Summary |
Chinese Buddhist philosophy primarily stems from traditional Chinese Buddhist thinkers' efforts to inherit, reinterpret, and develop theories and thoughts found in various Chinese translations of Indian Mahayana scriptures and treatises. Five Chinese Buddhist schools or traditions are of philosophical significance:
- The Three-Treatise school
- The Consciousness-Only school
- The Tiantai school
- The Huayan school
- Chinese Zen (Chan) Buddhism
The Three-Treatise and Consciousness-Only schools are Chinese descendants of Indian Madhyamaka and Yogācāra, respectively. However, both have all but disappeared after the Tang dynasty (618-907). The other three schools—Tiantai, Huayan, and Zen/Chan—are indigenous and can be considered philosophically the most representative traditions of Chinese Buddhism. Considerably influenced by Chinese thought and culture, the Chinese Buddhist way of thinking is fundamentally nondualistic in character. It emphasizes, more than Indian Mahayana does, the mutual sameness and interpenetration of the ultimate and the conventional. This thinking tends to be somewhat nondiscursive, involving holistic views expressed in paradoxical language, with particular concern for the practical. Meanwhile, Tathāgatagarbha thought receives much attention among Chinese Buddhist thinkers. The widespread conviction is that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature and can attain Buddhahood. |