On the Interpretation of the Fentong-Dacheng (Dharmaguptaka Vinaya as Mahāyāna) in the Nanshan-Lüzong School during the Northern Song Period: Focusing on Yuanzhao’s New Interpretation

Abstract

This study examines the interpretation of the Fentong-Dacheng (分通大乗) by the Nanshan-Lüzong (南山律宗) school during the Northern Song period. The Fentong-Dacheng is a view of the main precepts of the Nanshan-Lüzong school advocated by Daoxuan (道宣) during the Tang Dynasty. This philosophy is subsumed within the Sifen-lü (四分律) text of sectarian Buddhism. Because of criticism by other religious thinkers during the Northen Song period, Yuanzhao (元照) went on to reinterpret the Fentong-Dacheng. In addition, Yuanzhao promoted a further Dacheng-ization of the Nanshan-Lüzong school by interpreting newly extracted descriptions of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy in the Sifen-lü on the basis of the philosophy of the Fahua-jing (法華経). Yuanzhao’s interpretations of the Fentong-Dacheng using the Fahua-jing became one of the main underpinnings of the Nanshan-Lüzong school’s philosophical approach during the Northern Song period.