The Development of the Sudden Teaching in Tiantai’s Classification of Sūtras: The Difference between Zhiyi and Zhanran

Abstract

This paper focuses on the concept of Sudden Teaching 頓教 in Tiantai’s classification of sūtras, and investigates the difference between Zhiyi 智顗 (538–597) and Zhanran 湛然 (711–782). The concept of Sudden Teaching existed before Zhiyi, but he insisted on developing his own theory against those pre-existing, such as the group of taxonomies known as ‘three in the south and seven in the north’ 南三北七. In contrast to Zhiyi, Zhanran embraced these pre-existing theories, and re-interpreted Zhiyi’s classification of sūtras. This paper concludes that Zhanran inherited Zhiyi’s theory and embraced these pre-existing theories.