31 Facts About Guifeng Zongmi

Guifeng Zongmi was a Tang dynasty Buddhist scholar and bhikkhu, installed as fifth patriarch of the Huayan school as well as a patriarch of the Heze school of Southern Chan Buddhism.

Guifeng Zongmi wrote a number of works on the contemporary situation of Tang Buddhism, which discussed Taoism and Confucianism.

Guifeng Zongmi wrote critical analyses of Chan and Huayan, as well as numerous scriptural exegeses.

Guifeng Zongmi was especially concerned about harmonizing the views of those that tended toward exclusivity in either direction.

Guifeng Zongmi provided doctrinal classifications of Buddhist and non-Buddhist teachings, accounting for the apparent disparities in doctrines by categorizing them according to their specific aims.

Guifeng Zongmi was born in 780 into the powerful and influential He family in what is central Sichuan.

When he was seventeen or eighteen, Guifeng Zongmi lost his father and took up Buddhist studies.

Guifeng Zongmi received Daoyuan's seal in 807, the year he was fully ordained as a Buddhist monk.

Guifeng Zongmi propounded the necessity of scriptural studies in Chan, and was highly critical of what he saw as the antinomianism of the Hongzhou lineage derived from Mazu Daoyi, which practiced "entrusting oneself to act freely according to the nature of one's feelings".

Guifeng Zongmi withdrew to the Zhongnan Mountains southwest of Chang'an in 816 and began his writing career, composing an annotated outline of the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, and a compilation of passages from four commentaries on the sutra.

Guifeng Zongmi returned Chang'an in 819 and continued his studies utilizing the extensive libraries of various monasteries in the capital city.

Guifeng Zongmi was now a nationally honored Chan master with extensive contacts among the literati of the day.

Guifeng Zongmi turned his considerable knowledge and intellect towards writing for a broader audience rather than the technical exegetical works he had produced for a limited readership of Buddhist specialists.

Guifeng Zongmi began collecting every extant Chan text in circulation with the goal of producing a Chan canon to create a new section of the Buddhist canon.

Li Xun was quickly captured and executed and Guifeng Zongmi was arrested and tried for treason.

Much of Guifeng Zongmi's work was concerned with providing a dialogue between the three religions of China: Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism.

Guifeng Zongmi saw all three as expedients, functioning within a particular historical context and although he placed Buddhism as revealing the highest truth of the three, this had nothing to do with the level of understanding of the three sages, Confucius, Laozi and Buddha, and everything to do with the particular circumstances in which the three lived and taught.

Guifeng Zongmi tried to harmonize the different views on the nature of enlightenment.

Guifeng Zongmi provided a critique of the various practices which reveal not only the nature of Chan in Tang dynasty, but Zongmi's understanding of Buddhist doctrine.

In Guifeng Zongmi's teaching, the "nature" of each person is identical with Buddha-nature, which is emphasised in Chan.

Guifeng Zongmi saw enlightenment and its opposite, delusion, as ten reciprocal steps that are not so much separate processes, but parallel processes moving in opposite directions.

Guifeng Zongmi follows the One Vehicle interpretation of the Yogachara analysis of the Eight Consciousnesses that is found in the Lankavatara Sutra and the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana in describing the phenomenology of the mind.

Guifeng Zongmi gave critiques on seven Chan schools in his Prolegomenon to the Collection of Expressions of the Zen Source and although he promoted his own Ho-tse school as exemplifying the highest practice, his accounts of the other schools were balanced and unbiased.

Guifeng Zongmi's work had an enduring influence on the adaptation of Indian Buddhism to the philosophy of traditional Chinese culture.

Guifeng Zongmi was critical of Chan sects that seemed to ignore the moral order of traditional Buddhism and Confucianism.

For example, while he saw the Northern line as believing "everything as altogether false", Guifeng Zongmi claimed the Hung-chou tradition, derived from Mazu Daoyi, believed "everything as altogether true".

Guifeng Zongmi went on to say, "we know that this teaching merely destroys our attachment to feelings but does not yet reveal the nature that is true and luminous".

Guifeng Zongmi's epitaph, written by P'ei Hsiu, listed over ninety fascicles.

Unfortunately, many of Guifeng Zongmi's works are lost, including his Collected Writings on the Source of Ch'an which would provide modern scholars with an invaluable source to reconstruct Tang dynasty Chan.

Guifeng Zongmi criticizes Confucianism for not having an adequate moral system or explanation of causation.

Guifeng Zongmi holds up the Buddhist view of karma as the superior system of moral responsibility.