harshness. Zhiyi
Zhiyi
Zhiyi is traditionally listed as the fourth patriarch, but is generally considered the founder of the Tiantai tradition of Buddhism in China. His standard title was Śramaṇa Zhiyi , linking him to the broad tradition of Indian asceticism...
, a respected figure of the Tiantai
Tiantai
Tiantai is an important school of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. In Japan the school is known as Tendai, and in Korea it is known as Cheontae. Tiantai is also called the "Lotus School", due to its emphasis on the Lotus Sūtra as its doctrinal basis...
school, had accepted to become monk at another one of the new temples, and Jizang sought to visit him, but unfortunately he died before Jizang was able to meet him. He was, however, able to correspond with him regarding the Lotus Sutra
Lotus Sutra
The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-Title:...
. Later he moved to another new temple, Riyan Temple (日嚴寺). When the Sui Dynasty was succeeded by the Tang Dynasty in 617, he gained the respect and support of the new emperor, Gaozu
Emperor Gaozu of Tang
Emperor Gāozǔ of Táng , born Lǐ Yuān , courtesy name Shūdé , was the founder of the Tang Dynasty of China, and the first emperor of this dynasty from 618 to 626. Under the Sui dynasty, Li Yuan was the governor in the area of modern-day Shanxi, and was based in Taiyuan.In 615, Li Yuan was assigned...
as well, and became head abbot of four temples.
Between ages 57 and 68, he sought to make more copies of the Lotus Sutra so that more people could be familiar with it. He produced 2,000 copies of the sutra. He also made copies of some of his own commentaries.
Jizang was a prodigious writer, producing close to 50 books in his lifetime. He specialized in commentaries on the three treatises as well as texts from other Buddhist traditions, such as the Lotus and Nirvana sutras. His students included Ekan
Ekan
Hyegwan Hyegwan Hyegwan (Japanese: was a priest who came across the sea from Goguryeo to Japan in the Asuka period. He is known for introducing the Chinese Buddhist school of Sanlun to Japan.Ekan studied under Jizang and learned Sanron...
, Korean by nationality, who brought the Three Treatise School to Japan.
Philosophy
The general outlook of the Madhyamaka school is that commitments or attachments to anything, including a logicLogic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
al viewpoint, lead to dukkha
Dukkha
Dukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, discontent, unsatisfactoriness, unhappiness, sorrow, affliction, social alienation, anxiety,...
(suffering). In commenting on Buddhist treatises, Jizang developed a general methodology of poxie xianzheng ("refuting what is misleading, revealing what is corrective"), by-passing the pitfalls of asserting the truth or falsehood of certain propositions in a final or rigid sense, but using them if they pragmatically lead to the ability to overcome the commitment to dichotomy. He noted that the tendency of many Buddhists to become committed to becoming unattached (shunyata
Shunyata
Śūnyatā, शून्यता , Suññatā , stong-pa nyid , Kòng/Kū, 空 , Gong-seong, 공성 , qoγusun is frequently translated into English as emptiness...
or "emptying") is also itself a commitment that should be avoided. One can avoid this by engaging in the same deconstruction that allowed liberation in the first place, but applied to the false dichotomy between attachment and non-attachment (shūnyatā shūnyatā, or "emptying of emptiness").
Applying this to the traditional two levels of discourse inherited from the Madhyamaka tradition (the conventional, regarding everyday thoughts, and the authentic, which transcends this by analyzing the metaphysical assumptions made in the conventional thinking), Jizang developed his sizhong erdi ("four levels of the two kinds of discourse"), which takes that distinction and adds meta
Meta
Meta- , is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter....
distinctions on three more levels:
- The assumption of existenceExistenceIn common usage, existence is the world we are aware of through our senses, and that persists independently without them. In academic philosophy the word has a more specialized meaning, being contrasted with essence, which specifies different forms of existence as well as different identity...
is conventional, and the idea of nonexistence is authentic. - The commitment to a distinction between existence and nonexistence is now considered conventional, and the denial of this duality is authentic.
- The distinction between committing to a distinction between existence and nonexistence is now conventional, and the denial of the difference between duality and non-duality is authentic.
- All of these distinctions are deemed conventional, and the authentic discourse regards that any point of view cannot be said to be ultimately true, and is useful only so far as it is corrective in the above sense.
Thus, the attachment to any viewpoint is considered detrimental, and is a cause of life's suffering
Suffering
Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, is an individual's basic affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm. Suffering may be qualified as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and...
. To repudiate the misleading finality of any viewpoint, on any level of discourse, is thus corrective and helps overcome destructive attachment.
Selected works
- Zhongguanlun shu (中觀論疏; "Commentary on the Madhyamika shastraMulamadhyamakakarikaThe Mūlamadhyamakakārikā , or Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, is a key text by Nagarjuna, one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.-Competing interpretations:...
") - Erdi zhang (二諦章"Essay on the Two Levels of Discourse")
- Bailun shu (百論疏; "Commentary on the Shata Shastra")
- Shi er men lun shu (十二門論疏; "Commentary on the Twelve Gate Treatise)
- Sanlun xuanyi (三論玄義; "Profound Meaning of the Three TreatisesSanlunMādhyamaka in East Asia refers to the Buddhist traditions in East Asia which represent the Indian Mādhyamaka system of thought. In Chinese Buddhism, these are often referred to as the Sānlùn school Mādhyamaka in East Asia refers to the Buddhist traditions in East Asia which represent the Indian...
") - Erdi yi (二諦意"Meaning of the Two Levels of Discourse")
- Dasheng xuanlun (大乘玄論; "Treatise on the Mystery of the MahayanaMahayanaMahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
")
Further reading
- Chan, Wing-tsit, trans. and comp. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963. Includes translations of passages of "Treatise on the Two Levels of Truth" and "Profound Meaning of the Three Treatises."
- Fox, Allen. "Jizang" in Great Thinkers of the Eastern World, Ian McGreal, ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. Pages 84-88.
- Cheng, Hsueh-Li. Empty Logic: Madhyamika Buddhism from Chinese Sources. New York: Philosophical Library, 1984.
- Fung Yu-lan. A History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 2: The Period of Classical Learning, tr. Derk Bodde. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952, 1953.
- Liu, Ming-Wood. Madhyamika Thought in China. University of Hawaii Press, 1996.
- Robinson, Richard. Early Madhyamika in India and China. New York: Samuel Weiser Inc., 1978.
External links
- Allen Fox article on University of Delaware site
- Entry from the Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism
- Chi Tsang by Lin Sen-shou, on Tzu Chi Humanitarian Centre page