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8782-Article Text-8590-1-10-20110301
8782-Article Text-8590-1-10-20110301
BUDDHIST STUDIES
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Roger Jackson
Dept. oj Religion
Carleton College
Northfield, MN 55057
USA
EDITORS
Peter N. Gregory Ernst Steinkellner
University of Illinois University of Vienna
Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA Wien, Austria
I. ARTICLES
sion, it seems clear from his discussion of the research on the subject
that this text was compiled in China by the Central Asian mission-
ary-monk Kalayasas and a Chinese assistant between 424 and 442,
using several kinds of pre-existent Central Asian and Chinese mate-
rials. Tanaka points out that while this sutra was widely used for litur-
gical purposes, prior to its treatment by Ching-ying Hui-yuan it had
as yet attracted little scholarly interest. In the approximately one
hundred years between its compilation and Hui-yiian's commentary
it had received only the attention ofT'an-luan, who refers to and dis-
cusses it several times in his commentary on the Discourse on the Sutra
of Immeasurable Life and Verse on Rebirth ofVasubandhu, and of Ling-yu
(518-605), who apparently authored a commentary on the Contem-
plation Sutra which may have preceded Hui-yiian's commentary but
no longer survives.
The Contemplation Sutra opens with a dramatic prologue on the
tragic situation of Lady Vaidehi, presents Sakyamuni Buddha's
instructions to her on forming thirteen contemplations on various
aspects of the Pure Land, Amitabha Buddha and his bodhisattvas, and
then presents three additional "contemplations," which are actually
descriptions of the rebirths into the Pure Land of nine grades of per-
sons. The first thirteen contemplations are instructions in contem-
plative W^a-reflection (kuan-fo), and the nine grades present vari-
ous means or causes of rebirth, such as meritorious acts, types of
faith and especially invocational buddha-reficction (ch'eng-ming nien-
fo). It is thus a text very rich in instructions on praxis, including
forms of ethical conduct, the cultivation of devotional attitudes and
descriptions of buddha-rthection, and moreover praxis ranging in
difficulty from detailed visualizations culminating in buddha-refiec-
tion samddhi [nien-fo san met] to simple utterance of the name of
Amitabha just ten times.
Subsequent to Ching-ying Hui-yiian's commentary, the Contem-
plation Sutra became the subject of considerable scholarly attention.
Commentaries and treatments by Chi-tsang (549-623), Tao-ch'o
(562-645), Shan-tao and others followed in rapid succession.
Tanaka lists twelve extant commentaries or treatments dating
through the Sun period (960-1279). And from the Sui period on, the
Contemplation Sutra became a basic scripture of the lay devotional
movement led by Tao-ch'o, Shan-tao and their successors. The Con-
templation Sutra was therefore at the very center of the development of
Pure Land piety in China.
Tanaka's study of Ching-ying Hui-yiian's Commentary on the Con-
templation Sutra clarifies the process of this development in a number
of ways. Tanaka claims that Hui-yiian's commentary interjected the
184 JIABS VOL. 14 NO. 1
fined to the thinkers who have been designated as the patriarchs and
forerunners of these denominations. Consequently, figures, not
included in this lineage, such as Ching-ying Hui-yiian, have been
neglected or misunderstood. For most Japanese Pure Land Buddhist
scholarship, Ching-ying Hui-yiian has been seen as merely a mis-
taken interpreter of the Contempation Sutra whose views were sub-
sequently corrected by the Pure Land patriarch accepted by the
Japanese, Shan-tao.
This study thus applies a valuable corrective to a field which has
long been dominated by biased sectarian scholarship. Unfortu-
nately, however, Tanaka's study itself is cast in a sectarian mold. In
reaction to the sectarian bias he so laudably and capably corrects,
Tanaka shapes his own study around a distinction between figures
he calls "orthodox Pure Land Buddhists" and "those of Pure Land
Buddhism." (Tanaka defines Pure Land Buddhism as "a set of
beliefs and practices that espouses for its aspirants the realization of
the stage of non-retrogression.. .either in the present life or through
rebirth in a Buddha land or realm...called 'Sukhavatf....") The
orthodox Pure Land Buddhists, he identifies as T'an-luan, Tao-ch'o
and Shan-tao. Those categorizable under "the larger rubric Pure
Land Buddhism" he designates as Lu-shan Hui-yiian, Fa-chao
(c. 763-804), and other figures such as Ching-ying Hui-yiian who,
though not related to the Japanese denominational lineages, wrote
Pure Land commentaries or treatises. While Tanaka realizes that the
"orthodox Pure Land Buddhists... neither espoused a uniform set of
i d e a s . . . n o r constituted a direct line of transmission," nonetheless
his application of this terminology to Chinese Buddhist history is
distorting.
The problem is partly that the term orthodox means much more
than "espousal of a uniform set of ideas," or constitutive of "a direct
line of transmission." It means true teachings and implies normative
status within an established religious community. While the figures
Tanaka labels orthodox Pure Land Buddhists are certainly accorded
such status by Japanese Pure Land Buddhists, they held no such posi-
tion in China. Quite the contrary, the three figures called orthodox
Pure Land Buddhists by Tanaka were in general not well-known in
their own times, were not patronized by the state as were the founders
of T'ang period schools, and their thought was criticized as deviant
by exponents of other Buddhist traditions. 4 The use of the term
orthodox to describe these Chinese figures tends to shape Chinese
religious history according to a Japanese paradigm and to that
extent to distort the Chinese phenomena. Though Tanaka has
adopted this terminology primarily for purposes of providing "con-
REVIEWS 187
Allan A. Andrews
NOTES
REFERENCES
An-lo chi ("Passages on the Land of Peace and Bliss"), T #1958, by Tao-ch'o.
Buswell, Robert E. Jr., ed. 1990. Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha. Honolulu: Univer-
sity of Hawaii Press.
Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra by Ching-ying Hui-yiian.
See Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching i-shu.
Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra by Shan-tao.
See Kuan Wu-liang-shou-Jo ching shu.
Commentary on the Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching.
See Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra by Ching-ying Hui-yiian.
Contemplation Sutra.
See Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching.
Discourse on the Sutra of Immeasurable Life and Verse on Rebirth.
See Wu-liang-shou-chingyu-po-t'i-sheyuan-shengchieh.
Fujita Kotatsu. 1990. "The Textual Origins of the Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching: A
Canonical Scripture of Pure Land Buddhism," Translated by Kenneth K.
Tanaka, in Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr.
Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching ("Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Im-.
measurable Life"), T #365.
Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching i-shu ("Commentary on the Sutra of Contemplation on
the Buddha of Immeasurable Life"), T #1745, by Ching-ying Hui-yiian.
Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching shu ("Commentary on the Sutra of Contemplation on
the Buddha of Immeasurable Life"), T #1753, by Shan-tao.
Ryukoku University Translation Center, trans. 1984. The Sutra of Contemplation on
the Buddha of Immeasurable Life as Expounded by Sakyamuni Buddha. Translated
and annotated by the Ryukoku Translation Center under the direction of
Meiji Yamada. Kyoto: Ryukoku University.
T See Taisho shinshu daizokyo.
Ta-ch'eng i-chang ("Mahayana Encyclopedia"), T #1851, by Ching-ying Hui-yiian.
Taisho shinshu daizokyo. 1924-32. ("Taisho Period Revised Edition of the Chinese
Buddhist Canon"). Ed. by Takakusu Junjiro and Watanabe K., 100 vols.
Tokyo: Taisho Shinshu Daizokyo Kankokai.
Visualization Sutra.
See Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching.
Wu-liang-shou ching ("Sutra of [the Buddha of] Immeasurable Life"), T #360.
Wu-liang-shou-ching yu-po-t'i-she yuan-sheng chieh ("Discourse on the Sutra of
Immeasurable Life and Verse on Rebirth"), T #1524.
190 JIABS VOL. 14 NO. 1
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