The Coexistence of Purity and Impurity in Buddha Lands in Jizang’s Jingming xuanlun 浄名玄論

Abstract

In the literature in Chinese Buddhism from the Eastern Jin dynasty 東晋 until the Northern and Southern dynasties period, an important question was why purity and impurity could co-exist in Buddha Lands. In this paper, I consider the coexistence of both purity and impurity in Buddha Lands in Jizang’s 吉蔵 Jingming xuanlun 浄名玄論. In this late work, various Pure Land theories preached in many sūtras are organized. The doctrine was theorized based on the discussion in his early work Fahua xuanlun 法華玄論 and his middle work Huayan youyi 華厳遊意. In the background lies his experience over many years in annotating various Mahāyāna sūtras, such as the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, Buddhāvata­ṃsakasūtra, and Vimalakīrtinirdeśa. Thus, his discussion of the coexistence of purity and impurity in Buddha Lands consists of three main works: Fahua xuanlun, Huayan youyi and Jingming xuanlun.