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East Asian Madhyamaka is the Buddhist tradition inEast Asia which represents theIndianMadhyamaka (Chung-kuan) system of thought. InChinese Buddhism, these are often referred to as theSanlun (Ch. 三論宗,Jp.Sanron, "Three Treatise") school,[1] also known as the "emptiness school" (K'ung Tsung),[2] although they may not have been an independent sect.[3] The three principal texts of the school arethe Middle Treatise (Zhong lun),the Twelve Gate Treatise (Shiermen lun), andthe Hundred Treatise (Bai lun). They were first transmitted to China during the early 5th century by the Buddhist monkKumārajīva (344−413) in theEastern Jin Dynasty.[4] The school and its texts were later transmitted to Korea and Japan. The leading thinkers of this tradition areKumārajīva's discipleSengzhao (Seng-chao; 374−414), and the laterJizang (Chi-tsang; 549−623).[2] Their major doctrines includeemptiness (k'ung), themiddle way (chung-tao), thetwofold truth (erh-t'i) and "the refutation of erroneous views as the illumination of right views" (p'o-hsieh-hsien-cheng).[5]
The nameSanlun derives from the fact that its doctrinal basis is formed by three principal Madhyamaka texts composed by the Indian Buddhist philosophersNāgārjuna (Longshu, 龍樹), andĀryadeva, which were then translated intoChinese by theKuchean monkKumārajīva (pinyin:Jiūmóluóshí) and his team of Chinese translators inChang'an's Xiaoyao garden.[4][6]
These three foundational texts are:[7]
Sometimes a fourth text is added, changing the collection's title to the "Four Treatises" (Ch. 四論, pinyin: Silun):[4]
Another text translated by Kumārajīva and his team, theSatyasiddhi shastra (Ch'eng-shih lun), while not being a Madhyamaka text per se, was influential in the study of Chinese Madhyamaka, since it also taught the emptiness of dharmas.[11]
Sengrui was one of Kumārajīva's main disciples--he aided in the translation project of numerous texts, including the Middle Treatise and thePañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāPrajñāpāramitā Sūtra.[12] Six days after Kumārajīva arrived in Chang'an, Sengrui requested that he translatea meditation manual now understood to be theZuochan sanmei jing (Sutra of sittingdhyānasamādhi,Taisho 15 no. 614).[13] Sengrui refers to this manual as "Chanyao" 禪要[13] in the preface he wrote for it: theGuanzhong-chu chanjing xu (Preface to the Meditation Manual Translated in the Guanzhong Area, T. 55: 65 a–b) (dates uncertain).[14]
Another of Kumārajīva's main disciples,Sengzhao continued to promote Madhyamaka teachings, and wrote several works from this standpoint, his main one being theZhao Lun.[15] Two of the essays in this work (Prajña Is Without Dichotomizing Knowledge andNirvana Is Without Conceptualization) follow a similar debate format to Nagarjuna'sMMK.[16]Sengzhao is often seen as the founder of theSanlun school proper. His philosophy drew from various sources, including the three treatises,Mahayana sutras such as theVimalakirti sutra, as well asTaoist works such asLao-tzu,Chuang-tzu and Neo-Daoist "Mystery Learning" (xuanxue 玄学) texts.[17][18] His use of Taoist influenced paradoxes made him a favorite in theChan school who considers him a patriarch.[16]
Sengzhao saw the central problem in understanding emptiness as the discriminatory activity ofprapañca. According toSengzhao, delusion arises through a dependent relationship between phenomenal things, naming, thought and reification and correct understanding lies outside of words and concepts. Thus, while emptiness is the lack of intrinsic self in all things, this emptiness is not itself an absolute and cannot be grasped by the conceptual mind, it can be only be realized through non-conceptual wisdom (prajña).[16]
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An importantSanlun figure during theTang dynasty was Falang (507–581). He studied widely under various teachers, including the Madhyamaka master Sengchuan (470–528) and eventually received an imperial decree to reside at Hsing Huang monastery inJiankang, where he continued to give sermons on the Four Treatises for twenty five years.[19]
The most influentialSanlun scholar of the Tang was Fa-lang's pupilJizang (549–623), a prolific writer who composed commentaries on these three treatises.[20] One of his most famous works is theErdi Yi (二諦意), or "Meaning of the Two Truths", referring to the conventional and ultimate truths.[21] In one passage of theErdi Yi, Jizang cites Falang, and argues that the four treatises have the same goal, "to explain the two truths and manifest the doctrine of non-duality".[22]
Jizang criticized numerous Chinese Buddhists for their unwarranted metaphysical assumptions. He ultimately rejects all metaphysical assertions of being and non-being as dogmatic conceptual confusions. Thus according to Hsueh-Lu Cheng, for Jizang:
True wisdom (prajña) is the abandonment of all views. Chi-tsang argues that metaphysical speculation of Being and Nothingness is a disease (ping). It is the root of all erroneous or perverted views. The cure of the disease lies not so much in developing a new metaphysical theory as in understanding the proper nature and function of human conceptualization and language. Chi-tsang, following Nagarjuna, claims that the very language men create and use plays a trick on them and destroys their "eyes of wisdom." Enlightened men should discard conceptualization so as to avoid being taken in by this trick. Emptiness, for Chi-tsang, is a medicine (yao) for curing the "philosophical disease".[23]
Jizang called his philosophical method "deconstructing what is misleading and revealing what is corrective". He insisted that one must never settle on any particular viewpoint or perspective but constantly reexamine one's formulations to avoid rectification of thought and behavior.[24]
In addition to popularizing Madhyamaka,Jizang also wrote commentaries on theMahāyāna sūtras such as theLotus Sūtra, theVimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra andTathāgatagarbha teachings.
AfterJizang, the school declined considerably, though its texts remained influential for other traditions such asTiantai andChan Buddhism. In, Chan (Zen), Nagarjuna is seen as one of the patriarchs of the school and thus its key figures such asHuineng must have been familiar with the four treatises.[25] According to Hsueh-li Cheng, "Zen masters such as Niu-t'ou fa-yung (594–657) and Nan-ch'uan P'u-yuan (748–834) were San-Iun Buddhists before they became Zen masters."[25] Furthermore, majorSanlun tenets such as the negation of conceptualization, the rejection of all views, and the twofold truth were adopted by Zen, thus Hsueh-li Cheng concludes that "in many respects Zen appears to be a practical application of Madhyamika thought."[26]
In the early part of the 20th century, the laymenYang Wenhui and Ouyang Jian (Ch.歐陽漸) (1871–1943) promoted Buddhist learning in China, and the general trend was for an increase in studies of Buddhist traditions such asYogācāra,Madhyamaka, and theHuayan school.[27][28]
A major influential figure in the modern Chinese study of Madhyamaka isYinshun (印順導師, 1906–2005).[29][30] Yinshun applied his study of the ChineseAgamas to Madhyamaka, and argued that the works ofNagarjuna were "the inheritance of the conceptualisation of dependent arising as proposed in the Agamas".[31] Yinshun saw the writings of Nagarjuna as the correctBuddhadharma while considering the writings of theSanlun school as being corrupted due to their synthesizing of theTathagata-garbha doctrine into Madhyamaka.[32]
While he was seen among his colleagues as aSanlun scholar, he himself did not claim such direct affiliation:[33]
In Zhōngguān jīnlùn (中觀今論 Modern Discussion on the Madhyamaka) [pg. 18, 24], I stated: "Amongst my teachers and friends, I am seen as a scholar of either the Three Treatise (三論 sanlun) or the Emptiness schools", although I "certainly do have great affinities with the fundamental and essential doctrines of the emptiness school", however, "I do not belong to any particular school of thought within the emptiness schools".
Many modern Chinese Mādhyamaka scholars such as Li Zhifu, Yang Huinan and Lan Jifu have been students ofYinshun.[34]
The school was known in Japan as Sanron (三論宗) and was introduced around 625 by the KoreanGoguryeo monkHyegwan (Jp. = Ekan 慧灌) who resided atGangōji Temple.Prince Shōtoku is known to have had two Buddhist mentors from the Sanron school. Ekan is also known for introducing the Jōjitsu (Satyasiddhi) school to Japan and the Satyasiddhi system was taught as a supplement, together with Madhyamaka, in Japanese Sanron.[35]
During theHeian period, an important Sanron figure was master Chiko (709–781), whose commentary on the Heart Sutra became a classic work of Heian Buddhist scholarship and the most authoritative commentary on the Heart Sutra in the early Heian.[36] This commentary criticized the Hosso (Yogacara) school's interpretation of the Heart Sutra, promoted the Heart Sutra as a text of definitive meaning (nītārtha) while also drawing on the work of Jizang.[37]
This school was later overshadowed by other Japanese schools such as Tendai and Zen.
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