Journal of the International Association of

Buddhist Studies
Volume 21 Number 1 1998 Copyright c 1998 International Association of Buddhist Studies

JOHANNES BRONKHORST Did the Buddha believe in karma and rebirth? JINHUA CHEN The Construction of Early Tendai Esoteric Buddhism: The Japanese Provenance of Saich s Transmission o Documents and Three Esoteric Buddhist Apocrypha a Attributed to Subh karasimha Miriam Levering Dogens Raihaitokuzui and Women Teaching in Sung Chan TOM TILLEMANS A Note on Pram nav rttika, Pram nasamuccaya and a. a a. Ny yamukha. What is the svadharmin in Buddhist logic? a CHIKAFUMI WATANABE A Translation of the Madhyamakahrdayak rik with a a . the Tarkajv l III. 137-146 aa YANG JIDONG Replacing hu with fan: A Change in the Chinese Perception of Buddhism during the Medieval Period

ABSTRACTS

DID THE BUDDHA BELIEVE IN KARMA AND REBIRTH? Johannes Bronkhorst This paper addresses some methodological issues in the study of early Buddhism. It criticizes approaches which give short shrift to the Buddhist tradition itself and attribute to the Buddha points of views whose main virtue is that they t into a presumed continuity of beliefs linking Buddhism to earlier religions, primarily Vedic religion and Jainism. It proposes to take the Buddhist texts more seriously, and not to exaggerate the importance of continuity, given that the Buddhist texts criticize these other religions and emphasize the novelty and originality of the Buddhist message. Regarding the belief in karma and rebirth the conclusion is reached that there is no reason to doubt that the historical Buddha, too, believed in them. However, he interpreted karma differently. Many later Buddhists confused the two interpretations of karma, with consequences which have left their traces in Buddhist literature. THE CONSTRUCTION OF EARLY TENDAI ESOTERIC BUDDHISM: THE JAPANESE PROVENANCE OF SAICHOS TRANSMISSION DOCUMENTS AND THREE ESOTERIC BUDDHIST APOCRYPHA ATTRIBUTED TO SUBHAKARASIMHA Jinhua Chen During his nine-month stay in China, the Japanese monk Saicho (767-8 22) was allegedly initiated by his Chinese Esoteric mentor Shunxiao (n. d.) into an illustrious esoteric lineage starting from the prestigious Indian Es oteric master Subhakarasimha (637-735). It is also believed that Shunxiao, b asing himself on three Esoteric texts translated by Subhakarasimha (i.e., T nos. 905-7), transmitted to Saicho some particular forms of Esoteric Buddhis t teachings, the core of which is preserved in one of the two dharma-transmi ssion documents (fuhomon) supposedly written by Shunxiao to certify the esot eric transmission conducted between himself and Saicho. This is the convent ional view regarding the roots of Tendai Esoteric Buddhism, which has been b etter known as "Taimitsu."

This article subjects this conventional view to a critical examination. It argues that the two fuhomons ascribed to Shunxiao were not written by Shunxi ao himself, but were prepared in Japan for re-interpreting the meaning, and strengthening the legitimacy, of the initiation Saicho received from China. The three siddhi texts attributed to Subhakarsimha were also composed in Jap an as the scriptural support for Saichos esoteric transmission. The Tendai form of Esoteric Buddhism in the name of Saicho was not brought back from Ch ina by Saicho but was, for the main part, created by his followers in Japan. These negative conclusions can be turned into a positive agenda for future r esearch of Japanese Tendai Buddhism. Scholars can turn from a fruitless sea rch for the roots of Taimitsu in China to look more closely in Japan. Moreov er, the study incorporated in this article might invite more scholarly atten tion to a host of Buddhist apocrypha which, long regarded as Chinese, might have been actually produced in Japan or Korea. DOGENS RAIHAITOKUZUI AND WOMEN TEACHING IN SUNG CHAN Miriam Levering This paper makes two arguments. The rst is that to understand teaching about women teachers set forth in an essay called the Raihaitokuzui by the 13th century founder of Japanese Soto Zen, Dogen Kigen, one needs to see it in the context of the way in which women teachers were being represented within Chinese Chan literature that Dogen knew. All the more so given the fact that he had been in China where this literature was well known. To understand Dogen, one needs to know how women teaching Zen were represented in China. The second argument is that how women teaching in Chan were represented in Chan literature changed from quite negatively in the Tang and Five Dynasties periods to quite positively in the Southern Sung period, that is, the 12th and 13th centuries. I take the Transmission of the Flame texts as the principal way that the Chan school represented itself to itself, as well as to the Emperor and the literate world, I argue that a signicant change occurs in the course of the Sung. In the ame histories of the Northern Sung, only one woman, from the Five Dynasties, is represented as teaching Chan. In the Southern Sung the compilers of the ame histories add a number of recent women teachers to their genealogies of the ame, and represent their performance of the role of Chan teacher as a simple matter of fact without comment. So by the time Dogen was in China

women teaching Chan was quite an acceptable imaginative possibility, as it had not been in the past. . . A NOTE ON PRAMANAVARTTIKA, PRAMANASAMUCCAYA AND NYAYAMUKHA. WHAT IS THE SVADHARMIN IN BUDDHIST LOGIC? Tom Tillemans In the third chapter of Dignagas Pramanasamuccaya we nd, guring in the denition of the thesis, the proviso that the property to be proved must pertain to that very subject (dharmin) which the proponent himself intends, i.e. the svadharmin. We show that there were two interpretations as to what the svadharmin actually consisted in. One approach advocated a sort of philosophical paraphrase of arguments so that the subject would be a real entity acceptable to the proponent himself, and the other made a rapprochement with the semantic theory of apoha, thus yielding the position that the svadharmin in certain proofs was just a conceptual representation. The Dharmakirtian commentator, Prajnakaragupta, makes it clear that both approaches existed in India. We argue that the former approach better ts Dignagas and Dharmakirtis explanations of the term svadharmin. A TRANSLATION OF THE MADHYAMAKAHRDAYAKARIKA . A III. 137-146 WITH THE TARKAJVAL Chikafumi Watanabe The present paper is a translation of the Madhyamakahrdayakarika (hereafter, MHK) with the Tarkajvala (hereafter TJ) III. 137-146 ascribed to Bhaviveka (A.D. c. 490-570) who was one of the eight known commentators of the Mulamadhyamakakarika of Nagarjuna (A.D. c. 150-250) and who used the formal proofs in expounding Madhyamaka thought. The MHK consists of roughly 928 anustubhverses and is divided into eleven chapters. The third chapter of the MHK, Tattvajnanaisana, is the most important chapter among the eleven because Madhyamaka thought is primarily presented in this chapter whereas in the other chapters Madhyakama thought is expressed through the criticism of other systems and schools. A critical edition of the Sanskrit text and of the Tibetan text of the third chapter of the MHK was published and translated into Japanese by Yasunori EJIMA in 1980. In the same year, 1980, Shotaro IIDA published a critical Sanskrit edition of verses 1-136 of the same chapter and of the Tibetan text of the TJ corresponding to those verses, accompanied by an English translation of the verses and the TJ. Prior 4

to those works, the TJ corresponding to verses 1-146 of the MHK was translated by Jyosho NOZAWA into Japanese between 1954-1972. The main subject of verses 137-256 in the third chapter of the MHK and the TJ is "the non-production of all dharmas." This is also the main subject discussed by Madhyamaka philosophers begining with Nagarjuna, many of whom tried to explain it by means of their own methods and to examine it from their own viewpoints. The non-production of all dharmas implies the emptiness (sunyata) of all entities in our world. The idea of emptiness, in the Madhyamika school, is basic and very important among the Buddhas teachings. It can be said that without understanding this idea, no understanding of the philosophy of the Madhyamika is possible. In this paper, I have translated verses 137-146 together with the TJ. In verses 139-146, Bhaviveka criticises the doctrine of the pre-existence of the effect in the cause in a potential state (satkaryavada), etc., advocated by the Samkhya school. The Samkhyas claim that the effect pre-exists in the cause and is therefore selfgenerated. Bhaviveka, however, criticizes this opinion. The present English translation of the MHK was made from the Sanskrit text edited by EJIMA and the English translation of the TJ was made from the Tibetan. I have attempted to translated the MHK and the TJ as literally as possible but in a form that is as readable as possible. Nevertheless, I fear that some ambiguity has unavoidalby remained as both the style and subject matter of the textual material are often technical and dense. This problem has hopefully been resolved by amplifying the translation with phrases in square brackets. In addition, further explanatory comments may be found in the endnotes. I have consulted the Peking, Derge (sDe dge), and Cone (Co ne) editions and made my own edition of the Tibetan text which will appear after the translation section. As is well known, however, the Peking edition is very close to the Narthang (sNar than) edition. On the other hand, the Cone edition is close to the Derge edition. Nevertheless, these variations among the four editions seem to have resulted from scribal errors or spelling and punctuational changes. For this reason, I have referred only to the Derge and Peking editions in my edition of the Tibetan text. Moreover, I have only included the major corrections that I have made to the text in order to avoid overly complicating the paper.

Replacing hu with fan: A Change in the Chinese Perception of Buddhism during the Medieval Period Yang Jidong Hu and fan were two medieval Chinese words with sharply contrary meanings. The former is usually translated into English as barbarian, and the latter means peaceful and Sanskrit. In the early centuries of Chinese Buddhism, monks and translators used to call India the hu country, Buddhist scriptures the hu books, and the language in which Buddhist sutras were originally written the hu scripts. Later on during the Sui-Tang period, however, Chinese monks started a campaign to replace hu with fan in their religious writings and translations. Such a phenomenon, as understood and interpreted by the author of this paper, reveals some important aspects of the cultural transition that took place in medieval China. First, the shift from hu to fan was made necessary by the religious debate between Buddhism and other native Chinese religions. Second, it was made possible by the end of the lasting ethnic war between the Chinese and non-Chinese, the re-union of the country, and an improving attitude of the Chinese toward foreign people and cultures. Third, it marked the accomplishment of the domestication of Buddhism in China.