Six-Category Systems in the Early Vaiśeṣika School

Abstract

The great Vaiśeṣika philosopher Praśastapāda classified existence into six categories in his Padārthadharmasaṃgraha （PDhS）. These six are: substance, quality, action, universal, particularity, and inherence. On the other hand, the classification in the earliest Vaiśeṣika text, the Vaiśeṣikasūtra （VS）, is more obscure. In this paper, I examine information in texts in the Chinese Buddhist canon, and clarify two variations of the six-category system in the early Vaiśeṣika school. The first type, which I call the “Xuanzang type,” encompasses substance, quality, action, being, particular universality, and inherence. This type seems older than the other six-category system type in India, but was probably introduced into China later by Xuanzang and his disciples. The second type is the “PDhS type,” which follows the same six-category system as that in PDhS. This type gradually became standard in India; however, in China, the delayed introduction of the Xuanzang type overshadowed the PDhS type, and Chinese Buddhism soon forgot the latter.