100 Classics of Traditional Chinese Culture
Author: Hong Xiuping Interpretation
ISBN: 978-7-5013-7082-5 (hardcover) /978-7-5013-7081-8 (paperback)
Publication date: 2020-12
Binding: Hardcover/Paperback
Folio: 16
Pages: 386 pages
Synopsis
The Tantra sutra is the most important masterpiece of Chinese Zen Buddhism. Buddhism spread and developed in China for more than 2,000 years, and after continuous sinicization, it eventually formed three important components of traditional Chinese thought and culture, or the three main trunks, together with Confucianism and Taoism. Chinese Zen Buddhism is the product of cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and India, the result of the sinification of foreign Buddhism, it originated from Indian Buddhism and formed in traditional Chinese culture, is the most typical Sinicized Buddhist sect, but also the longest-lived and most widely influential Chinese Buddhist sect. As the "Sutra" of Zen Buddhism, the Tantra was formed in an important period of the development and evolution of Zen Buddhism in China, and mainly records the words and deeds of Huineng, the sixth generation of Chinese Zen ancestors, so it is also called the "Six Ancestral Tantras". This book is interpreted by Professor Hong Xiuping of Nanjing University. The content is divided into four parts: "Introduction", "Commentary", "Comment" and "Side Criticism", and the "Altar Sutra" is deeply interpreted from various aspects such as text analysis, character evaluation, ideological interpretation, and interpretation of dynasties.
About the Author
Hong Xiuping, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, doctor of philosophy, is a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Philosophy (Department of Religious Studies) of Nanjing University, and the director of the Research Center for Oriental Philosophy and Religious Culture of Nanjing University. He is also a professor and researcher at the Center for Buddhist Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Research Center for Chinese Studies at Fudan University, the National College of Wuhan University, Northwest University, Chinese Min University and other units. He is the author of many academic works such as "The Formation and Development of Zen Thought", "The History of Chinese Buddhist Culture", "History of Chinese Zen Thought", "Zen And Metaphysics", "Huineng Commentary", etc., and is the chief editor of "The Essence of Buddhist Research in a Hundred Years", and has published nearly 200 academic papers at home and abroad.
Excerpts from the guide
The TanTra is the most important representative work of Chinese Zen Buddhism, and Chinese Zen Buddhism is the most important representative of The Buddhist culture with Chinese characteristics that has been formed after the introduction of Indian Buddhism into China and the integration and development of Confucian culture and Taoist culture. Buddhism spread and developed in China for more than 2,000 years, and after continuous sinicization, it eventually formed three important components of traditional Chinese thought and culture, or the three main trunks, together with Confucianism and Taoism. Carrying forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture is inseparable from the inheritance and development of the essence of Chinese Buddhist culture.
Chinese Zen Buddhism is the product of cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and India, the result of the sinification of foreign Buddhism, it originated from Indian Buddhism and formed in traditional Chinese culture, is the most typical Sinicized Buddhist sect, but also the longest-lived and most widely influential Chinese Buddhist sect. As the "Sutra" of Zen Buddhism, the Tantra was formed in an important period of the development and evolution of Zen Buddhism in China, and mainly records the words and deeds of Huineng, the sixth generation of Chinese Zen ancestors, so it is also called the "Six Ancestral Tantras". The "Sutra" in Buddhism originally refers specifically to the Buddha, and the Tantra Sutra is the only work of a Chinese monk named after the "Sutra", which also shows the special importance of Dehuineng and the Tantra in the history of Chinese Buddhism.
The Tantra sutras are not only highly valued by Zen disciples and Chinese Buddhist believers, but also attract the vast number of ordinary people in Chinese society with their simple and understandable Buddhist essentials such as "equality of all beings", "self-purification of their minds", and "enlightenment to become a Buddha", thus exerting a broad and profound impact on the development of Zen Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism and even on various fields of Chinese society and culture. Because of this, the Tantra has been widely circulated in history and has formed many different versions, which to a certain extent reflect the changes and development of Zen Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism and even traditional Chinese culture. With the spread of Huineng Zen Buddhism from China to overseas, the Tantra has gradually participated in the construction of world civilization, not only promoting Zen Buddhism to become an important part of Oriental culture in ancient times, but also providing positive ideological resources for building a community with a shared future for mankind with its unique ideological wisdom and humanistic spirit in modern times.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, a brief introduction to the composition of the Tantra and its editions</h1>
The Tan Jing, also known as the Six Ancestral Tantras, the Dharma Treasure TanTra, the Fa Treasure Tan Sutra, the Fa Fa Tan Sutra, the Six Ancestral Master TanTras of Caoxi Mountain in Shaozhou, the Six Ancestral Tantras of Caoxi, the Six Ancestral Masters fa Tan Sutra, and the earliest extant version of the Dunhuang Ben is recorded as "The Nanzongdun Sect's Highest Mahayana Mahabharata Sutra The Six Ancestors Huineng Master Cast the Dharma Altar Sutra at the Dafan Temple in Shaozhou" A volume of the Fa Hai Collection of disciples who have received no ordination.". According to the Tantra, the Six Patriarchs of Zen Buddhism, Huineng, after Huang Mei received the Dharma from the Five Ancestors of Zen Buddhism, returned to the south, and once abbotd the Caoxi Baolin Temple, and then at the invitation of Shaozhou Thorn Shi Wei Xuan and others, he went to the Shaozhou Dafan Temple to speak. The disciples recorded the contents of his sayings, collected them and compiled them into a book called the Tantra. Judging from the length of the text, there are more than 20,000 words in the existing "Altar Sutras", and only 12,000 words are less. At first glance, the Altar Sutra gives people a feeling of thin content. In fact, the Tantra sutra describes the reasons and deeds of Huineng's study of Buddhism in a concise and condensed text, focusing on how Huineng grew from an ordinary person who did not know words to a generation of Zen ancestors, and summarized Huineng's main ideas. Among them, the inheritance of Zen Buddhism, the Zen method of The Southern Zen created by Huineng, especially the issues of Prajnaparamita, Dinghui, Zazen, Dunzhi, One Line And Three Ambiguities, Phaselessness, No Mindfulness, and No Dwelling are explained, and finally Huineng's summary of the fundamental purpose of the Sect before his death is also recorded. The Tantra is not only a relatively true record of Huineng's own thoughts, but also a fundamental classic of the Southern Sect's transmission method created by Huineng.
Historically, with the continuous expansion of the spread of Huineng Nanzong Zen, the Tantra sutra also spread to a wide area of China. Due to the large number of Huineng's disciples, there were also many people who listened to Huineng's teachings at the Great Fan Temple at that time, and even more so who could get Huineng's guidance in ordinary times, so it was natural that after the formation of the Tantra, many disciples had revised and supplemented it. With the rise of Huineng's fame, it is also reasonable that the Zen departments under huineng's southern sect will further elevate Huineng or add things that are beneficial to their own lineage in the process of revising and supplementing the Tantra. In ancient times, the printing industry was not developed, and the circulation of scriptures often relied on handwriting by heart, and it was inevitable that there would be clerical errors. Therefore, through the long process of circulation, the Tantra has been continuously copied, revised and supplemented, and many different versions have gradually emerged.
Although there are many existing "Altar Sutra" books, most of them are only different versions, and there is not much difference in ideological content. The two truly representative mainly have three kinds: Dunhuang Ben, Hui xin Ben and Qi Song Ben. Among the three representative Tantra books, the Dunhuang ben is the earliest, written around 780 years ago, and there is no item, so named because it was found in Dunhuang. Because it has the words "Fahai Jiji" in the title of the sutra, it is also called the Fahai Jiji or Fahai Ben. The second is the Huixin Ben, which was compiled around the late Tang Or early Song Dynasty and is divided into eleven parts, which are generally believed to be the work of Huixin. The third is the book of The Qi Song Adaptation and Proofreading, which can be inferred from the preface made by Lang Jian to be written in the third year of the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song (1056), and is generally referred to as the Qi Song Proofreading Book or the Qi Song Book. However, the preface says that Qi Song obtained the "Caoxi Ancient Book" and "Proofread it, and It was written into three volumes", while the extant version is often only recorded as one volume and ten articles, and most of them are ming dynasty engraved books, so Chinese and foreign scholars also call it "Mingzang Ben" or "Caoxi Original". The Deyi Ben and Zongbao Ben of the Yuan Dynasty, from the content point of view, all belong to this system. Among them, the "Zongbao Ben" adapted by the monk Zongbao of the Yuan Dynasty is the popular version after the Ming Dynasty and is the most popular in history.
From a structural point of view, the various existing "altar sutra" books are roughly composed of three aspects: one is Huineng's self-narration of his life, the second is Huineng's opening of the Fa to teach Prajnaparamita, and the third is Huineng's questions and answers with his disciples. The content of the first two parts is basically a record of Huineng's opening at the Dafan Temple, and the differences in the various "Altar Sutras" are not very large, basically reflecting Huineng's life deeds of being born poor, Huang Mei Defa, Nangui Chuan Zen, and the Zen thoughts and Zen characteristics of becoming a Buddha with emptiness, straightness of mind, and enlightenment. The third part, Huineng's usual questions and answers with his disciples and his deathbed instructions, etc., has been added a lot in content, but considering the records of Huineng's disciples in the history of Zen Buddhism, this part is basically credible. Different versions of the Tantra have their own characteristics, which have a certain correlation with the evolution and development of Zen Buddhism. For example, the early "Fahai Collection", the "Huixin Adaptation" between the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the "Qisong Collation Survey" after the Song Dynasty, their popular periods reflect the early stage of Huineng Nanzong's establishment of "orthodoxy", the flourishing stage of differentiation and seeking "unification", and the later stage of emphasizing the "unity of the three religions" of Buddhism and Confucianism. After the formation of the "Qi Song Proofreading Book", the record of Huineng's words and deeds in the Tanjing was more abundant, and the core ideas reflected in it and the values of its times were more sufficient, which not only had a lasting and profound impact on Zen Buddhism, and was considered to be the "outline" of the Zen masters, but also played an important role in promoting the development of Chinese Buddhism and even Chinese culture. Most of the extant versions of the Tantra belong to the lineage of the edition of the "Qisong School Survey", especially represented by the version adapted by Zongbao of Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou in the Yuan Dynasty, which is the place where Huineng fell to his home and is one of the three ancestral courts of Huineng Zen Buddhism. During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, zongbao's compilation of the Tantra was widely circulated in Zen and folk, and was further incorporated into the official and privately inscribed DazangJing, becoming the most popular book, producing a more extensive and far-reaching influence than other versions of the Tantra. For this reason, this book has chosen to use the Zongbao Ben as the base.
directory
Introduction
I. Introduction to the Composition and Edition of the Tantra ( 2 )
II. The Protagonist of the Tantra, Liuzu Huineng ( 4 )
III. The Main Ideas of the Tantra (13)
IV. The Historical Value and Epochal Significance of the Tantra (17 )
V. Examples of Editions and Annotations Adopted and Included in this Book ( 26 )
Altar
The Six Ancestors Master Dharma Treasure Altar Sutra
Row by first ( 31 )
Prajnaparamita II ( 71 )
Question 3 ( 94 )
Dinghui IV (111)
Zazen 5 (129)
Confession VI (134)
Chance 7 (161)
Eighth (214)
Edict IX (236)
Order of Payment 10 (244)
Appendix
I. Preface to the Jiaxing Collection of the Six Ancestral Masters' Dharma Treasure Altar Sutra (287)
The Sutra of the Six Patriarchs (Written by Gujun Bhikkhud) (287)
Six Ancestors Master Dharma Treasure Altar Sutra (Written by Song Ming Sect Master Qi Song) (288)
The Origin of the Six Ancestral Masters (Menren Fahai et al.) (292)
Worship deeds of dynasties (294)
Monument to zen masters (written by Liu Zongyuan) (294)
Monument to the Zen Master Dajian (by Liu Yuxi)(296)
Buddha's Yiming (by Liu Yuxi)(296)
(Written by Zongbao)(297)
II. The Altar Sutra of the Fahai Collection (298)
III. Hui xin's adapted version of the Tanjing (333)
Main References (363)
(Transferred from the WeChat public account of "National Library Press")
Welcome to @文以 preaching