International Relations of the Chinese Yogācāra School in the 8th Century: Focusing on Chongjun and Faqing (Faxiang)

Abstract

According to his stūpa inscription (Tang Chanzhisi gu dade fashi Chongjun ta ming bing xu唐禅智寺故大徳法師崇俊塔銘并序; Based on the glass dry plates of Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), Chongjun (696–760) of the Chanzhisi temple in Yang province learned Yogācāra, Buddhist logic, the Lotus sūtra and Nirvāna sūtra from Zhizhou 智周,and traveled to Tufan 吐蕃 or Tibet. Faqing (or Faxiang), his immediate disciple, a Buddhist layman, responded to a Tōketsu 唐決 (Questions to the Chinese Buddhists) brought by Japanese monk Tokushō 徳清,according to Zōshun’s 蔵俊 Inmyō daisho shō 因明大疏抄 and Gen’ei’s 玄叡 Daijō sanron daigishō 大乗三論大義鈔.Although it is said that there was no doctrinal development of Chinese Yogācāra after Zhizhou, we can see the international interactions between the Chinese Yogācāra school and the surrounding areas in the 8th century.