Jingxi Zhanran (; J. Keikei Tannen; K. Hyŏnggye Tamyŏn, c. 711-782) was the sixth patriarch of the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism. Zhanran is considered to be the most important Tiantai figure after the founder Zhiyi."Zhanran", in Silk, Jonathan A. et al. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Volume II: Lives, pp. 814-817. He was also called Master Miaole (Sublime Bliss), Dharma Master Jizhu (Lord of Exegesis), and Jingqi (荊溪) after his birthplace.
Zhanran helped define, defend, and popularize the Tiantai tradition during the Tang dynasty, further developing its doctrinal system based on Zhiyi's writings. He authored important commentaries on Zhiyi's works as well as original treatises of his own. He is also the first figure to use the term "Tiantai School" (Tiantai zong).
Life Zhanran was born in Jingqi (荊溪), in modern-day Yixing 宜興 county, Jiangsu province. His lay surname was Qi (戚). After receiving a Ruist (Confucian) education, Zhanran became attracted to the study of Tiantai Buddhism at the age of eighteen. He later became a student of Master Xuanlang (673–754), the past head of the Tiantai community on Mt. Tiantai who had now retired to Mount Zuoxi (Zhejiang province). Zhanran stayed with Xuanlang on Mount Zuoxi as a lay practitioner and lecturer for twenty years, studying and practicing Zhiyi's Mohe zhiguan.
Zhanran later entered the monastic order at thirty eight in Jingle si (淨樂寺) at Junshan (君山). Early in his monastic training, he studied the Vinaya with precept master Tanyi (曇一, 692-771) at Huiji (會稽). After this period, Zhanran traveled around for a bit, looking for shelter during the An Lushan Rebellion (755–763). In 755, while staying in Lin’an (臨安; Zhejiang province), he wrote the first draft of his magnum opus, the Zhiguan fuxing chuanhong jue (止觀輔行傳弘決; A Resolution to Assist and Promote the Practice of “Concentration and Insight,” T. 1912). This is his main commentary on Zhiyi's Mohe Zhiguan. He later moved back to Mount Tiantai in 764. It was during this tumultuous time that Zhanran wrote the first editions of many of his commentaries.
Zhanran worked to revive and unify the various temples of the tradition under the banner of one school, the "Tiantai school" (Tiantai zong). Before the rise of Zhanran, the Tang Tiantai tradition had begun to be challenged by other traditions, like Huayan, Esoteric Buddhism and Chan (Zen) and some Tiantai monasteries like those on Mt. Wutai had begun to draw on these traditions as well. Zhanran's writings are in part a response to this challenge, and a reassertion of the preeminence of Zhiyi's teachings, as well as an effort to construct a sense of a Tiantai zong (宗, school).
Zhanran spent much time and energy writing commentaries on the works of Zhiyi, and defending Tiantai doctrines against the competing East Asian Yogācāra, Chan, and Huayan schools, who he also studied deeply. For example, Zhanran's commentaries on the Lotus Sutra specifically address and refute the interpretations of Faxiang scholar Kuiji, which grant the Lotus Sutra a status lower to Yogācāra scriptures which teach the theory of icchantika. Zhanran's writings on the distinctions between Tiantai and these others schools became central to later Tiantai Buddhism's sense of identity.
In the 770s, Zhanran traveled widely and taught at various places throughout China, including Suzhou (蘇州), Mount Wutai and Kaiyuan si (開元寺) in Suzhou. He was even invited by Chinese emperors Xuanzong (r. 712–756), Suzong (r. 756–762), and Daizong (r. 762–779) to lecture at the imperial court, but he declined, citing illness as an excuse.Chen (2014), pp. 218-219 Scholars disagree on the reasons why he might have stayed away from court. He may have wanted to avoid politics and favored personal connections with his disciples, or he may have been worried that the emperors were more supportive of Daoism and Esoteric Buddhism.
Later in life, he retired to Guoqing temple on Mt. Tiantai. He died at Folong in 782. With time, Zhanran's influence grew and his works became authoritative in the Tiantai school as he was later considered to be the 9th patriarch of the Tiantai tradition and a Dharma heir (fazi 法子) of Xuanlang. However, his status during his lifetime is less clear, and he likely did not gain such prestige officially during his lifetime.Chen (2014), pp. 215-216.
Works There are at least 33 works attributed to Zhan-ran, though only 21 are extant, and eleven of them have been questioned by modern scholars as being later works."Zhanran", in Silk, Jonathan A. et al. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Volume II: Lives, pp. 814-817.
Zhanran's three main works are all large influential commentaries on the works of Zhiyi:Chen (2014), p. 220
Zhiguan fuxing zhuan hongjue (止觀輔行傳弘決, T1912), a commentary on the Mohe Zhiguan (摩訶止觀, The Great Calming and Contemplation, T1911). Fahua Xuanyi Shiqian (法華玄義釋籤, T1717), a sub-commentary on Fahua Xuanyi (法華玄義, The Profound Meaning of The Lotus Sutra, T1716), Zhiyi's commentary to the Lotus Sutra. Fahua Wenju Ji (法華文句記, T1719), a sub-commentary on Fahua Wenju (法華文句, The Words and Phrases of The Lotus Sutra, T1718), Zhiyi's other commentary to the Lotus Sutra. He also wrote several other shorter digests of his commentary on the Mohe Zhiguan. These smaller works are the Zhiguan yili (止觀義例, T. 1913) which critiques Chan meditation, the Zhiguan fuxing suyao ji (止觀 輔行捜要記, X. 919), and the Zhiguan dayi (止觀大 意, T. 1914)."Zhanran", in Silk, Jonathan A. et al. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Volume II: Lives, pp. 814-817.
Zhanran also wrote two sub-commentaries to Zhiyi's Vimalakirti Sutra commentaries."Zhanran", in Silk, Jonathan A. et al. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Volume II: Lives, pp. 814-817.
Zhanran also wrote some original works, such as the influential Adamantine Scalpel Treatise (Jin’gangpi Lun 金剛錍論, T. 1932), which discusses how Buddha-nature, being all-pervasive and non-dual, is also found in inanimate things like mountains and rocks. This was perhaps his most influential work, on which around sixty commentaries have been written since.
His other independent treatise is the Beginning and the End of the Mind Essence (Shizhong xinyao 始終心要), a small text which is a concise encapsulation of the heart (xin 心) of Tiantai thought.Chen (2014), p. 221
Teaching
Zhanran is best known for his scriptural exegesis of Zhiyi's Tiantai teaching, as well as his promotion of the influential doctrine of universal Buddha-nature, which is said to fully pervade (bian 念) insentient as well as sentient beings. This teaching is called "the Buddha-nature of Insentient Beings" (wujing youxing 無情有性) and after Zhanran it became one of the key distinctive teachings of the Tiantai tradition. Through the influence of Saicho and the Japanese Tendai school, this doctrine also infused all of Japanese Buddhism.
Zhanran's contribution also includes the systematic doctrinal classification schema known as the Five Periods and Eight Teachings (五時八教). While this system has traditionally been attributed to Zhiyi, modern scholars like Sekiguchi Shindai have shown that the full system was developed by Zhanran, who first used the term in his Zhiguan fuxing chuanhong jue (T. 1912 [XLVI] p. 292a20).
Buddha-nature Zhanran's Adamantine Scalpel Treatise (金剛錍 Jin'gang Pi) is the key source for the Tiantai doctrine of "the Buddha-nature of Insentient Beings". While the idea that “grass and trees too have buddha-nature” (caomu yiyou foxing 草木亦有佛性) had been mentioned in the works of Jizang and also relies on the thought of Jingying Huiyuan, it is Zhanran who provides the most famous exposition of this Chinese Buddhist doctrine which argues that all insentient things like water, buildings, flora, sounds, smells, rocks all have buddha-nature.Shuman Chen. Buddha-Nature of Insentient Beings. Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, 2nd ed., vol. 1, pp. 208–212, 2014Chen, Shuman (2011). Chinese Tiantai Doctrine on Insentient Things’ Buddha-Nature, Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal 24, 71-104 According to Zhanran:Stone, Jacqueline Ilyse (2009), Realizing this World as the Buddha Land; in: Teiser, Stephen F.; Stone, Jacqueline Ilyse; eds. Readings of the Lotus Sutra, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 209–236, ISBN 9780231142885.Every blade of grass, tree, pebble, and particle of dust is perfectly endowed with buddha-nature ...The practitioner of the perfect teaching, from beginning to end, knows that ultimate principle is non-dual and that there are no objects apart from mind. Who then is sentient? What then is insentient? Within the assembly of the Lotus, there is no discrimination. Zhanran's understanding of buddha-nature relies on the classic Tiantai view of threefold buddha nature (三因佛性) which means that buddha-nature can be understood as having three aspects:Dehn (2023), pp. 59-60
Buddha-Nature as the Proper Cause (正因佛性), the inner potential for Buddhahood in all and the true nature of reality itself Buddha-Nature as the Revealing Cause (了因佛性), the wisdom of Buddhahood, the wisdom that leads to Buddhahood Buddha-Nature as the Conditioning Cause (緣因佛性), the practices leading to Buddhahood and the activities of Buddhahood
Thus, when Zhanran says all things have buddha-nature, he means it in this threefold sense, which is always present in this triple way. That is to say, one never has just one of these aspects, when one is present, the others are present.Ziporyn (2000), p. 186 Furthermore, this triple buddha-nature is non-dual with suffering, delusion and karma. From the perspective of deluded beings, there is just suffering, delusion and karma. But from the Buddha's point of view, suffering includes the potential for Buddhahood (proper cause), which is known by wisdom (revealing cause) and acted upon (conditioning cause).Dehn (2023), pp. 60-62 As such, Zhanran's summarizes his doctrine of Buddha-nature with the following statement: From the beginningless past, you have had nothing but afflictions, karma, and suffering. Precisely this is entirely the Three Causes (of Buddhahood, i.e., the Threefold Buddha-nature) as Principle and as the Nature. Zhanran's view of buddha-nature is not the same as that commonly found in Chan/Zen, which sees it as an "enlightened essence" or "pure Mind" which exists unblemished by the defilements. He also does not see it as some pure ground of all reality from which everything arises. Indeed, he rejects any view of buddha-nature that sees it as some inner core, transcendent mind or pure substratum.Dehn (2023), pp. 62-63Ziporyn (2000), pp. 186-187 Instead, he sees buddha-nature as that which pervades all things and is non-dual with all things (pure or impure, samsaric or nirvanic), writing in the Diamond Scalpel that "this nature is neither internal [nor] external, [but] pervades-all [like] empty space; it is the same as all the Buddhas, and equal to the Dharma Realm (Dharmadhātu)...[this nature] universally inherently-entails [all]."Dehn (2023), p. 64
Thus, for Zhanran, delusion and suffering have always existed and did not arise at some point out of a pure basis or devolved out an enlightened mind. At the same time, delusion and suffering are nothing but the threefold buddha-nature seen from the perspective of a Buddha (and thus, are also Buddhahood). Delusion contains in it the potential for wisdom and suffering the potential for nirvana.