Candrakirti
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195151138
- eISBN:
- 9780199870448
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195151135.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Āryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas (Catuḥśataka) is a Mahāyāna Buddhist text that describes the Bodhisattva's path toward enlightenment. In his commentary on this text, the Indian Buddhist philosopher ...
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Āryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas (Catuḥśataka) is a Mahāyāna Buddhist text that describes the Bodhisattva's path toward enlightenment. In his commentary on this text, the Indian Buddhist philosopher Candrakiriti (c.550–650 c.e.) combines philosophical argument with the narration of popular stories to persuade beginners on the path of the value of the Buddha's teachings. In the first four chapters, Candrakiriti offers therapeutic advice to lay and monastic people on how to cope with death, suffering, lust, and egotism. Each chapter focuses on a different mistaken idea that must be abandoned by people who aspire to become Buddhas. Candrakiriti argues that people deceive themselves by believing in their immortality, in the pleasurable and pure nature of their bodies, and in the pride they take in themselves and their possessions. Part 1 of Four Illusions explores the broad range of his knowledge about Indian religious beliefs and practices, legal and political works, and the popular literature of his time, the Mahābharata and the Rāmāyaṇa. Part 2 provides the first translation into a Western language of the first four chapters of Candrakiriti commentary on Āryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas.Less
Āryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas (Catuḥśataka) is a Mahāyāna Buddhist text that describes the Bodhisattva's path toward enlightenment. In his commentary on this text, the Indian Buddhist philosopher Candrakiriti (c.550–650 c.e.) combines philosophical argument with the narration of popular stories to persuade beginners on the path of the value of the Buddha's teachings. In the first four chapters, Candrakiriti offers therapeutic advice to lay and monastic people on how to cope with death, suffering, lust, and egotism. Each chapter focuses on a different mistaken idea that must be abandoned by people who aspire to become Buddhas. Candrakiriti argues that people deceive themselves by believing in their immortality, in the pleasurable and pure nature of their bodies, and in the pride they take in themselves and their possessions. Part 1 of Four Illusions explores the broad range of his knowledge about Indian religious beliefs and practices, legal and political works, and the popular literature of his time, the Mahābharata and the Rāmāyaṇa. Part 2 provides the first translation into a Western language of the first four chapters of Candrakiriti commentary on Āryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas.
Stuart H. Young
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824841201
- eISBN:
- 9780824868598
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824841201.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This book is a study of how medieval Chinese Buddhists represented their ancient Indian forebears as exemplars of Buddhist practice for a world without a Buddha. It focuses on the Chinese ...
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This book is a study of how medieval Chinese Buddhists represented their ancient Indian forebears as exemplars of Buddhist practice for a world without a Buddha. It focuses on the Chinese hagiographies of Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva in particular, who were celebrated in medieval China as the greatest Buddhist saints since Śākyamuni, and who have long captured the attention of modern Buddhist Studies scholars. In contrast to earlier studies of these figures, which attempt to situate them in ancient Indian history, this book examines Chinese accounts of their lives as means of illuminating the beliefs and concerns of Chinese Buddhists themselves. Through these hagiographies I explore broader issues concerning how Chinese Buddhists conceived Indian Buddhism as a whole, and how they thereby construed the problem of being Buddhist in latter-day China. I examine Chinese Buddhist appropriations of the ancient Indian patriarchs in order to elucidate medieval Chinese conceptions of Buddhist sanctity across the Sino-Indian divide.Less
This book is a study of how medieval Chinese Buddhists represented their ancient Indian forebears as exemplars of Buddhist practice for a world without a Buddha. It focuses on the Chinese hagiographies of Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva in particular, who were celebrated in medieval China as the greatest Buddhist saints since Śākyamuni, and who have long captured the attention of modern Buddhist Studies scholars. In contrast to earlier studies of these figures, which attempt to situate them in ancient Indian history, this book examines Chinese accounts of their lives as means of illuminating the beliefs and concerns of Chinese Buddhists themselves. Through these hagiographies I explore broader issues concerning how Chinese Buddhists conceived Indian Buddhism as a whole, and how they thereby construed the problem of being Buddhist in latter-day China. I examine Chinese Buddhist appropriations of the ancient Indian patriarchs in order to elucidate medieval Chinese conceptions of Buddhist sanctity across the Sino-Indian divide.
Stuart H. Young
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824841201
- eISBN:
- 9780824868598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824841201.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Chapter 2 illustrates a seismic shift in Chinese representations of post-parinirvāṇa Indian Buddhism and thus conceptions of Buddhist sainthood in a world without a Buddha. While Kumārajīva’s ...
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Chapter 2 illustrates a seismic shift in Chinese representations of post-parinirvāṇa Indian Buddhism and thus conceptions of Buddhist sainthood in a world without a Buddha. While Kumārajīva’s associates advanced a cyclical model of Indian Buddhist history, the sources examined in this chapter instead depicted Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva standing in long lines of Indian patriarchs who together upheld the Dharma after Śākyamuni. Because this Indian lineage was reportedly severed before extending to China, I argue that it served to advance a soteriology of absence akin to that of the Lotus Sūtra. Then, in a sixth-century cave site that includes a sculpted representation of the Indian lineage, this message was both perpetuated and nullified. On the one hand, this cave depicted the Indian patriarchs as long-departed exemplars of Buddhist sainthood. And on the other hand, it rendered them as immanent presences that could be engaged directly through the cave’s ritual program.Less
Chapter 2 illustrates a seismic shift in Chinese representations of post-parinirvāṇa Indian Buddhism and thus conceptions of Buddhist sainthood in a world without a Buddha. While Kumārajīva’s associates advanced a cyclical model of Indian Buddhist history, the sources examined in this chapter instead depicted Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva standing in long lines of Indian patriarchs who together upheld the Dharma after Śākyamuni. Because this Indian lineage was reportedly severed before extending to China, I argue that it served to advance a soteriology of absence akin to that of the Lotus Sūtra. Then, in a sixth-century cave site that includes a sculpted representation of the Indian lineage, this message was both perpetuated and nullified. On the one hand, this cave depicted the Indian patriarchs as long-departed exemplars of Buddhist sainthood. And on the other hand, it rendered them as immanent presences that could be engaged directly through the cave’s ritual program.
Stuart H. Young
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824841201
- eISBN:
- 9780824868598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824841201.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Chapter 6 offers a more synoptic perspective on the Indian patriarchs as both models for emulation and objects of veneration in medieval China. Here I aim to articulate the unique sorts of power and ...
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Chapter 6 offers a more synoptic perspective on the Indian patriarchs as both models for emulation and objects of veneration in medieval China. Here I aim to articulate the unique sorts of power and authority that Chinese Buddhists invested in the Indian patriarchs, as opposed to other Indian holy beings and in relation to competing Chinese models of sainthood and divinity. On the one hand, the Indian patriarchs served as objects of veneration in medieval China, much like other Indian figures and Chinese deities and saints. On the other hand, the patriarchs were most often represented as “Goldilocks saints” of sorts, who lived neither too close to nor too far from either the Buddha or latter-day Chinese adepts. This made the Indian patriarchs both authoritative representatives of original Indian Buddhism and proximal exemplars of Buddhist sainthood for the generations after nirvāṇa.Less
Chapter 6 offers a more synoptic perspective on the Indian patriarchs as both models for emulation and objects of veneration in medieval China. Here I aim to articulate the unique sorts of power and authority that Chinese Buddhists invested in the Indian patriarchs, as opposed to other Indian holy beings and in relation to competing Chinese models of sainthood and divinity. On the one hand, the Indian patriarchs served as objects of veneration in medieval China, much like other Indian figures and Chinese deities and saints. On the other hand, the patriarchs were most often represented as “Goldilocks saints” of sorts, who lived neither too close to nor too far from either the Buddha or latter-day Chinese adepts. This made the Indian patriarchs both authoritative representatives of original Indian Buddhism and proximal exemplars of Buddhist sainthood for the generations after nirvāṇa.
Stuart H. Young
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824841201
- eISBN:
- 9780824868598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824841201.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
The conclusion provides an overview of the main conclusions drawn in this study concerning how medieval Chinese Buddhists conceived Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva. It further explains the ...
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The conclusion provides an overview of the main conclusions drawn in this study concerning how medieval Chinese Buddhists conceived Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva. It further explains the approach taken in this study – situating the Chinese hagiographies of these Indian patriarchs firmly within the context of medieval China – vis-à-vis scholarship on Indian figures that either endeavors to locate them in ancient India or trace their imagery across Asian Buddhist cultures. In this light these hagiographies illustrate how Chinese Buddhists developed models of Buddhist sanctity as means of bridging the Sino-Indian divide, demonstrating that great Buddhist saints could be created in the centuries after nirvāṇa, whether in India or China; that ancient Indian holy beings had become immanent presences in China; and that the avowedly foreign religion of Buddhism actually represented – from its ancient Indian inception and through its greatest Indian saints – the most vaunted Chinese ideals of sanctity and salvation.Less
The conclusion provides an overview of the main conclusions drawn in this study concerning how medieval Chinese Buddhists conceived Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, and Āryadeva. It further explains the approach taken in this study – situating the Chinese hagiographies of these Indian patriarchs firmly within the context of medieval China – vis-à-vis scholarship on Indian figures that either endeavors to locate them in ancient India or trace their imagery across Asian Buddhist cultures. In this light these hagiographies illustrate how Chinese Buddhists developed models of Buddhist sanctity as means of bridging the Sino-Indian divide, demonstrating that great Buddhist saints could be created in the centuries after nirvāṇa, whether in India or China; that ancient Indian holy beings had become immanent presences in China; and that the avowedly foreign religion of Buddhism actually represented – from its ancient Indian inception and through its greatest Indian saints – the most vaunted Chinese ideals of sanctity and salvation.
Stuart H. Young
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824841201
- eISBN:
- 9780824868598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824841201.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
The introduction lays out the scope of the book, the types of sources used, and the methodology employed. It discusses the meaning of the term “patriarch” and related categories of Buddhist sainthood ...
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The introduction lays out the scope of the book, the types of sources used, and the methodology employed. It discusses the meaning of the term “patriarch” and related categories of Buddhist sainthood found in Chinese sources. It explains the implications of the book’s title, which indicates how Chinese Buddhists simultaneously transmitted pre-existing images of the Indian patriarchs and invented them anew. The book examines hagiographic, exegetical, scriptural, ritual, and genealogical writings, as well as art historical materials, emphasizing the interdependent nature of these different genres. Hagiography was not produced or consumed in isolation from these other literary and visual arts; the Indian patriarchs’ career trajectories, doctrinal dispositions, and ritual prescriptions all developed in concert. The introduction also outlines the approach taken on the issue of religious acculturation, arguing for closer attention to local Chinese representations of ancient Indian Buddhism and treating Indianness as a repertoire element that was constantly (re)defined.Less
The introduction lays out the scope of the book, the types of sources used, and the methodology employed. It discusses the meaning of the term “patriarch” and related categories of Buddhist sainthood found in Chinese sources. It explains the implications of the book’s title, which indicates how Chinese Buddhists simultaneously transmitted pre-existing images of the Indian patriarchs and invented them anew. The book examines hagiographic, exegetical, scriptural, ritual, and genealogical writings, as well as art historical materials, emphasizing the interdependent nature of these different genres. Hagiography was not produced or consumed in isolation from these other literary and visual arts; the Indian patriarchs’ career trajectories, doctrinal dispositions, and ritual prescriptions all developed in concert. The introduction also outlines the approach taken on the issue of religious acculturation, arguing for closer attention to local Chinese representations of ancient Indian Buddhism and treating Indianness as a repertoire element that was constantly (re)defined.
Jay L. Garfield
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190260507
- eISBN:
- 9780190260538
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190260507.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter argues that there is no special problem in Buddhist ethics. Instead of solving a problem about ethics in the context of conventional truth, it seeks to eliminate an apparent problem. It ...
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This chapter argues that there is no special problem in Buddhist ethics. Instead of solving a problem about ethics in the context of conventional truth, it seeks to eliminate an apparent problem. It does so by analyzing the ethical thought of four important Madhyamaka philosophers: Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Candrakīrti, and Śāntideva.Less
This chapter argues that there is no special problem in Buddhist ethics. Instead of solving a problem about ethics in the context of conventional truth, it seeks to eliminate an apparent problem. It does so by analyzing the ethical thought of four important Madhyamaka philosophers: Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Candrakīrti, and Śāntideva.
