Until now, it was thought that Diamond Scalpel (Jinangpi 金剛錍) was written by Zhanran 湛然 to criticize other schools of thought, and that the “visitor from the wilds” (yeke 野客) was a person critical of Zhanran. In this paper, I examine these points with following conclusion: First, the Diamond Scalpel is not a work of criticism but is based on the notion of “opening up the coarse and revealing the sublime” (kaicu xianmiao 開麁顕妙) of the Lotus Sūtra. Moreover, the different thoughts are treated from this standpoint. Second, the “visitor from the wilds” is someone who receives Zhanran’s teaching, and the former’s thought is one that was current among the people of the time.
