Zhi Kai: the first founder of Chinese Buddhism
2022-06-10
After three generations, you are the national teacher of two dynasties During the northern and Southern Dynasties, the Huarong Buddhism spread widely in Jingzhou, and the Guanyin belief spread more widely. A little boy always liked to play in the temple. The monk tried it, but he could recite "Guanyin Bodhisattva's general products" completely. This boy is Zhikai, the founder of Tiantai Sect, the first Chinese Buddhism sect. Zhi Yi, whose surname was Chen and the word De'an, was born in the fourth year of Datong (538) of Emperor Wu of the Southern Dynasty. His father, chenqizu, served as a free riding attendant in the reign of emperor Xiaoyuan of Liang Dynasty and was granted the title of founding Marquis of Yiyang County; His mother, Xu Shi, was good at worshiping Buddha and diligent in fasting. Zhi Kai was born in a wealthy family and was influenced by Buddhism. At the age of 15, he wanted to become a monk, but his parents did not allow him to do so. Instead, he engraved sandalwood images and recited them. When he was 17, the Western Wei Dynasty sent troops to attack Jiangling and killed emperor Xiaoyuan of Liang Dynasty. His father's loyal escort was also killed and his mother died. After the mourning, he said goodbye to his brother, and then he made a vow to become a monk. He became a monk from Guoyuan temple in Xiangzhou (now Changsha, Hunan), and his French name was Zhiyi. After becoming a monk, Zhikai made great progress in the way of seeking Dharma. At the age of 20, he received sufficient precepts, learned grand multiplication from Hui Kuang, and first learned the Dharma Sutra; From the age of 23 to Dasu mountain in Guangzhou (now Guangshan County, Henan Province), he has learned from Huisi for 7 years. His meditation skills and Buddhist level have made great progress, laying a solid theoretical and practical foundation for the establishment of sects in the future. In 567, at the age of 30, Zhiqian was ordered by his teacher to go down the mountain and south to Jinling (now Nanjing, Jiangsu) to preach. At this time, Jinling was the capital of Nanchen, where eminent monks gathered. Over the past few years, with his profound Buddhist attainments and excellent eloquence, Zhi Kai has won the admiration of monks and the public, and his reputation has been growing. Even Emperor Xuan Chen has worshipped him as a teacher. He invited the Lord Waguan temple to give a lecture, which has shocked the capital. However, Zhi Yun felt that the noise of the capital was not conducive to Qingxiu, so he resolutely resigned and went to Tiantai Mountain (now Tiantai County, Zhejiang Province). In 575, Zhiyi entered Tiantai Mountain and led the monks to build their own Maoan. On hearing this, Emperor Xuan of Chen issued an imperial edict that "it is appropriate to cut the first Fengxian tune to replenish the public expenses" and gave him economic support. Zhiyifang built a Buddhist temple. During this period, Zhi Kai accepted Zhang an as his disciple, and countless monks and laymen came to listen to the Dharma through mountains and rivers. Tiantai Mountain soon became a new important Buddhist town. In 585, the Sui Dynasty in the North became stronger and stronger, while the Chen regime was very weak. Empress Chen tried to save the regime by using Buddhism. She sent an envoy to Jinling to live in lingyao temple, where she opened a wide range of lectures, and integrated French and Chinese sentences. In 589, the Sui army invaded Jinling and Chen died. So he planned to travel to Jingxiang and rest on Kuang mountain (now Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi). In 591, Yang Guang, who was also king of the Jin Dynasty of the Sui Dynasty at that time, ordered Zhiyi to Yangzhou on the grounds of receiving the precepts of Bodhisattva. Zhi Yu "cannot avoid three words" and later made "four wishes" with Yang Guang: he is willing not to see the period with Zen (not talking about Zen), not to blame his rules (not subject to the constraints of secular rites and laws), to allow him to be a Dharma and not to be careless (free to come and go), to drink and peck at will, to die in his old age (to live according to his own wishes), and then to go to Yangzhou. At the end of that year, Zhi Kai presided over a ceremony of receiving precepts at the Jincheng Hall of Yangzhou general manager's office. Thousands of monks gathered to teach Yang Guang the Bodhisattva Precepts and named them "master abbots". Later, Yang Guang also honored Zhikai with the title of "wise man". From then on, Zhikai was also called "wise master". The ceremony of accepting precepts in Yangzhou implied that Zhi Kai recognized the authority of the new regime and reached a compromise with the Sui Dynasty. After that, he was able to leave Yangzhou and return to his birthplace Jingzhou to establish Yuquan temple. In the next few years, he integrated "the metaphysics of fahua" and "Maha Zhiguan". So far, he has completed the basic project of creating the sect, "three parts of the roof", including the previously completed "French and Chinese sentences". This marks the final formation of the Buddhist ideology of Zhiyi sect. He was named Tiantai Sect because he always lived in Tiantai Mountain, and was also called fahua sect because his teachings were mainly based on the fahua Sutra. In view of the influence of Zhi Kai, the Sui regime did not fully trust him at this time. In 595, King Yang Guang of Jin invited Zhi Kai to Yangzhou. A year later, Zhi Kai was able to resign and return to Tiantai Mountain. At this time, Tiantai Mountain Temple was deserted for a long time, and Zhiyi reorganized the temple. During this period, Ji Zang, the master of Jiaxiang temple in Kuaiji, and more than 100 monks invited Zhi Kai to speak the Dharma Sutra. Zhi Kai did not go because of physical discomfort; Later, Yang Guang sent an emissary into the mountain to invite Zhi Kai out of the mountain again. Even if he was unwell, Zhi Kai had to go down the mountain with illness. In the 17th year of emperor kaihuang of Sui Dynasty (597), Zhiyi passed away in the big Buddhist temple in Shicheng (now Xinchang, Zhejiang Province) and was buried in the Buddha dragon of Tiantai Mountain. Zhiyi was born in troubled times and has experienced three generations. He is a national teacher of the two dynasties. He can be called a monument figure in the historical process of the Sinicization of Buddhism. He founded Tiantai Sect and popularized Buddhist Thoughts Zhi Kaisi inherited and carried forward the thought of protecting the country by Buddhism, and put forward the concept of "three actions" (for Buddhism, for the land and for all sentient beings). Before Zhikai, master dao'an said, "if you don't follow the Lord of the state, it will be difficult to establish laws.". Zhi Kai also understood this theory. His thought of protecting the country can be seen in his biography and the Prajna Sutra of King Ren protecting the country. It is recorded in the farewell biography of the wise master of Tiantai that before his death, Zhi Kai said in his posthumous note to Yang Guang, emperor of the Sui Dynasty: "all those who were born with Zhou Zhang are Buddhists, for the land, and for all sentient beings... After the end of their lives, if they have divine power, they swear to protect the land of the king, so that the law can be spread to repay the king's kindness." Zhi Kai's view of "Three Virtues" not only inherits the tradition of Chinese Buddhism, but also integrates the political and ethical concepts of Confucianism. Tiantai Sect is the first Chinese Buddhism sect. The Chinese way of thinking can be seen in the concepts of "worry is Bodhi", "sex has good and evil" and "one thought three thousand" created by Zhikai. These concepts not only have the background of Indian mesology, but also have the creative play of wisdom. They have opened up a new method of Chinese Buddhist hermeneutics, and laid a foundation for Tiantai Sect to create a complete set of Buddhist theoretical system and stop observing and practicing methods. Zhiyi creatively put forward "worry is Bodhi (wisdom)", which can be said to be a concrete application of the concept of "Yin and Yang" in the book of changes. Originally, in Indian Buddhism, "worry" is "worry", "Bodhi" is "Bodhi", and "worry" and "Bodhi" are diametrically opposite. However, Chi Kai interpreted the relationship between "worry" and "Bodhi" as a "yin-yang" relationship, thus "worry is Bodhi": "worry" contains the factors that make "Bodhi" and "Bodhi" also contains the factors that degenerate into "worry". Zhikai's Buddhist thought and even the whole Tiantai Sect's Buddhist thought were developed in such a Chinese context of "worry is Bodhi". The theory that "nature has good and evil" is the most sinicized theory in Zhiyi theory. "As far as nature is concerned, ordinary people are equal to Buddha. Ordinary people are always good, and all Buddhas are always evil. But as far as practice is concerned, there is a great difference. Buddha is all good, and ordinary people are immersed in evil." "Nature has good and evil" means that all living beings and Buddhas share the two natures of good and evil, while ordinary people still have "nature is good", and all Buddhas have "nature is evil", which will never change. The difference between the two is in practice. Specifically, Zhiyi refers to the practice method of paying equal attention to stopping and observing, and "stopping and observing" is a combination of meditation and wisdom. It was originally a Buddhist tradition to pay equal attention to stopping and observing. However, in the early stage of the development of Chinese Buddhism, two schools were formed, namely, stopping and observing the wrong way, or focusing on Zen in the north and focusing on righteousness and interpretation in the south. At this time, it is of great significance for Zhi Kai to advocate the practice method of paying equal attention to stopping and observing. Zhi Kai's theory of "nature has good and evil" is the result of absorbing and assimilating the traditional Chinese philosophy of human nature with the Buddhist theory of nature. It not only adheres to the concept of equality of nature in the traditional Chinese philosophy that "everyone can be Yao and Shun", but also emphasizes the importance of individual cultivation and practice. Therefore, it is easy to be accepted by the Chinese people and has a subtle influence on the mind theory of Neo Confucianism in the song and Ming Dynasties. "One thought of three thousand" is the deepening of Zhiyi's view of mind, which reflects the religious world view of Tiantai Sect. The full name of "one mind three thousand" is "one mind has three thousand worlds". "One thought" refers to people's current thought, "three thousand" refers to three thousand worlds and ten thousand dharmas. From a logical point of view, there is a corresponding relationship between one thought and threethousand. One thought is the concept of energy and threethousand is the concept of things. However, in the philosophical speculative system of Tiantai Sect, one thought is not only the subject of pure conscious activities, but also the object of visualization; Threethousand is not only the object of one thought, but also one thought itself. "One thought threethousand" reflects the harmony between "mind" and "ten thousand dharmas". With the help of the profound understanding and flexible application of Prajna spirit, Zhikai's theory of "one thought, three thousand" has reached a very high level of Buddhist thinking. Zhi Kai's theory of judging Buddhism plays an important role in the development of Chinese Buddhism. Judaism is a comprehensive judgment made by a sect on the value and status of various Buddhist scriptures and sects to establish the authority of the sect. This method has been used in Indian Buddhism. In China, the Mahayana sutras and Mahayana sutras spread at the same time, and religious judgment played a more important role in sectarian theory. By the northern and Southern Dynasties, the doctrine of "three southern (three southern) and seven northern (seven northern)" had been formed. Zhikai's theory of teaching judgment emphasizes the consistency of teaching, which is the cornerstone of his theory of teaching judgment. "Religion" refers to the Buddha's various speeches to incarnate all sentient beings; "Appearance" refers to all kinds of appearance that all living beings understand together. In Zhi Kai's view, the doctrine of "three in the South and seven in the north" is either based on a certain sermon in the Buddhist scriptures, or regards his own understanding as a Buddhist doctrine, which separates religion from the relationship, resulting in various differences and contradictions. For this reason, he put forward the "five seasons and eight religions" judgment system on the basis of the consistency of religions. "Five seasons" means that the Buddha preaches to different beings at different times; "Eight teachings" refer to the teachings of the Buddha to different beings in different ways and contents. Zhi Kai believed that the Dharma Sutra and the great Nirvana Sutra are the most perfect Sutras in the Buddhist sutras, and the contents not covered in other Buddhist sutras should be enriched with these two sutras. Based on the fahua Sutra, he deduced that Tiantai Sect is the best sect among the three Immortals (sound, hearing, fate and Bodhisattva), and other Buddhist sects should be based on Tiantai Sect. Zhi Kai's theory of judging Buddhism promoted the mutual complementarity and integration of Buddhist sects in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In particular, later Huayan sect further developed the religious consistency of Tiantai Sect into the judgment thought of "consistent religion and Zen" and "consistent Zen and purity", which contributed to the general trend of confluence of Buddhist sects in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Tiantai Sect is the first true Chinese Buddhist sect. Zhi Kai's historical contribution lies not only in his creation of Tiantai Sect, but also in his creation mode which has had a significant impact on the creation of other Chinese Buddhist sects. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the three theories, consciousness only, Huayan, Zen and other schools were established successively. To varying degrees, Zhiyi was taken as the teacher to construct the religious view system of this sect. It was from the founding of Tiantai Sect by Zhiyi that Chinese Buddhism began to enter a new stage of sectarian diversity and prosperity. As the first founder of Chinese Buddhism, Zhi Kai opened a new era for the development of Chinese Buddhism. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
Source：
Special statement: if the pictures and texts reproduced or quoted on this site infringe your legitimate rights and interests, please contact this site, and this site will correct and delete them in time. For copyright issues and website cooperation, please contact through outlook new era email：lwxsd@liaowanghn.com
Recommended Reading Change it 
Home
