Time and Liberation in Three-Treatise Master Jizang's Madhyamika Thought

• Main Authors: Brewster, Ernest, 白立冰
• Other Authors: Lin, Chen kuo
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/c3nq8u

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 宗教研究所 === 99 === In this thesis, I hope to make a small contribution to the study of of Chinese Buddhism. The preliminary discussion in the first and second chapters takes the form of a historiographical overview of some concepts that developed within the Three-Treatise tradition of Chinese Buddhism between the 5th and 6th centuries. This serves to illuminate the intellectual practices of this unique tradition of thought, which has been largely underrepresented in Western-language studies of Buddhism. In the subsequent chapter, I will clarify the exposition of these ideas within Master Jízàng’s commentary on the Mūlamadhyamaka-kārikās《中論》, the Zhōngguānlùn-shū《中觀論疏》 (completed in 608 C.E.). The examination of this work and its immediate contexts promises to shed light upon the development of Mādhyamika thought in East Asia, especially with regards to the basic exegetical strategies of the Three Treatise tradition. The third and fourth chapters elucidates Jízàng’s interpretation and commentary upon two seminal chapters within Nāgārjuna’s Zhōnglùn, the “Contemplation of the Three Characteristics”〈觀三相品〉 and the “Contemplation of Time”〈觀時品〉. The content of these two chapters reflect the doctrinal and philosophical diversity of the intellectual terrain in early 7th-century China. Jízàng’s analysis in these chapters unfolds into a systematic refutation of the “false doctrines” of the Indian Ābhidharmika sects, which, in turn, illuminate the divergent intellectual currents of Jízàng’s milieu, as well as revealing the encyclopedic breadth of Jízàng’s Zhōngguānlùn-shū as well as other monumental commentarial works of the period. The examination of Jízàng’s refutation of the Sarvāstivādins in the fourth chapter – an as of yet unexplored facet of his considerable corpus – serves to enlarge our current comprehension of both Chinese intellectual culture during this critical juncture in Chinese history, and to enrich our understanding of the variegated exegetical and philosophical approaches of the great thinkers of 6th- and 7th-century China.