Daosheng: Difference between revisions

'''Daosheng''' ({{zh|c=道生|p=Dàoshēng|w='''''Tao Sheng'''''}}; cac. 360–434), or '''Zhu Daosheng''' ({{zh|c=竺道生|w='''''Chu Tao-sheng'''''}}), was an eminent [[Six Dynasties]] era [[Chinese Buddhism|Chinese Buddhist]] scholar. He is known for advocating the concepts of [[subitism|sudden enlightenment]] and the universality of the Buddha nature.{{sfn|Tanabe|1992|p=351}}{{sfn|Lai|1991|p=169}}

Born in [[Pengcheng]], Daosheng left home to become a monk at eleven.{{sfn|Kim|1985|p=38-39}} He studied in [[Jiankang]] under [[Zhu Fatai]], and later at [[LushanMount Lu|Lu]]shan (Mount Lu) monastery with [[Huiyuan (Buddhist)|Huiyuan]], and from 405 or 406 under [[Kumarajiva]] in [[Chang'an]], where he stayed for some two years perfecting his education. He became one of the foremost scholars of his time, counted among the "fifteen great disciples" of Kumarajiva.{{sfn|Kim|1985|p=43}}

[[Sengzhao]] reports that Daosheng assisted Kumarajiva in his translation of the [[Lotus Sutra]], Daosheng wrote commentaries on the Lotus Sutra, the [[Vimalakirti-nirdesa Sutra]] and the [[Astasahasrika-prajnaparamita Sutra]] (the last of which has been lost).{{sfn|Hsiang-Kuang|1956|p=66}} In 408, he returned to Lushan, and in 409 back to Jiankang, where he remained for some twenty years, staying at the ChingyuanQingyuan Monastery (青园寺) from 419.

Daosheng controversially ascribed [[Buddha-nature]] to the [[icchantikas]], based on his reading on a short version of the [[Mahaparinirvana Sutra]], which in that short form appears to deny the Buddha-nature to icchantikas; the long version of the [[Nirvana Sutra]], however (not yet known to Daosheng), explicitly includes the icchantikas in the universality of the Buddha-nature.{{sfn|Blum|2003|pp=201-202}}{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2013|p=370}}{{sfn|Kanno|1994|p=88-89}} Daosheng's bold doctrine of including icchantikas within the purview of the Buddha-nature, even before that explicit teaching had actually been found in the long ''Nirvana Sutra'', led to the expulsion of Daosheng from the Buddhist community in 428 or 429, and he retreated to Lushan in 430.{{sfn|Lai|1982 b|p=135}}

With the availability of the long [[Nirvana Sutra]] after 430, through the translation of [[Dharmakshema]], Daosheng was vindicated and praised for his insight.{{sfn|Kim|1992|p=35}} He remained in Lushan, composing his commentary on the Lotus Sutra in 432, until his death in 434.

{{reflistReflist|30em}}

* {{Cite book |last1=Blum|first1=Mark|chapter=Daosheng |editor=Buswell, Robert E. (ed.) |title=Encyclopedia of Buddhism|date=2003|publisher=Macmillan Reference Lib|location=New York|isbn=0028657187|pages=201–202}}

* {{cite book|ref=harv|editor1-last=Buswell|editor1-first=Robert Jr|editor2-last=Lopez|editor2-first=Donald S. Jr.|editor1-link=Robert Buswell Jr.|editor2-link=Donald S. Lopez, Jr.|title=Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|isbn=9780691157863}}

* {{Cite book |last=Hsiang-Kuang|first=Chou|title=A History of Chinese Buddhism|date=1956|publisher=Indo-Chinese Literature Publications|location=Allahabad|page=}}

* {{citeCite book | last =Kim | first =Young-hoHo | year =1985 | title =Tao-Sheng's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra: A Study and Translation | place =dissertation, Albany, NY. | publisher =McMaster University | url =http://booksdigitalcommons.googlemcmaster.comca/bookscgi/viewcontent.cgi?idarticle=fslSW2tBG8UC2403&pgcontext=PA36opendissertations |year archive-url =1992|publisherhttps://web.archive.org/web/20140203134238/http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2403&context=SUNYopendissertations Press|isbn archive-date =9782014-102-4384-0898-9|page=03 }}

* {{Cite journal|last=Lai |first=Whalen |year=1982 |title=Sinitic speculations on buddha-nature |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=135–149 |doi=10.2307/1398712}}
* {{Cite book | last =Lai | first =Whalen | year =1991 |chapter=Tao Sheng`'s Theory of Sudden Enlightenment Re-examined |editor=Peter N. Gregory (ed.) | title=Sudden and Gradual. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought | place =Delhi | publisher =Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited |pp =169–200}}

* {{Cite journal|last=Tanabe |first=George J. |year=1992 |title=Review: Tao-sheng's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra: A Study and Translation, by Young-he Kim |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=351–355 |url=http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/tanabe.htm |deadurlurl-status=yesdead |archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817074400/http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/tanabe.htm |archivedatearchive-date=August 17, 2011 |doi=10.2307/1399301}}

* {{Cite journal | last =Lai | first =Whalen W.| year =1982 | title =The Mahaparinirvana-Sutra and its earliest interpreters in China: two prefaces by Tao-lang and Tao-sheng | journal =Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=102 |issue=1 |pages=99–105 | url = | doi=10.2307/601115 |ref=none}}

[[Category:Jin dynasty (265–420266–420) Buddhists]]