Jinhua Chen

An Alternative View of the Meditation Tradition in China：Meditation in the Life and Works of Daoxuan(596-667)

The early Tang Buddhist monk Daoxuan 道宣 (596-667) was a prolific vinaya master and an erudite monastic historian, bibliographer and biographer. While his commentaries on vinaya texts played an unrivalled role in the formation and transformation of various vinaya traditions in medieval East Asia, his works on Chinese monastic history, institutions, and bibliography have remained a major source for modern scholars of Chinese Buddhism. In contrast to his well-acknowledged status as a vinaya master and Buddhist historian, however, Daoxuan’s own training in meditation and his writings on the history of meditation in China have remained largely unexplored. Regarding his connections with meditation, scholars familiar with Daoxuan’s life might immediately think of his position as a thirdgeneration disciple of the great meditation master Sengchou 僧稠 (480-560).1 But it turns out that Daoxuan’s ties with the Chinese meditation tradition ran far deeper than this. This article will discuss the role of meditation in Daoxuan’s career and reappraise some aspects of what we might call the pre-history of the Chan school. Although Daoxuan did not leave any works exclusively devoted to theories of meditation,2 one of his treatises, the “Xichan lun” 習禪論

More than a Philosopher: Fazang (643–712) As a Politician and Miracle Worker

The Tang Buddhist monk Fazang [ ] (643–712) is one of the most famous Buddhist philosophers of East Asia. He is celebrated for founding the Chinese Huayan [ ] school, a school of thought based on the Indian text, the Avata m saka S u tra. Chinese Huayan is known primarily for its sophisticated and often difficult philosophical system that developed through a series of commentaries on the Indian text, itself an obscure and voluminous work. Fazang is regarded today primarily as a scholastic monk who composed a variety of technical, commentarial, and systematic works. The choice of modern scholars to focus on Fazang’s philosophical contributions can no doubt be traced to his singular importance in founding the Avata m saka tradition in East Asia. A third generation Sogdian immigrant in China, Fazang’s influence extended far beyond the borders of the Tang empire. It seems that he had a significant impact on his senior Korean fellow disciple U * isang [ ] (625–702), who was, in turn, the initiator of the Avata m saka tradition in Korea (Hwa ø m). Fazang was also the teacher of another Korean monk, Shimsang [ ] (died after 744), who is credited with the transmission of Chinese Huayan to Japan, where he was known as Shinj o . Shimsang in turn secured a gifted Japanese

What is in a Name? The Possibility of Identifying the Monk Damo as the Mentor of the First Known Self-Claimed Reincarnation of Maitreya in Medieval China

On the basis of a memorial inscription dedicated to an obscure foreign monk known to us only by a rather ordinary word, Damo 達摩 (Dharma), which was obviously a part of his name, this study attempts to reconstruct some traces of his life, and several key aspects of his image as was perceived by his contemporaries. Partly due to his obscurities and popularities, starting from a certain point of time this Damo started to be conflated with the famous Bodhidharma. The research presented in this article shows that it is difficult to identify this Damo to be Bodhidharma. However, several major aspects of Damo’s image seems to have played a noticeable role in informing the image of Bodhidharma and the Chan ideologies related to him. This case study underscores the complexity of the process through which the life and image of a religious paragon in medieval China, like elsewhere in the world of any time, were made and remade.

A Chinese Monk under a “Barbarian” Mask?

Zhihuilun (?-876) was not only a major advocate of Esoteric Buddhism in ninth-century China, he also played a crucial role in transmitting Esotericism to the rest of East Asia. Details of the life of this important figure have remained lost in the mists of uncertainty due to the lack of reliable data. Relying on long-hidden evidence, this article shows that almost all of the remarks made about Zhihuilun by Zanning (919-1001) in the Song gaoseng zhuan are contradicted by this body of new evidence and must be modified or simply rejected. In addition to reconstructing more accurately the life of a principal esoteric promoter, this article aims at exposing certain fundamental flaws inherent in monastic biographies. It also suggests that the nature and functions of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism might need to be reassessed in view of the newly revealed Chinese origin of this key promoter of that tradition.
 Zhihuilun (?-876) n’a pas seulement ete l’un des grands representants du bouddhisme esoterique en Chine au ixe siecle, il a egalement joue un role crucial dans la transmission de l’esoterisme vers le reste de l’Asie orientale. Les details de la vie de cette importante personnalite restaient enveloppes de mystere en raison de l’absence de sources fiables. La presente etude s’appuie sur des donnees restees longtemps cachees pour montrer que presque toutes les indications donnees par Zanning (919-1001) sur Zhihuilun dans le Song gaoseng zhuan sont contredites par ces nouvelles donnees, et qu’elles doivent par consequent etre soit modifiees, soit rejetees purement et simplement. Outre qu’il propose une reconstruction plus exacte de la vie d’un des grands promoteurs de l’esoterisme, l’article s’attache a exposer certains des problemes fondamentaux souleves par les biographies de moines. Il est egalement suggere que la nature meme et les fonctions du bouddhisme esoterique chinois meritent peut-etre d’etre reevaluees a la lumiere de l’origine chinoise, telle qu’elle est revelee ici, d’un des personnages cles de cette tradition.

A Daoist princess and a Buddhist temple: a new theory on the causes of the canon-delivering mission originally proposed by princess Jinxian (689–732) in 730

Yunjusi has, over the past few decades, earned a worldwide reputation for the immense repository of Buddhist scriptures carved on the stone slabs that are stored there (the so-called Stone Canon of Fangshan [Fangshan shijing] ). The heroic enterprise of carving the whole Buddhist canon into stone had already been initiated during the Daye era (604–617) thanks to the resolve of the monk Jingwan (?–639) and support from Empress Xiao (d. after 630) of Sui Yangdi (r. 604–617) and her brother Xiao Yu (574–647). However, it did not accelerate until 740 when Xuanzong, as urged by his sister Princess Jinxian (689–732), ordered two eminent monks from the capital monastery Great Chongfusi (one of them being the great Buddhist historian and cataloguer Zhisheng [fl. 740s]) to deliver over four-thousand fascicles of Buddhist translations, which constituted the main body of the newly compiled Kaiyuan Buddhist canon, to Yunjusi to serve as base texts for the stone scriptures. This event is remarkable and puzzling for at least three reasons. First, although Yunjusi, a local temple situated far from the capitals, was not a Kaiyuan monastery, it still had the honour of being chosen as a recipient of the Kaiyuan canon. Second, one cannot help but wonder why and how two Chongfusi monks, who were of obvious prestige, should have demonstrated such enthusiasm in escorting so many Buddhist texts to this apparently marginal temple. Finally, it is difficult to understand why Princess Jinxian, who was then an ordained Taoist nun, played such an active and decisive role in this project. Such a remarkable and important event inevitably invited considerable attention from scholars, who have noted, and attempted to explain, several aspects of the mystery surrounding Princess Jinxians Yunjusi ties. This article attempts to address this old issue from a perspective that has never been explored. It broaches and elaborates on the possibility that the great AvatamD saka master Fazangs (643–712) possible ties with Yunjusi form a major missing piece in this complex puzzle.

The multiple roles of the twin Chanding Monasteries in Sui-Tang Chang’an

By examining various roles played by the twin Chanding Monasteries under the Sui and Tang dynasties, this article underscores the necessity of studying religious temples and shrines from multiple perspectives, taking into account the plethora of non-religious factors that scholars of the religious history are wont to ignore or neglect. Scholars need to attend more closely to the roles temples have played in building social, political, economic-commercial, educational or even diplomatic and strategic ties and networks in East Asia.