The early Praj~naa schools, especially "Hsin-wu," reconsidered

By Whalen W. Lai
Philosophy east and west
volume 33. no.1(January, 1980)
P.31-P.77
(C) bye the University Press of Hawaii.


P.31 Prior to the coming to China of Kumaarajiiva(401) and the introduction of Naagaarjuna's treatises, the Chinese Buddhists were attracted to the Emptiness philosophy of the Praj~naapaaramitaa Suutras themselves. They produced the so-called "six Praj~naa-ist schools" on their own, but these came under the ax in the fifth century with the Pu-chen k'ung lun(a), (The Emptiness of the Unreal) of Seng-chao(b) (383-414). There have been several detailed studies of the early Praj~naa schools, but they all bought the judgment that the Hsin-wu(c) (Mind as Empty) school was the most blameworthy, being allegedly the concoction of two schemers who wanted to make a living out of it.(1) The uncritical acceptance of this legend, from the poisoned pen of the anti-Hsin-wu forces, has meant until now a misreading of the whole dialectical interaction between the six schools. Far from being the black sheep of the lot, Min-tu's thesis of Hsin-wu was, in its time, the necessary corrective to a certain mistake in the predominant school. The thesis triggered off a series of experimentations seeking the best solutions to the problem. Each later school tried to incorporate and answer the critique of Hsin-wu, the last--the Chi-se(d) school of Chih Tun (Tao-lin(e) ) --proposing a little understood "three-stepped" resolution of the tension. Because scholars overly trust Seng-chao's citation of and judgment against his predecessors, this historical dialectic is further obscured. Actually, Seng-chao himself belongs to that dialectical unfolding that reached beyond him into the still unclarified "Six Two-Truths Schools." The present essay will unravel this hidden story, redressing especially the wrong done to the Hsin-wu school, by recreating the dynamics that brought forth the theses, antitheses, and syntheses. One way to approach this is to correct point by point the mistakes of past studies, but after several drafts it appears that such backtracking in reverse gear, as it were, only makes following the argument more difficult, It is better to start with a clean slate and narrate the reconstructed events in their roughly chronological order. This is the approach adopted below. My disagreements with past judgments will be noted in the process with some brief notation at the end. This is because, in part, the strength of the approach here lies in its overall economy in unravelling the hidden logic ruling these schools. It provides a far clearer picture of what the issues and the options were at the time. Clarity is not necessarily the criterion for truth. The historical specifics of these schools remain muddled and might well be truly so, but I believe the following account, insofar as it can elucidate quite a number of unsolved points in the history of these early schools, may recommend itself over other options to date. Before procceding, it is necessary to introduce the general thesis and antithesis in this dialectical interplay. The Pen-wu(f) or "Original Nothingness" school was P.62 the first and most basic school. When it is represented by the much revered Tao-an(g), even Seng-chao would defer to it somewhat, even as he criticized it. (See the later discussion on this inference.) The Hsin-wu school was the first and major challenger, It is customary to condemn Hsin-wu for psychological subjectivism. This is what Seng-chao did, though he was not the first to do so. Hsin-wu is accused of "emptying the mind" without considering the emptiness of the object itself. The truth of the matter is that Hsin-wu consciously refused so to empty the object, because that mode-"objective nihilism"--was its accusation against the Pen-wu school. In other words, there were two basic approaches to solving the meaning of Emptiness, the objective Pen-wu way and the subjective Hsin-wu way, each with a possible fallacy, nihilism or psychologism. In the unfolding of the other four schools--which are actually dialectical sub-schools responding to that above tension and are almost all aligned against Hsin-wu (see infra)--there were real attempts to (a) either reform the original, naive Pen-wu to guard it from the Hsin-wu critique, or (b) co-opt Hsin-wu into itself to defuse its criticism. The reason why Hsin-wu was blackballed is simple. This is the first anaatmavaada school in China at a time when everybody else believed in the necessity of an "immortal soul" carrying the karman due from one life to another; anaatman was part of the Hsin-wu thesis, "Self-as-Empty." The eventual "defeat" of Hsin-wu under Seng-chao is also understandable; Maadhyamika was committed to analyzing the emptiness of the dharmas in and of themselves without recourse to a theory of mind. Hsin-wu was indeed outside the mainstream of most (not all) scriptural authority then, but this very fact only explains why the Hsin-wu position (if not the school as such) regained prominence by the late sixth century when Yogaacaara's impact was finally felt among Chinese Buddhists like T'an-ch'ien(h). Below we will trace the dialectical interplay down to roughly the time of Seng-chao. THE FIRST THESIS AND ANTITHESIS: NAIVE PEN-WU VS. CRITICAL HSIN-WU When the Chinese in the fourth century appropriated the doctrine of Emptiness, they could not possibly have freed themselves from the philosophy of Wang Pi, the Neo-Taoist, who had previously argued for wu(i) (Non-being, there-being-not) as the ground of all yu(j) (Being, there-being). It is therefore not surprising that the first known Praj~naa school is the naive Pen-wu school of Fa-shen(k). Fa-shen must have proposed his understanding in the South before 326, because that was roughly when Min-tu crossed the river and created quite a stir with his Hsin-wu thesis. Fa-shen was possibly a disciple of Dharmarak.sa. and he was a ming-seng(l) (monk of renown) who moved around the powerful and the mighty of the capitol. This is Prof. Richard M. Mather's notation on him: CHU CH'IEN (Fa-shen, alias Tao-ch'ien(m) ) . 286-374.KSC (Kao-seng chuan(n) ) 4; Taisho (Daizokyo)(o) 50.347c-348b. A Buddhist monk from unknown family, who is said in the KSC to have been the younger brother of Wang Tun(P). He first studied with Confucian scholar Liu Yuan-chen(q), then after reading the Lotus P.63 Suutra (Saddharmapu.n.dariika [trans. Dharmarak.sal) entered the Sa^ngha in his eighteenth year. During the Troubles attending the fall of the Western Chin (307-312) he fled south and enjoyed the favor of emperors and courtiers at the Eastern Chin capital (Chien-k'ang(r), later retiring to the K'uai-chi(8) area (Chekiang) where he died in his eighty-ninth year. [The Shih-shuo Hsin-yu(t) has six entries on him.](2) To Fa-shen is attributed this reported theory about Pen-wu: What is Pen-wu? It is gaping like a hole and is formless. Yet from it all things are born. Although things can give birth to other things, yet only non-being can serve as the origin to all. Thus the Buddha told Brahmaa that the Four Great Elements themselves came from empty space.(3) We need hardly note that Fa-shen mistakenly reduces `suunyataa (Emptiness) to the Taoist wu (non-being, mother of all beings) and confused it with sheer empty space (aakaa`sa). As Fa-shen was remembered as a famous debater, we may assume that his thesis was then well received enough to represent the dominant understanding of Emptiness. His fame apparently was eclipsed somewhat later, for we read of him chiding the young for daring to discuss him saying, "You yellow-billed fledglings, don't criticize or discuss the gentlemen of the past."(4) Who knows, maybe a cause of this is Chih Min-tu(u). As stated, the Pen-wu thesis deserved to be undercut, but that it took Min-tu to do it must show somewhat the poverty of other philosophers. Unfortunately, we have this legend perpetuated among the ming-shih(v) (men of renown) circle, as recalled here by the Shih-shuo Hsin-yu: When the monk Chih Min-tu was about to flee southward across the Yangtze river (between 326 and 342), he had as his companion a northern (ts'ang(w)) monk. Min-tu plotted with him, saying, "If we go to the land east of the river with nothing but the old theory, I'm afraid we'll never manage to eat." So together they concocted the "Theory of Mental Nonexistence" (hsin-wu i).(x) As it turned out, this northern monk never succeeded in crossing the river, but Min-tu actually expounded the theory in the south for many years. Later another northern monk came south to whom the former monk had entrusted the following message: "Tell Min-tu for me that the `Theory of Nonexistence' is completely unfounded. We concocted this scheme as an expedient to save ourselves from starvation and nothing more. Don't go on with it; otherwise you'll be betraying the Tathaagata."(5) This legend has depicted Min-tu as a scheming monk who reduced Hsin-wu to pure fabrication without scriptural basis. This has done a great disservice to what probably was the most advanced Praj~naa school. We have first justly to discard the above as an attack ad hominem from the pro-Fa-shen circle when the latter could not counter Min-tu on more noble grounds. As Zurcher noted already, there are passages in the Praj~naapaaramitaa Suutra supporting Min-tu's thesis and Min-tu was notably the first to compile a catalogue of suutras.(6) Although I do not think Min-tu's thesis was just based on the suutra's advocation of "emptying the mind" (of subjective concepts), there is little to P.64 gainsay that he was a learned monk. Sun Ch'o(y), a disciple of Chih Tao-lin and champion of his Chi-se school, did not let ideological difference distort his memory of Min-tu as one "talented and knowledgeable. pure and outstanding.'' Far from being a monk who wanted fame (ming) Min-tu was remembered by him as "pure'' and, as may be seen below, as "plain." ... refined yet plain Who love what is, and yet pluck the new, Holding them both for all to see, You can surpass all other men(7) If anyone was making a fine living off his wits it was Fa-shen, who is well remembered for this bon mot to the question why a monk should enjoy himself within the vermillion gate (house of the wealthy): "You naturally see it as a vermillion gate; to this indigent monk it's as if he were enjoying himself within a mat door."(8) The image of Min-tu as a schemer for food and fame is clearly a projection by the southern ming-shih of their life goal upon a seeming upstart that managed to capture quite an audience--as we will further see below. What was Hsin-wu and why was it so offensive to the old guard? We do not have Min-tu's position preserved, and I would not use Seng-chao's. (Any good praasa^ngika dialectician would type-cast his opponent, and Seng-chao did no less.) Despite the polemical nature of the Shih-shuo Hsin-yu account, it still affords us, with some amendments, the contemporary problematic. It is found in the reference to the "old theory" that Min-tu supposedly violated. The commentary by Liu Chun(z) (early 6th century) explains: The "old theory" stated: "When one possesses omniscience, and through it is able to illumine all things, then the myriad bonds come to an end, and this state is called Empty Nonexistence (k'ung-wu(aa)). Because it abides eternally and does not change, it is called Subtle Existence (miao-yu(ab)." The "new theory" of Nonexistence, on the other hand, stales: "The substance (t'i(ac)) of omniscience is hollow, like the Great Void (t'ai-hsu(ad)). Though void, it is nonetheless able to know; though nonexistent, it is nonetheless able to respond. That which occupies the ldeal(tsung(ac)) and reaches the Ultimate (chi(af)), is it not Nonexistence also?" There might be some anachronism here: the "abiding eternally" was not fully formulated until the Buddha-nature doctrine of the Nirvaana Suutra was known. My more philosophical rendition of the passage would be, after taking chung-chih(ag) more loosely as "seed of wisdom" and reading the last line differently: The old theory says that the seed of wisdom is real (shih-yu(ah), (9) thereby it can illuminate all. However, as the bonds are ended, it is called empty nonbeing, (The wisdom seed) that subsists unchanged is called subtle being. The new theory says the seed or wisdom itself is hollow like empty space. (arguing that precisely) as it is vacuous, it can know; as it is empty, it can respond. But [notes the commentator], if it can so abide in the principle and penetrate the Ultimate, can it be called "nonexistent"?(10) P.65 The old theory affirms the reality of a wisdom-essence, and would apply the negative terms like `empty nonbeing' only to the act of negating the defilements. As far as it is concerned, the wisdom-essence remains real and is there all the time. This accords with what I see as the prevalent understanding prior to Min-tu, as attested to by the basic assumptions in the shen-pu-mieh(al) debate. The unsettling new thesis of Min-tu reduced the wisdom-essence itself to nonbeing. Praj~naa itself is `suunya or is `suunyataa. There is no more reason for regarding 'nonbeing' to be just the negation of the defilements. However, given the then Chinese acceptance of the Principle or the Ultimate as somehow 'real', even the commentator wonders how the absolute can be so nihilized. But, of course, the whole point in the Praj~naapaaramitaa Suutra is to negate any real absolute, to say that the principle itself is empty or is symbolized by emptiness. What upset the Chinese then is that Min-tu, in fact, eliminated the last vestige of realism, which at the time meant the immortal soul (shen). Up to the time of Tao-an and not until the era of Kumaarajiiva, the Chinese assumed this shen to denote a wisdom-essence that would one day be united with the cosmic shen or the Ultimate. Chinese also need this shen--in a separate function--as the agent to carry over karman from one life to the next. In this imperfect understanding of Buddhist anaatamvaada, the majority simply could not entertain the possibility that shen too must 'die' (mieh(aj)). It is not possible to rehash the long Chinese assumptions about this immortal soul, though I trust this is a theme familiar to many, except that to them, that discussion was not associated with the Hsin-wu controversy. The one scholar who recognized this connection is T'ang Yung-t'ung(ak) who put it succinctly as follows: Han Buddhist thought focused on the matter of "returning to the base, pen(al)"; it locates the source [of all things] in the mind. Wei-Chin Buddhists and Neo-Taoists speculated more on the (objective) structure of original nonbeing (pen-wu(am)) preceding subsequent being (mo-yu(an)). This change of emphasis roughly parallels the Han interest in religious Taoism [the art of nurturing the spirit] to the Wei-Chin interest in speculative Taoism [the park Principle].... Thus since Han, many Buddhists would discourse on the form as empty (se-k'ung(ao)) but few would regard the mind itself as empty (k'ung-hsin(ap)). Note: At the time the Chinese translation of anaatman was by way of Lao Tzu's fei-shen(aq) ) , "not of the body" i.e. dissociating oneself [one's spirit] from the body. This explains why the repeated attacks on the Hsin-wu school by the leading spokesmen of the time.(11) The Hsin-wu school was the only school that took anaatman or aatmasuunyataa and the emptiness, not just of form but also of the psychic skandhas, seriously, without the usual hedging in by stipulating that the essence-spirit (seed-wisdom) is not emptied or how emptiness refers only to ending the bonds. In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is however not the king. Hsin-wu was condemned as a heresy, and when it rallied scriptures to its own defense, Min-tu was attacked ad hominem as a fake and a charlatan. And we accepted that myth-even T'ang Yung-t'ung did--of a nameless co-conspirator who "confessed"! P.66 THE SECOND ROUND OF CONFLICT: T'AN-I(ar) VERSUS TAO-HENG(as) Min-tu was hated but could not be defeated. Although we do not have Min-tu's original thesis, we do have the report of a Hsin-wu position by a follower. Fa-wen used to be a disciple of Fa-shen but he was swayed to the other camp. His position is reported as follows: By being, we must mean form. By nonbeing, we must mean the formless. One cannot say that form is nonbeing or that nonbeing has existence. What exists must exist; form has to be truly form. We cannot reduce being into nonbeing. The argument is logical, and duplicates Kuo Hsiang's(at) critique of Wang Pi(au). But clearly the suutra says, "Form is Emptiness." If so, how are we to understand that--if not literally? When the suutra says that form is emptiness, it is only asking you to put a stop to the mind so that would not be drawn into the external forms. When the external forms are no longer found (in the mind) within, would not things indeed appear as empty? Surely the suutra is not saying that there is nothing out there and calls that the formless.(12) We will shelve for the moment the question whether or not Fa-wen's psychologism can be regarded as Min-tu's own position. The important item is the closing rhetoric. Fa-wen was denouncing his former teacher Fa-shen for a naive reduction of forms into formless. The Praj~naapaaramitaa Suutra never says that there are no tables or chairs before us; it never meant to say that the world is one big gaping hole. But if it is not nihilism, what is it? Let us postpone our answer and bear witness to how the dialogue continued. While the Southerners were speculating on Emptiness, Tao-an was heading his group in the North. In 263, he dispatched Hui-yuan(av) to the Southern capital to minister to another of his disciples. Fa-t'ai(aw) that he had sent (263) South earlier. Fa-t'ai had been taken sick; later Hui-yuan would return to Tao-an's side before his final departure to Lu-shan(ax). It is on this trip that Hui-yuan participated in another famous debate--again, unfairly told, as follows: At the time, the monk Tao-heng well-versed and talented held the Hsin-wu thesis, spreading it far and wide In Ching-chou(ay). Fa-t'ai remarked, "This is a heresy; it must he refuted." Thereupon he summoned the eminent monks and appointed his disciple T'an-i [the Elder I] to refute Tao-heng. Scriptures were cited as many rounds Were exchanged but Tao-heng employing his rhetorical skill was not about to yield. It was late so they met again the next day. Hui-yuan was in the audience and he raised some objections. It was like daggers drawn. Heng began to realize that be was drifting from the path. He lost composure and was hitting the table, speaking out of turn. Hui-yuan then remarked, "How you make haste without hurrying, but alas where is that getting you!" Those in attendance laughed. Henceforth, the Hsin-wu doctrine died.(13) The death of Hsin-wu was announced somewhat prematurely. And a closer reading would show(a) if Tao-heng could cite scripture to support the thesis a P.67 whole day, Hsin-wu was no concocted myth, and (b) how in typical ch'ing-t'an (pure talk) style, Hui-yuan committed another "character assassination" of a Hsin-wu spokesman without really answering that thesis on objective grounds. Hui-yuan's remark was, of course, a reference to the line in the I Ching(az) describing how the shen (soul) functions. Shen hastens forth without hurrying (physically across), arriving without (spatially) transversing. To Hui-yuan's companions who had accepted the immortal soul (shen) as a datum in Buddhist teachings, his remark was an "insider's joke." He was saying, in effect, "For someone who denies the existence of the shen (that is, Hsin-wu), your spirit surely is agitated, but you are getting nowhere with it!" The congregation laughed, but they only laughed because shen was a self-evident truth to them. Hui-yuan did not defeat Tao-heng except subjectively; the Hsin-wu school would continue flourishing, capturing probably the Younger I that was Fa-t'ai's disciple (see below); this Tao-i(ba) would co-opt Hsin-wu to build his Huan-hua school. Fa-t'ai is sometimes classified as being of the "variant Pen-wu school." We do not know what his position is, but we suspect that it reflected the stand of Tao-an. Tao-an is typed "Pen-wu," but sometimes, in due respect to this master, his position is called Hsing-k'ung(bb) (svabhaava`suunya)(14) so he would not be tainted by the mistakes of naive Pen-wu. We have Tao-an's reflection, but to appreciate his thesis better, we should note this aside. In 365, when Hui-yuan came South to tend to Fa-t'ai, Tao-an held (as he would to his death) the belief in the canonical status of the shen. This shen was apparently very "realistically" conceived, that is, as an "entity" of some kind, almost like a "ghost." A more sublime understanding of shen existed; it was spelled out in the I Ching; namely, that it is that "in which yin and yang are yet to be differentiated(bc)," which is more like a Weltgeist of a shen. (The statement either means that it predated the differentiation into yin and yang, or else describes the mysterious, transformative power of shen that may not be slotted into a definitive yin or yang.) What is curious is that it appears that no one before 365 thought of postulating this more sublime understanding as the way to appreciate the immortal soul. It was left to the monk Chu Seng-fu(bd) to make in 365 this suggestion in his Shen wu-hsing lun(be) (The Soul has No Form.)(15) If spirit has form, it would come under shu(bf) [numbers. either the destiny of life or the mutable numericals associated with yin-yang]. What is numbered has an end. The spirit has no end; therefore it has no form.(16) It was a simple but crisp argument. If shen is material, it must end. If shen is truly immortal, it has to transcend form, predate form, predate yin-yang. It is this sublime, non-material, formless understanding or shen that Hui-yuan picked up on this trip, it seems, for later it appears in his Shen pu-mieh lun(bg) (On the Immortality of the Soul) when he defended not bowing to kings.(17) I would suggest that Hui-yuan who witnessed Tao-heng's arguments against Pen-wu and for Hsin-wu also learned from it or at least reported the exchange to P.68 Tao-an. This would explain the better "Pen-wu" position of Tao-an, one superior to Fa-shen's only because it qualifies itself in such a way as to offset anticipated criticisms from Hsin-wu. The following is a position thought to be Tao-an's, now found in the biography of T'an-ch'i in the Ming-seng chuan-ch'ao(bo) , excerpted from the Liu-chia ch'i-tsung-lun(bl) (On the Six Schools and Seven Lineages) of T'an-ch'i himself: Before the mysterious creation, there was only spaciousness. Then as the original ether fused and changed, the myriad manifestations took on form. Although the forms contribute to the (further) transformations, yet that which brought about the changes themselves is the tzu-jan(bj) (self-be of Nature). Nature being simply what-is, how then can we speak of a creator? Thus we know that although Nonbeing preceded the original transformations and Emptiness is the source of all things, we really do not mean to say that the myriad things are born out of some primordial spaciousness.(18) The first half sounds just like Fa-shen. The second half cleverly qualifies it as if answering the critique of Fa-wen. It circumscribed nihilistic reduction by recalling the notion of tzu-jan, used then to render tathataa, to ensure that no temporal priority of Nonbeing to being is implied; in other words, forms are not born out of nothingness. The use of tzu-jan to show how Heaven and Earth simply are, and are not created, was previously used by Kuo Hsiang. But it is the closing remarks that are perhaps the most intriguing: What the common man is obstructed with (in understanding) is his fixation with subsequent things. If he only rests his mind in original nothingness (pen-hsin yu wu(bk) ), the (mental) burdens will be lifted. This is the meaning of "elevating the origin to the repressing of the subsequents."(19) T'ang Yung-t'ung had to wonder where Tao-an derived this idea from.(20) It would seem to be a typical Pen-wu co-opting of the Hsin-wu psychology. In this way 1 believe the Pen-wu school actively sought to respond to the challenge. THREE OTHER RESPONSES TO THE HSIN-WU THESIS The dominant Praj~naa sector had to somehow counter the Hsin-wu critique. If as the latter argued, the suutra could not possibly have reduced form to its logical opposite, what then did it mean by "Form is Emptiness"? If the dominant group still believed in shen, how could this positive element be salvaged in face of Hsin-wu's denial of an aatman? Put into such a framework, the next three schools' response can now he seen as logical solutions. The Huan-hua(bl) or "Illusion" school avoided reduction of the real into the unreal; it proposed that reality is illusion. The word is is "t'ung(bm)" "(same as): the illusions are real no less. Then it elevates the shen to the higher (chen(bn), 'real' in a value sense of `true') truth to preserve its sanctity, in effect accepting Hsin-wu (false self and false object-illusions) as the lower truth, while affirming the real Principle and real Self of the original Pen-wu scholars as the highest truth, paramaartha. P.69 All dharmas are the same as (t'ung) emptiness; they are like a magical illusion. As they are illusory, this is called the mundane truth. The spirit (hsin-shen(bo): "mind-spirit") is true; it is not empty; this constitutes the higher truth. If the spirit is empty, how can the teaching [concerning karmic justice through rebirths] be taught; or how can contemplation [spiritual perfection involving shen] be practised? What separates the common man and the saint is after all shen [the latter's godlike-ness]. Therefore we know the spirit cannot be empty.(21) The school was proposed by Tao-i, who with T'an-i used to be the Younger and the Elder I disciples of Fa-t'ai. Since in 365, when T'an-i was appointed to defend Pen-wu by Fa-t'ai, no mention is made of this younger I's creation of a new school, we may presume that that came later, in response to the Hsin-wu challenge. Tao-i incorporated Hsin-wu as the mundane huan-hua (illusion). The other two schools came out of Yu Fa-lan(bp). He had migrated from the North and stayed close to Chih Tao-lin's retreat before undertaking the first fatal attempt to reach India by sea. Yu Fa-lan died in Indo-China in 355. His disciple Yu Tao-sui also perished with him. It is this disciple that proposed the perhaps most Hiinayaanist understanding of Emptiness in his Yuan-hui(bq) (Confluence of Conditions) thesis: The confluence of conditions creates being; this is the mundane truth. The reduction to Emptiness is the highest truth. This is comparable to gathering wood and earth to build a house. Before the conditions (wood and earth) come together, there is no house. The house is mere name that has no substance.(22) This is comparable to Naagasena's analogy of the parts of a chariot. The further reduction of the parts to Emptiness still constitutes ontological nihilism. This school could have been exempted from any Hsin-wu influence. The metaphor of the house was borrowed by Tsung Ping(br) in his Ming-fo-lun(bs) and that led some confusion of this school with Chih Tun's more sophisticated Chi-se school. More on that confusion later. Another student of Yu Fa-lan who did not go on that fateful trip founded the Shih-han(bt) (sometimes Han-shih) school some time after 362. This one accepted the psychologism of Hsin-wu, but cleverly distinguishes the shih (consciousness, or hsin(bu), mind) from the higher shen (spirit). It either proposes Shih-han, that is, the world of objects being subsumed (han) under the function of consciousness (shih); or Han-shih, that is, such a consciousness is subsumed (han) under the spirit. Either way, it demotes the mutable world of objects and mind to the lower truth. This Yu Fa-k'ai(bv) proposed: The Three Realms are the abode of the long night. The mind-consciousness (hsin-shih) is indeed the author of this great dream. What we see as myriad realities are realities seen in a dream. When we are awakened or when it is dawn, the delusions are exposed. The perverted deluded consciousness will end; the Three Realms are then all empty. At that point there is no further life or death.(23) This is saying that the triloka correspond to mind only, whereas enlightenment corresponds to their absence. However, since the thesis is also known as Shen erh- P.70 ti(bw) (The Two Truths of the Spirit) or Hun-shih erh-ti(bx) (The Two Truths of the Deluded Consciousness). it is clear that the hsin that is emptied is the deluded mind and that a transcendental shen always remains as the immortal soul and guarantor of enlightenment, as paramartha. All three schools above are minor; two co-opted Hsin-wu, but demoted it to a mundane truth. Yuan-hui preserved the 'objective' analysis without recourse to psychologism, but none of these figured as a new option. THE FIRST DIALECTICAL SYNTHESIS: THE CHI-SE SCHOOL OF CHIH TUN The real option came with Chih Tun, a contemporary and a neighbouring retiree of Fa-shen and Yu Fa-lan. To resolve the meaning of " Form is Emptiness," Chih Tun proposed chi-se. Instead of Tao-i's use of the word "t'ung" (same as), Chih Tun used chi which can have two readings (in Japanese, tsuku vs. sunawachi). One reading came down to us in the famous formula, standardized primarily by Kumaarajiiva, "form is emptiness": se chi shih k'ung(by) . Here chi (in a double copula construction, chi-shih) means "is" or "totally identical with." Kumaarajiiva's choice might have been influenced by Chih Tun's usage, but I believe Chih Tun intended chi to be used more in its second meaning, namely, "going along with," "while abiding in" (Japanese, o tsuite). The proofs have to be inferred. Proof(a): A famous but lost treatise by Chih Tun is titled Chi-se yu-hsuan(bl), where the construction only allows the reading of "while abiding in of being in the middle of form (reality) , to rove freely nonetheless in the mysteries." Proof(b): We do not see Chih Tun reversing chi-se into chi-k'ung(ca); the revelsal would be logical if chi functions like a qua (form qua emptiness emptiness qua form). Chi is not used as "is." This second point is crucial. The reason is this: Chih Tun was responding as others were to the Hsin-wu challenge. Hsin-wu argued that one simply cannot dismiss form in a nihilistic adoration of Emptiness. Chih Tun was replying: We do not so destroy form: rather we discover Emptiness in the midst of these very real forms themselves while going along with or abiding in them. This is the meaning of chi-se. Given the context of Hsin-wu's critique, it makes no sense to say chi-k'ung (abiding in Emptiness). As the charge was nihilism, so the defense was how he, Chih Tun, did not abandon form, that is, how he abided in form. Unfortunately, Chih Tun's position has been repeatedly misrepresented sometimes corrupted into a case of Yuan-hui as if Chih Tun was Hinayanist causalist. Seng-chao had to shoulder some of that blame when he said: As to Chi-se, it understands that form is not self-formed and how, even as it is form, it is not form. but(I say) by form on means form as form, not that form is form only after it has been in-form-ed by other forms. So although (Chi-se) says how directly form is not self-formed, he has yet to realize that form (as such) is not form.(24) P.71 The last line above is correct. Sneg-chao realized that form is immediately not-form; this is spelled out in his Pu-chen k'ung lun, the treatise to show how `form' being pu-chen (not real) is as such `emptiness' (k'ung). Compared with Seng-chao, Chih Tun indeed did not understand "total identity" (chi as qua), for as Seng-jui says, "(they were) all biased and unable to grasp chi." However, the reason Chih Tun had to refuse the total identification of form and emptiness is that he was working against the charge by the Hsin-wu school; this school had condemned the Pen-wu (and related `objectie' Praj~naa) school for reducing form to emptiness, as if forms do not exist. Note, therefore, the rider to this position which I believe reflects Chih Tun's stand best: The nature of form is that it does not have form by itself. Because form has no being by itself, it is empty even as it is form. Therefore we say form as such is emptiness. Yet, on the other hand, (we insist) that form is different emptiness.(25) (Italics added.) Of the later recorders, only Hui-ta(cb) had a better recollection of the issue, namely that chi-se did not mean allowing form or emptiness to destroy each another. It kept the necessary tension to avoid both realism and nihilism. In his Chi-se-lun, Dharma-master Chih Tun states that he regards form as empty--never that form is opposed to or destroying emptiness. This is the best way to put forth his thesis. Why? Because the nature of form is that although it is form, it is also empty. This is the same with knowledge(chih)(cc). It, too, is not self-knowing, and even as it knows (actively), it is also forever quiescent.(26) Knowledge as knowledge is also not knowledge by itself, just as form (known) as form is somehow also not form. Here it may be that the theorist was suggesting the relatively of object-form and subject-knowing. If so, he might be following the "new theory" of Hsin-wu itself in denying the reality of the hsin as the knowing subject. However, Chih Tun would affirm the reality of praj~naa (wisdom, chih(cd), higher than knowledge); he only incorporated into Chi-se elements of Hsin-wu psychologism, while rejecting its denial of the immortal soul. But why is form not form by itself? We do not have a clear answer from Chih Tun. Seng-chao took it to mean that form is in-form-ed by other forms, se-se erh-wei-se(ce). His criticism is as follows: As to things being things to other things, this is based on 3 (prior) distinction between the thing predicating and the thing being predicated. But because that which makes things things is itself not a thing, therefore things are not things.(27) What he is saying is that to deny reality to a thing because it exists relative to other things is to forget that those other things themselves are also empty. In other words, it was an unnecessary move. However, in defense of Chih Tun, it should be noted that he was forced to avoid directly directly reducing things to emptiness ("nihilism"). It is also possible that he argued for the relative status of things to expose its lack of absolute self-nature. For example, insofar as an object is known via a subject, the object is empty of independent reality. Or, to pursue the above P.72 point about knowledge, insofar as knowledge is never self-knowing, being always the knowledge of something, it is also necessarily empty. So far, I see no objection to that. Yuan-k'ang(cf) later reduced Chih Tun's position to that of Yuan-hui and reached a conclusion that is equally problematical. He said: (Seng-chao) is saying that Master Lin knew only how form is not self-formed, that is. that it is only produced by cause and conditions; (Lin) did not know that form as such is empty, but retained the idea that form is provisionally real.(28) Why should not form remain provisionally real? Emptiness is provisional reality. Yuan-k'ang was probably confusing Chih Tun with Tsung Ping who said: Form is not self-formed, therefore though it is form, it is also empty. As there is the confluence of conditions, there is being. By itself, a thing has no being. It is like illusion or dream objects; what seems to be there is not really there. (Also) the future is not yet; the past is gone by; the present never stays still. Thus there is no fixed being.(29) Tsung Ping is tossing up a smorgasbord of Praj~naa-ist theories; he should not be regarded as a spokesman explaining Chih Tun's thesis. What then did Chih Tun mean by chi-se? What is 'informed by form' or se-se? At present there is no clear answer. I do not think that Chih Tun postulated an ultimate Nonbeing that imparts being to being, as Chuang Tzu would say "that which made things into things is itself not a thing." Chih Tun is known for a new commentary on the Chuang-tzu chapter on hsiao-yao(cg), and a fragment comes down with this poetic line, wu-wu yu-wu erh pu-wu yu-wu(ch), which may be rendered as "To make use of things as things (wu-wu) in the midst of things (yu-wu) without thereby becoming oneself a thing among things(pu-wu yu-wu)." I think his use of the double wu here is similar to his use of the double se. Both tell of a spiritual freedom allowing him to be with things (chi-se) while roving in Emptiness (yao-hsuan). I am not entirely confident how to translate that into svabhaava-analysis or `suunyataa-intuition, but I believe that this comes closest to the spirit of his Chi-se philosophy, namely, an ability to dwell in the midst of form (chi-se) as forms and without reducing them to emptiness, and simultaneously to fathom through them the freedom that is Emptiness. That remains, however, a suggestion. We may conclude with something more concrete, by turning to a disciple of Chih Tun and his thesis. Tucked away in the correspondence or titles of correspondence among Praj~naaists is a reference to a san-fan(ci) technique (or something) that time has succeeded in forgetting. Now we are not sure how even fan(cj) should be written: as "times" (as in once, twice, thrice) , as "turnover" (as in somersaulting) , or as flag (whatever that can mean)?(30) I prefer to see it as three turnovers for no better reason that that seems to describe well the dialectical progression. In a letter to a friend, Hsi Ch'ao(ck), a disciple of Chih Tun, notes: Recently there has been much discussion on san-fan. Most people prefer first to P.73 contemplate form and emptiness, then consciousness; all these pertain to one reality, but men rely on such double contemplation. It seems to be the best approach, though.(31) Hsi Ch'ao did not elaborate on this, but then in his Feng-fa-yao(cl) (The Essentials of Faith), he seems to demonstrate what this technique is all about. I believe we witness here the synthesis of the objective Praj~naa and the subjective Praj~naa approach, previously represented by Pen-wu and Hsin-wu, but now subsumed by the synthesis of a Chi-se approach. The essay has been translated by Zurcher, but since the philosophic finery is not evident there, this is a new, more analytical reading, section by section: Now by Emptiness is meant a forgetting of the self; (by this), however, is not meant the 'residence' in us (does not mean forgetting the shen). The first half is the Hsin-wu position. Emptiness is realized when one, as Chuang Tzu would say, forgets oneself. The second line, however, makes sure that the shen--which in Chuang-tzu, Kuan-tzu(cm), and so forth, is referred to as abiding in a "residence, hall, sanctuary" in man, especially deep in the mind--is not what is being forgotten along with everything else. Hsi Ch'ao like the majority could not live without this postulate shen. He then goes on to explain the 'steps': Nonbeing is truly nonbeing. However, to hold on to this is to be (also) obstructed. Being is likewise being. However, by a double forgetting [of both being and nonbeing] we may attain the mysterious liberation. Following Fa-wen and more closely Chih Tun, Hsi ch'ao refused to commit the illogic of reducing being to nonbeing or vice versa. One must forget both because any grasping on to either as absolute would be obstructing. How? By moving inward. The 'objective' issue is solved by understanding the 'subject': That is, ideas of 'being' and 'nonbeing' come from the 'one inch square' [metaphor for the mind]. Ultimately they have nothing to do with the external world. Although one employs such concepts in our daily dealings with things, yet when our (discriminatory) feelings are spent there is, mysteriously, only the oneness with the Principle. How can it be said that Nonbeing is attained when Being is destroyed, or the Ultimate is reached when we reduce [ad nihilum]? (32) By realizing the subjective origin of the concepts of being and nonbeing and their provisional reality for mundane discourses, one may transcend such partiality and become one with the One. The first half here is the classic Hsin-wu technique: empty the world, not by denying its reality, but by simply emptying the mind of false preconceptions. The second half however, harkens back to the immortal soul and the real Principle. By so doing, Hsi Ch'ao defended the orthodox stream of Tao-an and reinstated the credal shen and the ultimate as Reality, while at the same time borrowing the Hsin-wu wisdom. He avoided objective nihilism (Pen-wu) and subjective nihilism (Hsin-wu), by a triple-take san-fan method: first by contemplating form and emptiness (how form is emptiness, emptiness form; then why form cannot be simply empty or emptiness dressed as form); and then by P.74 contemplating consciousness (how 'form' and 'emptiness' are ultimately conceptual constructs of the mind). All these point back to the one Reality. The three steps thus complete the circle. Thus, before Seng-chao provided his critique of the three selective schools in his Pu-chen k'ung lun, Chih Tun in the old days was doing the same: pitting Pen-wu against Hsin-wu and coming up with the perfect Middle Path of his own Chi-se. Seng-chao only one-upped Chih Tun in this continual saga of skillful dialecticians. He was gentler on Pen-wu because it was always the orthodox school and one favouring objective analysis. He was critical of Hsin-wu because this had always been judged the threat. And he laboured to undercut the last synthesis, that of Chih Tun. In all fairness, Chih Tun was not that naive, but also in all fairness, Seng-chao was a superior thinker. The reason is this: until Chih Tun the discussion on form and emptiness always proceeds on the assumption that we are dealing with two discrete items at first: Being and Nonbeing. Pen-wu reduced one to the other; Hsin-wu knew instinctively that was wrong; Chi-se avoided the reduction but tried to stand astride the two worlds, that is, "roving in the mysteries (Nonbeing) while in the midst of things (Being)." It took Kumaarajiiva's teaching and Seng-chao's learning to realize, more completely than even Hsi Ch'ao ever would, that we do not commence with two realities and then try to find the One. There never were two realities; only two views of the same. The issue is not how to reconcile Being and Nonbeing; the matter is recognizing, as Seng-chao puts it, the Emptiness that is the Unreal itself. Finally, too, Kumaarajiiva helped to dispel the need for the shen, at least in the better discourses of his followers, so that many of the old barriers to understanding aatma-`suunya were dismantled by the early fifth century. Our reconstruction of the "historical dialectics" has put the philosophical dialectics in a new light. We defend the unsung hero that is Min-tu, his inroad into many reformed Pen-wu schools, and the skillful resolution of the basic tensions by Hsi Ch'ao prior to the achievements of Seng-chao but soon overlooked and covered up by them. POSTSCRIPT: THE FURTHER SIX TWO-TRUTHS SCHOOLS Of course, if we believe that the historical dialectics contributes to the unfolding of philosophic dialectics itself, it follows that the story does not end in Seng-chao either. Already Hui-ta, in the preface to his commentary on the Chao lun(cn), noted how T'an-ch'i has listed beyond the six schools," and seven lineages also an expanded "twelve schools that is, six more Two Truths schools. In T'ang, Yuan-k'ang cited these in greater detail: In the Liang dynasty, Pao-ch'ang(co) wrote Hsu-fa lun(cp) in 160 serolls citing a Sung treatise on Six Schools and Seven Lineages by Shih T'an-ch'i of the chuang-yen(cq) Temple. Therein are discussed the six schools subdivided into seven: (1) Pen-wu, (2) variant Pen-wu, (3) Chi-se, (4) Shih-han, (5) Huan-hua, (6) Hsin-wu, (7) Yuan-hui. The basic six and the variant make seven. Also mentioned is a count of twelve taken from the Shih-hsiang liu-chia lun(cr) (Six Schools on Dharmataa) by Shih Pao-chien of the lower Ting-lin(cs) Temple. Therein someone inquired about P.75 the unity of the Two Truths and six such schools were given as answer.... These with the previous six add up to twelve; that is what (Hui-ta) meant by an expanded twelve schools.(33) Attempts to identify these six Two-Truths with any definitude have yet to succeed. The suggestion offered after the translation is merely a suggestion, something to alert us to how the dialectics developed: The first school regards as empty that which is in principle not real, and as real what common people regard as true. The empty is the highest truth; the real is the mundane truth. [A later Pen-wu school?] The second school regards as empty the self-nature of form that is shown to be empty, and as real the form that is indeed form. [Chi-se?] The third school regards as empty the psychic vacuity (wu-hsin(ct)) that has dissociated itself from the external conditions, and as real the conjunction of conditions (yuan-hui) creating that mind. [Shih-han?] The fourth school regards as empty the consciousness (hsin) born of conditions, and as real the distinct and separate mind transcending all conditionalities. [Huan-hua] The fifth school regards as empty the empty mind (hsin-k'ung(cu)) of perverted views and the discriminative ideas, and as real the mind that does not negate cause and conditions. [Hsin-wu?] The sixth school regards as empty the material on which all forms depend and what has been shown to be empty, and as real the provisional reality assumed in the mundane realm of discourse(34) [Yuan-hui?] Maybe there is a dialectical progression to the series, namely: (1) the first school (Pen-wu) sees emptiness as distinct from real appearance; (2) the second school (Chi-se) accepts emptiness of form without destroying form; (3) the third school (Shih-han) distinguishes the real subject-object consciousness from the empty conditioned mind; (4) the fourth school (Huan-hua) further postulates an unconditional mind as the ultimate reality; (5) the fifth school (Hsin-wu) accepts anaatman at both levels; and (6) the last (a sophisticated Yuan-hui) uses pratiityasamutpaada at both levels, identifying finally the svabhaava`suunyataa with the mental construction of the mundane life."(35) The above is so much speculation, added as a postscript. The point is not to unravel these six Two-Truths schools, but to underline once more how the dialectics developed. The early Praj~naa schools are not "dead" schools, as much treatment manages to render them; any good philosophy is always a living option--in its time, beyond its time, and even here and now as we have shown.(36) NOTES 1. See, for example, Walter Liebenthal. Chao-lun: The Treatise of Seng-chao, new ed. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University, 1968); Imai Usaburo, "Rokka shiehishuron no seiritsu," appended to his Sodai Ekigaku no kenkyuu(Tokyo:1958); Leon Hurvitz, "The First Systematization of Buddhist Thought in China, " Journal of Chinese Philosophy 2, no. 4(1975), pp.361-388. Most of the data used in this essay are available in T'ang Yung-t'ung, Han-wei liang-Chin Nan-pei-chao Fo-chiao-shih (Peking: Chung-hua reissue, 1955) . I shall use this, hereafter cited as T'ang, as the basic reference. 2. Mather trans. of Shih-shuo Hsin-yu. A New Account of Tales of the World (Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 1976), p.513. P.76 3. T'ang citing Ancho's Chuuron soki(cv) (essay trans. by Hurvitz, see note 1) in T'ang, pp. 252-253. For textual information, see T'ang and Hurvitz. 4. Mather, pp. 171-172. 5. Mather. p. 447. 6. Erik Zurcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China (Leiden: Brill, 1959) . 1, pp. 99-102. Zurcher provides good background information on him and others. 7. Cited by Mather, p. 447. 8. Mather, p. 54. 9. Included in Mather's trans., p. 447. 10. The text has yu-shih(cw); I follow T'ang, p. 270. The last line is read differently. 11. T'ang, p. 275. 12. T'ang, p. 271, citing Ancho. 13. T'ang, p. 267, citing the Kao-seng-chuan, T. 50, p. 254c. 14. Seng-jui so honoured Tao-an, his master. See T'ang, p. 249; T'ang showed the same deference such that he would apparently not draw the logical conclusion. 15. Zurcher, I, pp. 147-148; also p. 207. See T. 50, p. 355bc. 16. Ibid. Translation based on Zurcher's citation, II, p. 369, no. 335. A rare find in my judgement. 17. In T. 52, pp. 31b-32a; the usage is taken over by Tsung Ping in his Ming-fo-lun, T. 52, pp. 9-16, which also employs the Han-shih psychology. 18. T'ang, pp. 246-247. 19. Ibid. Pen-hsin yu-wu serves to re-ontologize the hsin-wu thesis. 20. T'ang, p. 249. Note how Tao-an still subscribed to the Han pen-wu mo-yu. 21. T'ang, pp. 265-266, citing Ancho. 22. T'ang, pp. 272-273, citing Ancho. 23. T'ang, p. 264, citing Chi-tsang's Chung-lun-shu(cx). 24. Chao-lun, T. 42, p. 152a. My translation. 25. T'ang, p. 259, citing Chih Tun himself. 26. T'ang, p. 259, citing his Chao lun-shu(cy) (Chen dynasty work). 27. Chao-lun, T. 42, p. 152a. My interpretation. 28. T'ang, p. 262, citing from his Chao lun-shu (T'ang dynasty). 29. T'ang, p. 262, citing his letter to Ho Ch'eng-t'ien. 30. Also known as san-hsing(cz) (three deeds, paths); the records prefer "banner" for fan. I took the clue from T'ang, pp. 258-259, noting three essays on san-hsing by Hsi Ch'ao and one essay each on or mentioning san-fan by Hsi Ch'ao and Chih Tun. 31. Ibid. 32. T'ang, p. 263, citing the Feng-fa-yao. 33. Cited by T'ang, p. 231, from T. 45, p. 163b. 34. Ibid. 35. T'ang had suggested, ibid., some preliminary alignments, but this progression here is my dialectical construction (and assumption) to show how the early six Praj~na options, said to be slain by Sena-chao, could nonetheless be updated to greater sophistication. Yuan-hui is the extreme example. 36. In adherence with the philosophyical discourse. I have kept the historical and textual issues to a minimum; past scholars have covered those aspects sufliciently not to require rehashing here. a 不真空論 h 曇遷 o 大正,大藏經 b 僧肇 i 無 p 王敦 c 心無 j 有 q 劉元真 d 即色 k 法深 r 建康 e 支遁(道林) l 名僧 s 會稽 f 本無 m 竺贊,道贊 t 世說新語 g 道安 n 高僧傳 u 支愍(敏)度 P.77 v 名士 x 盧山 bz 即色遊玄 w 傖(中州)道人 ay 荊州 ca 即空 x 心無義 az 易經 cb 慧達 y 孫綽 ba 道 cc 知 z 劉峻(孝標) bb 性空 cd 智 aa 空無 bc 陰陽莫測謂之神 ce 色色而為色 ab 妙有 bd 竺僧敷 cf 元康 ac 體 be 神無形論 cg 逍遙 ad 太虛 bf 數 ch 物物於物而不物於物 ae 宗 bg 神不滅論 ci 三翻 af 極 bh 名僧傳鈔 cj 番,幡 ag 種智 bi 六家七宗論 ck 稀超 ah 是有 bj 自然 cl 奉法要 ai 神不滅 bk 本心於無 cm 管子 aj 滅 bl 幻化 cn 肇論 ak 湯用彤 bm 同 co 寶唱 al 本 bn 真 cp 續法論 am 本無 bo 心神 cq 莊嚴寺 an 末有 bp 于法蘭 cr 實相六家論 ao 色空 bq 緣會 cs 定林寺寶鏡 ap 空心 br 宗炳 ct 無心 aq 老子非身 bs 明佛論 cu 心空 ar 曇一 bt 識含(含識) cv 安澄,中論疏記 as 道恆 bu 心 cw 有是 at 郭象 bv 于法開 cx 吉藏,中論疏 au 王弼 bw 神二諦 cy 肇論疏 av 慧遠 bx 惑識二諦 cz 三行 aw 法汰 by 色即是空