This paper focuses on the Daijō shōkan ryaku shiki 大乘正観略私記 (below, Shiki) of Chinkai (珍海, 1092–1152), a Japanese monk of the late Heian period, and aims at investigating the meaning of the term shōkan (正観), along with his understanding of the thought of the Middle Way (中道) and Reality (実相).
Chinkai claims in his Shiki that the meaning of shōkan is “knowing the teachings 教 and truth 理 clearly.” The teachings refers to all the doctrines that are able to interpret truth, and truth is the truth which is interpreted by the teachings, namely the theory of the non-perception 无所得 of emptiness 空 in the Sanlun school 三論宗.
In Chinkai’s opinion, the teachings represent “breadth 広” and truth represents “depth 深,” and only by learning both could people come to real non-perception, especially based on the ideas of the Two-truths and the Middle Way.
Furthermore, Chinkai takes the eightfold negation of Nāgārjuna as a foundation of the shōkan of Mahāyāna Buddhism. On the basis of this eightfold negation, he refers to the doctrine of the Two-truths as the content of the thought of the Middle Way, and regards the shōkan of non-perception as the origin of Daijō shōkan.
