Philosopher as Exemplar: Daoan’s Dao John M. Thompson Professor Thompson analyzes the life and remarkable achievements of the fourth-century Chinese Buddhist master Daoan. Active as a teacher, as a metaphysician in the prajña schools of his time, and as a scholar and commentator, Daoan was an important early leader in the effort to bring the Mahayana Buddhist canon from the Sanskrit into Chinese. As head of the imperial translation bureau, Daoan brought order into the translation enterprise and devised guidelines and procedures which informed the translation of Buddhist texts in subsequent centuries.
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s the resident expert in “Eastern thought” at a small college, I am often asked by my students what possible relevance Indian or Chinese religions and philosophies could have to their lives. Often I respond by citing persons such as the Buddha Shakyamuni, whose teachings address concerns that we all share and whose lives demonstrate the difference those teachings make. Recently, though, I’ve been turning to lesserknown examples to encourage my students to think more deeply on what “philosophy” and “religion” are and what the role of a “philosopher” might be. One person particularly well-suited for such pondering is the eminent Chinese Buddhist monk Shi Daoan (312–385 C.E.), who was a renowned scholar of Prajñaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) texts and a key figure in the intellectual circles of his day. Daoan’s work in establishing methods of translation and monastic organization had profound impact on the development of Chinese Buddhism.1 However, Daoan’s real importance lies not in his many achievements but in the overall shape and tenor of his life. Following a path (Dao) we can trace as far back as Confucius,2 Daoan demonstrates how individuals can work to revitalize tradition and embody it for the benefit of others. Daoan thus shows students of Buddhism and Chinese philosophy what the end of philosophy really should be.
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Daoan lived during the formative phase of Chinese Buddhism (300– 589), a time when the Dharma had made serious inroads among the literati and was spreading to all levels of society.3 Born into a Confucian household, Daoan entered the monastic life at the age of twelve and dedicated his life to Buddha Dao.4 He is reported to have been of homely appearance and to have had miraculous powers of comprehension, able to recite from memory any text after only two readings. As a novice he was at first dismissed as a lout fit only for manual labor, but when he demonstrated his abilities by memorizing two sutras in two days, his astonished teacher quickly gave him full ordination and permitted him to travel and further his studies.5 Daoan’s career took him to Ye, where he studied under the famous thaumaturge Fotudeng until the latter’s death in 349. He then spent the next sixteen years wandering from place to place and amassing a large following. Forced to flee an invasion in 365, Daoan dispersed his leading disciples to various parts of China before heading south to Xiangyang. There he founded what became one of the great Buddhist centers of his day. Eventually Xiangyang fell to the armies of the despot Fu Jian (338–385), who took Daoan back to Chang’an to serve as guo shi (national preceptor) with the responsibility of administering the official translation bureau. Daoan served in this post until his death at the age of seventy-three. Daoan’s life is difficult to comprehend. Even allowing for the inevitable exaggerations of hagiography, his accomplishments dwarf those of his contemporaries. The best way to understand Daoan, I believe, is to look at his life in a very Chinese way. In Chinese culture, generally speaking, a person is not so much an autonomous individual (as in the West) but a particular locus of relationships within a larger social and cosmic context. Confucian tradition (rujia) focuses on the social aspects in this nexus, stressing authentic living by taking on appropriate roles and fulfilling the obligations they entail.6 For Confucians, a person does not really exist apart from his or her social roles. Like most Chinese, Daoan remained Confucian on a basic level, and as we consider his life, we can see him taking on a variety of roles and fulfilling them admirably. During his career, Daoan was by turns a metaphysician, critical scholar, teacher, administrator and politician, and religious devotee. In each role we see him responding to his situation by drawing deliberately on his dual Chinese and Buddhist heritage and—even more important—by skillfully integrating those roles into a coherent whole. This makes Daoan a true exemplar of Chinese philosophizing, a genuine “man of Dao.”
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Daoan as a Metaphysician Daoan’s role as a metaphysician centers on his writings concerning the benwu zong (School of Original Non-being). The benwu zong was one of several prajña schools that arose in China during the fourth century, although “schools” is a bit of a misnomer. These schools were the products of literati monks who drew on Daoist xuanxue7 concepts to understand Buddhist teachings, especially the Mahayana ideas proclaimed in the Prajñaparamita sutras. Daoan took an active part in this important interpretive enterprise, even remarking in his Binaiye xu (Preface to the Vinaya) on the similarity between Neo-Daoist ideas and the teachings in the Prajñaparamitas.8 Traditionally the prajña schools are numbered at six or seven, although some sources dispute these figures.9 Daoan’s school takes its name from the phrase “benwu” (original nonbeing). According to Jizang (549–623), our best source on the prajña schools, the benwu school taught that emptiness (sunyata) was none other than the “original non-being” from which the myriad things evolved. Realizing this essential truth brings an end to ignorance. As Jizang says, What obstructs humanity are derived beings (mo you). If the mind abides in benwu, erroneous thoughts will cease. . . . If we examine this idea, we see that according to Daoan’s explanation of original non-being, all dharmas are in their original nature void and empty, hence the term “benwu.”10 Ancho (763–814), a later commentator, says very much the same thing: Monk Daoan says in his Benwu lun [Treatise on Non-being]: “When the Tathagata arose in the world, he proclaimed the benwu teaching. That is why all the Mahayana sutras make clear that the five skandhas are originally nonexistent. The benwu doctrine has a long history. Its meaning is that non-being is prior to the first evolution, and emptiness is the beginning of the many forms. Humanity is obstructed by being confined to secondary beings. If mind abides in benwu, erroneous thoughts will cease.”11 The Benwu lun Ancho quotes is now lost, but in several of Daoan’s extant writings he clearly espouses the same ontology, although he never once uses the term “benwu” in them.12 This notion of benwu as the creative source owes much to Daoist myths and the works of Wang Bi (224–249), a xuanxue thinker whose commentaries on the Daodejing and the Yijing continue to ,
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shape Chinese metaphysical speculation.13 No doubt Daoan was also encouraged in his interpretation of sunyata by the highly sinified translations of sutras that circulated among the literati.14 What the tenets of Daoan’s school were remain unclear. Daoan may have conceived benwu in cosmological or in ontological terms, or perhaps in both. An important clue may lie in Daoan’s statement that we can fix our mind within benwu and thus eliminate erroneous thoughts. This would technically be impossible if benwu were merely cosmological (i.e., if it were the original temporal source that no longer “exists”). Benwu is available for us here and now. It is the essence of reality, although in and of itself it is nothing, and it is present within and through all things. To attain this fundamental insight is to realize the true nature of reality, to become awakened to Dao. This idea is basic to Chinese Buddhism. Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, made essentially the same point some 200 years later in words that uncannily echo the Benwu lun: Dao must be something that circulates freely; why should he (the deluded man) impede it? If the mind does not abide in things, the Dao circulates freely; if the mind abides in things, it becomes entangled.15 Daoan’s benwu school, then, dealt with ontological truths about humanity’s place within the world. (As such benwu resembles a Chinese version of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo16 in the Abrahamic religions, with the important exception that realizing the truth of benwu entails “self-realization”; no external help or “grace” is required.) Other teachers associated with the benwu school include Zhu Fatai (320–387), Huiyuan (344–416), and Zhidun (a.k.a. Zhidao Lin, 314–366), all of whom were prominent monks of the time.17 Some scholars have even suggested that benwu was the “orthodox” Buddhist position of Daoan’s day.18 Following the general practice of Chinese intellectuals of the era, Daoan interpreted the Prajñaparamita teachings through xuanxue philosophical categories.19 He thus read the Buddhist sunyata in light of the Daoist notion of benwu. From an Indian Buddhist standpoint, however, such an understanding is incorrect. Sunyata is not a creative ontological source like “original non-being” but instead refers to the basic lack of “own-being” (svabhava) of all things.20 Daoan’s interpretation of sunyata as benwu, thus, is a misreading but a “strong misreading” (cf. Roland Barthes) that proved immensely fruitful. Although some scholars might argue that it was superseded by later more “orthodox” views, Daoan’s benwu theory has actually continued in covert form throughout much of Chinese Buddhism. We can
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still see its traces in the writings of such Tang thinkers as Gueifang Zongmi (780–841).21 Daoan as a Critical Scholar In his role as a critical scholar, Daoan displayed an amazing breadth and depth of interest. From his youth he was an enthusiastic student who worked very closely with his colleagues.22 Before his day, the two most influential movements in Chinese Buddhism focused on dhyana (meditation) and prajña (wisdom). Although they were the concerns of different traditions, both dhyana and prajña appealed to the literati. Dhyana focused on the meditation practices laid out in the “Hinayana” translations of An Shigao and his disciples (second century C.E.).23 Prajña studies, on the other hand, concentrated on the Mahayana teachings found in the texts translated by Lokaksema (second century) and Zhi Qian (third century).24 Dhyana study was centered north of the Yangtze, while the main centers of prajña studies were in the south, but neither movement was exclusive, since the Chinese had little notion of the differences between Hinayana and Mahayana. Dhyana practices aimed at clear, calm “knowing,” which the practitioners may have considered a mark of prajña. In general though, prajña scholars were more philosophical. Daoan pursued both dhyana and prajña studies during his life, although he emphasized them at different times. It was through his studies of dhyana and prajña texts that Daoan honed his interest in interpretation and propagation of the Dharma. He also became deeply interested in translation, even though he did not know Sanskrit or any other Indic language. His studies and ruminations on the problems involved in translation led him to become far more hermeneutically astute than many of his predecessors. Daoan’s desire to explain the meaning of Buddhism to the Chinese prompted him to write numerous prefaces and commentaries to Buddhist texts. Indeed, he was the first monk of any note to give a clear and orderly exegesis of a text line by line.25 Such care and concern served him well later on when Fu Jian placed him in charge of the translation bureau in Chang’an. Daoan’s critical scholarly interests clearly show in a number of projects he took on at various times. Although by the fourth century we find several scholar-monks such as Zhi Mindu (fl. 326–342) compiling critical editions of Buddhist texts, Daoan was a true genius in this area. By 365 he was collecting information on the origin and history of every text that came his way, noting their dates, translators and circumstances of translation. These activities culminated in his famous Zongli zhongjing mulu (Official Catalogue of the Entire Sutra Collection), an extensive catalogue which he ,
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compiled in 374 and which set the standard for later Buddhist bibliographers.26 The Zongli is a product of immense scholarship. Daoan inspected every text himself, invented his own method of classification, and included a separate section for those texts he deemed spurious. It was during his time in Chang’an that Daoan led the official translation bureau. Despite his limited knowledge of Sanskrit and Central Asian languages, he played a role of great importance in the effort to assemble a reliable Chinese Buddhist canon. Prior to his time, translation of Buddhist texts had been a haphazard affair. Typically, foreign missionaries would enter China, bringing texts with them, and with the help of learned Chinese colleagues, would translate and expound their favorite texts to their Chinese audience, often from memory. There were no uniform procedures, and the texts were pitched to Chinese tastes or chosen because patrons were inclined towards certain types of teachings.27 Often the same texts were retranslated (as in the case of the Lotus and Vimalakirti sutras, as well as several of the Prajñaparamitas), resulting in even more confusion. Daoan altered this situation dramatically by establishing a uniform system. He devised specific guidelines for translation, which he summed up in “five deviations from the original” (wu shiben) and “three difficulties” (san buyi). He spelt these out at length in his Preface to an Abstract of the Prajña Sutras: In translating Hu (Sanskrit) into Ch’in (Chinese), there are five deviations from the original. First: Turning the Hu utterances completely upside-down to make them follow the Ch’in [arrangement] is the first deviation from the original. Second: The Hu scriptures prize substance and Ch’in men love rhetoric. When the transmission conforms to the mind and nothing is accepted that is not rhetorical, this is the second deviation from the original. Third: The Hu scriptures are repetitious. In recitative passages, they reiterate sometimes three times and sometimes four times. Disliking their prolixity and excising it is the third deviation from the original. Fourth: In the Hu there occur explanations of ideas which are correct but seem like disordered phrases. When one examines statements and looks at the words, the text has nothing that makes it different, yet sometimes a thousand or five hundred [words] are deleted and not retained. This is the fourth deviation from the original. Fifth: After a subject has already been completed [the text] may come to an ancillary [topic]. Having again used the previous phrases it then restates. To delete all [of this] is the fifth deviation from the original. The Prajña Sutra is something that was uttered by the facecovering [tongue] of the one whose mind possesses the three
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knowledges.28 The Holy One certainly accommodated to his times, but there are changes in the customs of the times. Excising the elegant ancient [language] in order to adapt to modern [tastes] is the first difficulty. Stupidity and wisdom are heaven[-made] distinctions. The Holy Man cannot be a stairway. Then, wishing to transmit the subtle sayings of a thousand years ago and reconcile them with latter-day customs that are subsequent to the hundred [generations of] kings is the second difficulty. When Ananda was issuing the sutras, the Buddha had not been gone for very long. [The time when] the Venerable Kasyapa caused the five hundred [arhants] with the six super-knowledges to critically examine and write down [the Tripitaka] is separated from the present day by a thousand years, yet we conjecture [their meaning] with present-day ideas. When those arhants were so conflict-ridden, is it not the courage of those who do not know the Dharma for these men of samsara to be so complacent? This is the third difficulty.29 It is difficult to make sense of these guidelines from this passage, and modern scholars differ over what they exactly entailed and recommended. Both Erik Zurcher and Ocho Enichi, for instance, suggest that these guidelines point out instances of allowable deviations as well as places where the translator must stick to the Indian text.30 Richard Robinson, though, maintains that the “three difficulties” are reasons to avoid needless abridgments while the “five deviations” are a list of how Chinese versions of texts differ from Sanskrit “originals.”31 In any case, these guidelines provide further evidence of Daoan’s concern for preserving meaning and his keen grasp of the problems inherent in translation. He had an uncanny awareness of his own hermeneutical situation. Although some of Daoan’s followers disagreed with his translation guidelines, the majority accepted them. When the great Kuchean Dharma Master Kumarajiva took over the translation bureau in 401, after Daoan’s death, he largely adhered to these principles, and when he revised earlier translations he focused mainly on technical terms. Sengjui, one of Kumarajiva’s chief scribes, wrote, “[When I] held the brush, I thought three times about my former master’s (Daoan’s) instructions about the five deviations and three difficulties.” Thus Daoan’s guidelines became a legacy that continues in modified form to this day. Even while managing the translation bureau, Daoan continued to expand his scholarly interests. He became especially interested in the Abhidharma (“the study of the Dharma”), the “third basket” of the Buddhist canon. The Abhidharma collections systematically explain the ,
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Buddha’s discourses and rank among the most lengthy and complex philosophical systems to come out of India.32 Abhidharma texts are highly technical and had previously been known in China only in short excerpts as translated by An Shigao. While at Fu Jian’s court in Chang’an, Daoan was joined by several missionaries from Central Asia. Some of these missionaries came all the way from Kashmir, one of the great strongholds of the Sarvastivada (“all things exist”) school. The work of these Central Asian masters opened up a vast new corpus of material, and it was the Sarvastivada Abhidharma that became foundational for later doctrinal developments in the more philosophically-oriented schools of Chinese Buddhism (e.g., the Tiantai and Huayan), although there never really was a distinct Sarvastivada school in China.33 Daoan was amazed and excited over the wealth of new material he encountered, often expressing regret that he was only becoming acquainted with these teachings in his old age.34 We can get a rough idea of what this would be like by imagining a modern scholar setting out to tackle Aquinas’s Summa Theologica after a lengthy and distinguished career in Reformation Theology. Due in part to his Confucian upbringing, Daoan was well-versed in indigenous Chinese systems of thought, and during his years in Chang’an he actively promoted a revival in Confucian studies. One incident in particular shows the breadth of his erudition. A large bell that had been excavated outside the city bore an inscription that none of the resident scholars could read. Daoan was called in, and he not only deciphered the inscription but was able to identify the bell as a Han dynasty artifact. From then on, people who had questions on scholarly matters, whether Buddhist or non-Buddhist, directed their inquiries to Daoan.35 Rising literati even sought his advice on their compositions.36 Clearly he was regarded as a great authority on both Chinese and Buddhist thought. In general, Daoan’s scholarly life was marked by great energy, thoughtfulness and a strong self-critical attitude. Never one to maintain a “foolish consistency,” he was always revising previous views and exploring new ideas. He continued until the end of his life to go through the Fangguang37 twice a year to reacquaint himself with its teachings, yet his understanding of this seminal text did not remain static. A preface he wrote in 382 after a new version of the sutra had been made shows how his reflections on translation had influenced his thinking. Daoan as Teacher In his role as teacher, Daoan tirelessly sought to bring new understanding to people and to propagate the Dharma. He was a lao shi in the truest sense—
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an “elder model” worthy of our esteem. Over the decades he had hundreds of disciples, many of whom were “eminent monks” in their own right. Among them were Tanjie, who was known for his devotion to the future Buddha Maitreya and was buried next to Daoan,38 and Fayu, who submitted to disciplinary action from his master even after he joined another monastery.39 Daoan’s most famous disciple, though, was the venerable Huiyuan, whose contributions to Chinese Buddhism rival his master’s.40 Daoan had a close relationship with Huiyuan and even singled him out for a special blessing before sending him away from Xiangyang. Daoan was quite fond of his disciples and showed deep concern for their safety and well-being. In 378 when Fu Jian threatened Xiangyang, Daoan sent many of his students away to safety while he remained behind.41 Some disciples, though, stayed with their master and followed him into “captivity” in Chang’an. Daoan inspired such love that one disciple, Tanhui, established a “Daoan cult” at Jiangling, where he and various other men and women would assemble before a portrait of the master and pay homage to it.42 Although Daoan wielded authority over his disciples and reprimanded them for violations of monastic rules, he allowed them to remonstrate with him. This is crucial for maintaining proper social relations and once again points to Daoan’s Confucian The secretary of his transsentiments. He relates, for instance, how one time Huichang, the secretary of his translation team, fled lation team once fled his his mat in protest over some proposed deletions of repetitive passages. After discussing the matter, those mat in protest over assembled agreed with Huichang and decided to stick as close to the Sanskrit texts as possible.43 Daoan proposed deletions of handled this dispute with great skill, preferring to throw it open to his colleagues and students rather than repetitive passages. make the final decision himself. Would that all academic disagreements could be resolved so well! Daoan also recognized the depth and profundity of his field (a rarity among academics), and as a good teacher, saw the need for other teachers to continue his work. At times he sent his disciples out to various parts of China with the express injunction to teach others, recalling other great teachers in world history, such as Jesus of Nazareth.44 He saw that China needed a new and deeper understanding of the Dharma, and while in Chang’an he cultivated and encouraged contacts with Central Asian missionaries. It was Daoan who urged Fu Jian to send for the venerable saint Kumarajiva, whose fame by 379 had spread throughout Asia.45 Although the two never met, when Kumarajiva arrived in Chang’an around 401, he ,
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took Daoan’s place as guo shi and head of the translation bureau that Daoan had organized. Daoan as Administrator and Politician Daoan’s role as administrator and politician was closely allied to his role as a teacher. In this capacity he was both canny and practical. During the sixteen years he spent traveling throughout Hebei following Fotudeng’s death in 349, Daoan honed his administrative and management skills through various missionary efforts, especially the founding of temples and monasteries. He had many followers in his entourage, some from his earlier student days, and continued to attract them from all over China. From 365 to 379 Daoan administered the great monastic center at Xiangyang, one of the largest in China at the time, with quarters for some 400 to 500 monks. The expense of supporting such a large community was enormous, and Daoan sought numerous donations from wealthy aristocrats, magistrates and merchants. He intentionally cultivated court connections in the area and throughout other regions for protection, reportedly saying once, “We are now meeting years of calamity. If we do not rely on the ruler of a state, then the affairs of the Doctrine will be hard to establish.”46 Yet by maintaining strict ethical standards for himself and his community, Daoan remained aloof from the political intrigues that plagued other Chinese institutions of the period. A key part of Daoan’s work as a monastic administrator was his dedication to vinaya (monastic discipline), an aspect of Buddhist tradition that fit well with Confucian ethical teachings. In a letter written from Xiangyang Daoan makes clear that he saw the vinaya as the foundation of Buddhism, the root of religious conduct and the basis for the profound teachings of the Prajñaparamitas.47 Daoan continually strove to obtain complete copies of vinaya texts to insure that his community followed the Dharma as closely as possible. When he was unable to obtain a relevant rule he devised his own. As a result of his hard work, the Xiangyang community stood out from other Buddhist centers of the day. From an account written by one of his contemporaries, we get a glimpse of what this ideal Buddhist center looked like: When I came here, I saw Shi Daoan. He is certainly a man of farreaching excellence, and not an ordinary priest. Teachers and pupils number several hundreds: they [engage in] fasting and explication [of the scriptures] without ever growing weary, and they do not practice such magic arts as could serve to delude the ears and eyes of the
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common people, nor do [the teachers display] such grave authority or great power as could serve to rectify the irregular [conduct] of the host of petty people. And yet, both teachers and pupils are full of reverence and naturally honour and respect each other, and that in such vast numbers—this is something which I have never seen before.48 Indeed, I imagine few of us today have seen anything like this. For Daoan, learning and study were not merely academic affairs but embraced all of life. After Fu Jian occupied Xiangyang, he brought the master to the capital at Chang’an. There Daoan served as guo shi, an official government post whose duties included advising Fu Jian. Daoan seems to have been accorded great honors and to have enjoyed close personal relations with his ruler. He was both court chaplain and head resident scholar, and was also consulted in political matters. At one point Daoan even tried to dissuade Fu Jian from launching a military campaign against the south, an indication that the venerable monk had a reputation for practical as well as scholarly and supernatural knowledge.49 Finally, Daoan made one of his most significant administrative moves when he instituted the practice among Chinese monks of taking the name “shi,” the Chinese rendering of “Shakya,” the historical Buddha’s clan name. This seemingly minor change had profound implications, in that it marked all monks as belonging to Shakyamuni’s clan; Daoan was in effect constructing a new clan lineage. From that time forward, becoming a monk entailed an official change of family affiliation—a drastic political move in China where social titles, family name and lineage are major concerns. In a philosophical context, this monastic name change seems related to the Confucian “rectification of names” and the early medieval practice of qing yi (criticism by the pure),50 both of which revolve around the social and political ramifications of matching names and titles with appropriate people and things. Daoan as a Devout Buddhist Daoan was a devout Buddhist for most of his life. His faith was inextricably bound up with his scholarship and, in the Confucian phrase, it formed the “one thread” (yi guan) that bound his many roles and activities together.51 We have already mentioned Daoan’s lifelong interest in meditation (dhyana), but he was also deeply involved in Buddhist worship. In this he differs from other gentry Buddhists who had little connection with ritual practices. He made Xiangyang a great devotional as well as scholarly center, and during his tenure there he commissioned the construction of a ,
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large pagoda as well as the production of several statues.52 Fu Jian, whom Daoan later served, was so impressed with the center that he donated various icons, among them a reclining image of the Buddha Shakyamuni and an image of the future Buddha Maitreya. Daoan took great pains to bring these out for display during religious ceremonies.53 Daoan’s devotion also opened him to supernatural and occult realms that many rationalists ignore or dismiss. He was especially dedicated to the cult of Maitreya, and he and seven of his closest followers even appear to have had a collective vision of Maitreya in Tusita Heaven.54 Maitreya was the patron of translators and exegetes, so it is little wonder that Daoan would be so devoted to him. Daoan’s mystical visions, however, were not limited to Maitreya. One night he had a vivid dream in which the arhat Pindola appeared before him as an old Indian monk, admonishing him not to enter nirvana but to wander the north propagating and protecting the Dharma. When he awoke, Daoan prepared some special food and offered it on the altar to Pindola—a practice that led to the eventual installation of Pindola as the patron saint of the refectory.55 Clearly Daoan was in touch with and drew strength from the mysterious aspects of reality. Daoan even practiced magic and divination, although not to the extent of Buddhist shamans such as Fotudeng. Such practices were quite common among the Chinese sangha and, along with medicine and geomancy (feng shui), were important side-disciplines for many monks. According to his biography, Daoan mastered Daoan strove to be a divination and “calculations” (shushu—a technical term covering various forms of divination and fortune Bodhisattva—someone telling) in the course of his own education, and Daoan is even cited by the Tang monk Daobian as the inspirawhose quest for wisdom is tion for his own practices.56 Certainly some literati (e.g., Xunzi) scoffed at such occult techniques, but they have joined to compassionate long been part of mainstream Chinese culture and have been one of the chief ways in which priests, monks and concern for others. nuns have ministered to the needs of the populace. Daoan’s faith was central to his life as a scholar, but it was not a narrow, unquestioning faith, nor was it rigid or overly intellectual. His dedication to Dharma informed his pursuit of knowledge and learning and was a means of opening him to greater truths. He was not a rationalist in the strict sense; neither was his openness to the inherent mysteries of reality mere superstition. Like the scholastic theologians of medieval Europe, Daoan’s faith supported his quest for understanding. It also shaped his character. Daoan strove to be a Bodhisattva—to be someone whose quest for wisdom is joined to compassionate concern for others.
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The Meaning of Daoan’s Life What are we to make of Daoan’s life, his Dao? What can a monk who has been dead for over fifteen centuries mean to us today? My students ask me these questions frequently, and they are right to do so. Such questions go to the heart of what Chinese philosophy is and what relevance it has for our times. To begin with, let me reiterate my earlier point that Daoan in his various roles is a model for us. Many of us have taken on the same roles as Daoan in our professional and personal lives, and we can learn a lot about successfully fulfilling them by studying his example. Beyond this, however, Daoan merits our attention and admiration as a true philosopher. If, as Richard Rorty suggests, we conceive of philosophy as an ongoing conversation that lives through our participation, Daoan seems strikingly contemporary. With Daoan we have a concrete example of philosophy as discontinuity within continuity, a constantly transforming process in which ideas cross cultural and historical (and even scholastic) boundaries while remaining somehow the same. Daoan moved with the times, embracing the new while holding on to the old, not just in his scholarly and literary work, but in all the other aspects of his life. Daoan attests to how Chinese philosophy continually renews itself through individual and collective endeavors, becoming not just a way of thinking but a way of living, and this, in the end, is what studying Dao is all about. Of course, our sources for Daoan’s life such as the Gaosengzhuan are not objective historical accounts. Full of exaggeration, distortion and fictionalizations,57 they are interpretations of Daoan’s life—a sort of “propaganda” we might even say. But I would argue that this does not detract from their value. Even if the accounts of Daoan’s life presented by Huijiao and others (including myself) amount to propaganda, I submit that it is philosophical propaganda in the sense that C. W. Huntington uses the term when describing the Buddhist philosophical school of Madhyamika.58 Such “propaganda” does not aim at objective certainty but invites us to live out its ideals. It is an edifying discourse that aims to help us liberate ourselves from inadequate or worn-out concepts and vocabularies and live in a freer, more authentic fashion.59 From the Buddhist perspective, of course, this means living more compassionately and with greater concern for others. In the preface to the Gaosengzhuan, Huijiao writes, If men of real achievement conceal their brilliance, then they are eminent but not famous; when men of slight virtue happen to be in accord with their times, then they are famous but not eminent.60
,
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This is an important distinction. Those who were “eminent” (gao) in Huijiao’s sense of the word were not just models for others, but were akin to the sages and worthies of the past who apprehended Dao and strove to embody it in their lives.61 Such eminent people were “lofty” but also, perhaps, upstarts in their own way. Daoan was one of those rare people. Like Shakyamuni and Confucius, he marked out a path, a Dao, which we can still trace. The laughing sage Zhuangzi pointedly reminds us, “A road is made by people walking on it.”62 It remains up to those of us who study Chinese thought in the twenty-first century to continue along this Way, to be “Daoists” in our scholarship, our teaching and our lives. But then again, as good Daoists, what else can we do? ❧ Notes 1
Daoan has been extensively studied. See, for instance, Kenneth Ch’en, Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964), pp. 94–103; Tang Yongtong, Han Wei Liang Jin Nanbei Chao Fojiao shi (History of Buddhism in the Han, Wei, Two Jins and Northern and Southern Dynasties) (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1938), pp. 187–228, 242–51; Tsukamoto Zenryu, A History of Early Chinese Buddhism: From Its Introduction to the Death of Hui-yuan, trans. Leon Hurvitz, vol. 2 (Tokyo/New York/San Francisco: Kodanshu International Ltd., 1985); Ui Hakuju, Shaku Doan no Kenkyu (Studies of Shi Daoan) (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1956); and Erik Zurcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1959), pp. 184–204. 2 Cf. Confucius’s remarks in Analects 2: 11, “One who reanimates the old so as to understand the new may become a teacher,” and 7: 1 “I transmit but do not create. In believing in and loving the ancients, I dare compare myself with our old Peng.” Quoted in William Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2nd ed., vol. 1, From Earliest Times to 1600 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), pp. 47, 50. 3 The phrase “formative phase” comes from Erik Zurcher, “Buddhism in China,” in Buddhism and Asian History, ed. Joseph M. Kitagawa and Mark D. Cummings (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1987), pp. 139–49. 4 Our primary source for Daoan’s life is the Gaosengzhuan (Biographies of Eminent Monks) compiled by Huijiao (497–554). See T 2059.351c3–354a17. For an English translation, see Arthur Link, “Biography of Shi Tao-an,” T’oung Pao 46 (1958): 1–48. Daoan also has a biography in the Chu sanzang jiji (Collected accounts concerning the translation of the Tripitaka, T 2145.107c23– 109b9) compiled by Sengyu (435–518). 5 T 2509.351c8–15.
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For example, through the five basic human relationships (wu lun, five orders) of father and son, husband and wife, ruler and subject, elder brother and younger brother, friend and friend. 7 “Dark or profound learning.” Often dubbed “Neo-Daoism,” xuanxue was an intellectual movement of the early middle ages focusing on the metaphysical and mystical ideas of the Daodejing, Zhuangzi and Yijing. Prominent xuanxue thinkers included Wang Bi (226–249) and Guo Xiang (252– 312). For details see Xu Kangsheng, “A Brief Discussion of the ‘Xuanxue’ School of the Wei-Jin Period,” Chinese Studies in Philosophy 13 (Fall 1981): 57–86. 8 T 1464.851a11–14. 9 The other schools are Benwu yi (Variant School of Original Nonbeing), Jise (School of Form/Matter as such), Xinwu (School of Nonexistence of Mind), Shihan (School of Stored Impressions), Huahu (School of Illusory Transformations), and Yuanhui (School of Causal Combinations). Sengjui, a disciple of Kumarajiva, refers to “six houses” in a preface to a commentary on the Vimalakirti (preserved in the Chu sanzang jiji, T 2145.59a1) but gives no information on names or tenets. Huida in his preface to the Zhaolun mentions “six or seven schools which then expanded into twelve” but gives no additional information. See T 1858.150b7. During the Liu-Song period (420–478) a figure named Tanji wrote the Liujia qizong lun (Treatise of the Six Houses and Seven Schools), which confirms the number of schools as six or seven, but it is lost except for fragments in other works. 10 T 1824.29a4–12. 11 T 2255.92c16–20. 12 Arthur E. Link, “The Taoist Antecedents of Tao-an’s Ontology,” History of Religions 9 (1969–70): 200. 13 For details on Wang’s philosophy, see Alan K. L. Chan, Two Visions of the Way: A Study of the Wang Pi and the Ho-shang Kung Commentaries on the Lao-tzu (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), pp. 15– 44; and Marie-Ina Bergeron, Wang Pi, Philosophe du Non-Avoir, Variétés Sinologiques, Nouvelle Série no. 69 (Paris: L’institut Ricci, 1986). 14 Kenneth Ch’en, “Neo-Taoism and the Prajña Schools during the Wei and Chin Dynasties,” Chinese Culture 1 (1957): 33. 15 Hui-Neng, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: The Text of the Tun-huang Manuscript, trans. Philip B. Yampolsky (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 136. I have taken the liberty of using pinyin transliteration in this passage for the sake of consistency. 16 Philosopher-theologian Robert Neville actually argues that Chinese traditions express creation ex nihilo in a more inclusive and balanced fashion than anything in the West does. See Robert Cummings Neville, Behind the
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Masks of God: An Essay Toward Comparative Theology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), pp. 67–84. 17 According to the Gaosengzhuan, Fatai composed several commentaries and corresponded with an official named Xi Chao (dates?) about benwu. See his biography at T 2059.354b29–355a17. Huida in his commentary on the Zhaolun describes Huiyuan’s benwu views as very similar to Daoan’s. See Tang, History, vol. I, p. 239, and Arthur Link, “The Taoist Antecedents,” p. 192. Zhidun’s benwu views can be found in his preface to a comparison of the Asta and Panca, currently preserved in the Chu sanzang jiji, T 2145.55f. For an English translation see Leon Hurvitz, “Chih Tun’s Notions of Prajña,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 88 (June 1968): 243–60. 18 Tang Yongtong maintains that benwu is almost a blanket term for Chinese prajña study during this time. Whalen Lai considers it to be the first and most basic school. See Tang, History, vol. 1, p. 238, and Whalen W. Lai, “The Early Prajña Schools, especially Hsin-wu, reconsidered,” Philosophy East and West 33 (January 1983): 62. 19 Many Chinese viewed Buddhism as a new, “exotic” form of Daoism and tended to use the same terms when speaking of both traditions. Such mixing of terms, while blurring the distinctions between the traditions, became the main way for Chinese to understand the Dharma. I suggest that this process in which Chinese thinkers came to understand Buddhism should be understood along Gadamerian lines as a large scale example of how pre-understanding (with its inherited “enabling prejudices”) informs the appropriation of a new phenomena. 20 Sunyata, thus, is another name for Shakyamuni’s teaching of pratityasamutpada (dependent origination), which might best be understood as “interdependence.” 21 For a detailed discussion of Zongmi’s ontological scheme, see Peter N. Gregory, Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 173–252. 22 Daoan seems to have turned to prajña studies under the guidance of his fellow student Zhu Fatai. 23 I use the term “Hinayana” here cautiously. It is a pejorative term used by adherents of the Mahayana to distinguish themselves from traditions of Buddhism that seemed more selfish and elitist. Most likely the term “Hinayana” referred to certain strains of the Sarvastivada school. It is certainly not the case that “Hinayana” is the same as Theravada, a venerable Buddhist tradition that still claims many adherents. 24 See Ch’en, Buddhism in China, p. 58; Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 336; and Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 30–80.
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We can see this in his commentary on An Shigao’s Renbenyusheng jing, T 1693, the only one of his commentaries that survives. 26 The Zongli was incorporated virtually in full into Sengyu’s Chusanzang jiji. 27 As, for instance, was the case with An Shigao, whose translation activities chiefly revolved around meditation texts due in large part because his audience was interested in Daoist breathing meditation. 28 A long tongue is one of the traditional “32 marks” of a Buddha. The “three super-knowledges” are knowledge of one’s previous lives as well as the past and future lives of other beings. These “knowledges” develop as one attains prajña (wisdom). 29 Quoted in Richard H. Robinson, Early Madhyamika in India and China (Madison, Milwaukee and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967), p. 77. The original Chinese of this passage can be found at T 2059.52b23. 30 See Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 203, and Ocho Enichi, Chugoku Bukkyo no kenkyu (Studies of Chinese Buddhism) (Kyoto: Hozokan, 1958), pp. 248–51. 31 Robinson, Early Madhyamika in India and China, pp. 78–79. 32 See Erich Frauwallner, Studies in Abhidharma Literature and the Origins of Buddhist Philosophical Systems, trans. Sophie Francis Kidd (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995). 33 Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 202–04. Sarvastivada teachings were carried to the Dharma center at Lushan by Sanghadeva during the last decade of the fourth century, where they continued to be expounded. However, the Chinese did not really receive a systematic presentation of Sarvastivada metaphysics until Paramartha translated Vasubandhu’s Abhi-dharmakosa in the late sixth century. 34 Of one Abhidharma text he says, “I am only sorry that I have seen this sutra at the age of seventy-two.” See Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 204. 35 T 2059.353a14. 36 T 2059.353a5. 37 An early translation of the Pancavimsatisahasrika Prajñaparamita Sutra by Moksala, T 221. The Fangguang was far and away the most popular text among the Chinese prajña scholars of the third and fourth centuries. 38 For Tanjie’s biography, see T 2059.356b25–c6, translated in John Kieschnick, The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography (Honolulu: Kuruda Institute, University of Hawaii Press, 1997), p. 8. 39 For Fayu’s biography, see T 2059.365a14–b2. 40 For Huiyuan’s biography, see T 2059.357c 20–361b13, translated in Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 240–53.
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Ibid., p. 198. Zhu Xu, the defending commander, seems to have wanted Daoan as a magical protection against the enemy. 42 Tanhui’s biography is at T 2059.356b3–13. 43 T 2145.80b14ff. 44 Matthew 10: 5ff. 45 According to sources, Kumarajiva was impressed with Daoan’s reputation and at times would “worship him and pay him homage from afar.” Leon Hurvitz, trans., Wei Shou Treatise on Buddhism and Taoism: An English Translation of the Original Chinese Text of the Wei-Shu CXIV and the Japanese Annotation of Tsukamoto Zenryu (Kyoto: Jimbun kagaku kenkyusho, 1956), p. 50. 46 Quoted in Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 190. 47 T 2145.62a. Although Sengyu labels this letter as “anonymous,” Zurcher argues that Daoan almost certainly wrote it. 48 Quoted in Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 189. 49 T 2059.353a29ff. 50 Qing yi was a method for finding suitable candidates for government posts by matching abilities with functions. It had great influence on the NeoDaoist practice of qing tan (pure conversation, philosophical/poetic exchanges emphasizing clever turns of phrase). For details see Richard B. Mather, trans., Shih-shou Hsin-yu: A New Account of Tales of the World, by Liu I-ch’ing with Commentary by Liu Chun (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976), pp. xxii–xxiii. 51 Cf. Confucius’s remark in Analects 15: 2, “With me, there is one thread that runs right through it.” See De Bary and Bloom, Sources of Chinese Tradition, p. 59, note 45. 52 The most famous was a sixteen-foot bronze statue of the Buddha said to have miraculous powers of levitation. Huiyuan wrote a eulogy on it. See the Guang hungming ji, T 2103.198b. 53 Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 188. 54 T 2059.353b27–c9. This allegedly took place on 22 Feburary 385. 55 T 2059.353b19–23; Ch’en, Buddhism in China, pp. 100–01. 56 For Daobian, see T 2060.662b13–c19, especially c6ff. 57 For an important discussion of the Gaosengzhuan and similar writings, see Arthur F. Wright, “Biography and Hagiography: Hui-chiao’s Lives of Eminent Monks,” in Silver Jubilee Volume (Kyoto: Jimbun kagaku kenkyusho, 1954); reprint, Studies in Chinese Buddhism, ed. Robert M. Somers (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990), pp. 73–111. 58 See C. W. Huntington, Jr., The Emptiness of Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian Madhyamika (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989), especially pp. 105–42.
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Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), p. 12. 60 T 2059.419a23–25. 61 Kieschnick, The Eminent Monk, p. 8. 62 Burton Watson, trans., The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), p. 40. About the Author John M. Thompson is currently assistant professor of religion and philosophy at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, where he teaches courses in Chinese and Indian thought, in comparative religion, and in world religious traditions. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where he specialized in Buddhism and Chinese traditions. He earned a master’s degree at the Boston University School of Theology and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the College of William and Mary.
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