The Research On Niutou Chan

Niutou Chan was originated from Jiangzuo region,the thought characteristic of Buddhism in Jiangzuo region has a far-reaching effect on Niutou Chan.Niutou Chan attained priority in the middle-late Tang Dynasty,the characteristic of Buddhism in Sui and Tang dynasty such as stressing xin-shi(??),the spirit of great harmony(????)also mirrored in Niutou Chan to some extent.Niutou Chan is one of the Sects of Chan,Dong-shan Chan,Hui-neng Chan,and Hong-zhou Chan(???),Shi-tou Chan(???)all had relationship with the development of Niutou Chan.So the first Chapter traced the thought origin of Niutou Chan from the characteristics of the Buddhism in Jiangzuo region,the Buddhism spirit in the middle-late Tang Dynasty and the development of Chan in Tang dynasty.So far,most of the study on the Niutou Chan was focused on the clearance of the facts associated with the Niutou Chan.To some extent,the study has not really uncovered the truth about the real development history of Niutou Chan yet.The thought and the historical value of the fiction story about Niutou Chan have not been fully revealed.The second chapter points out the dim and wrong arguments on the history of Niutou Chan in the academic circle to enlarge the time and space scales of Niutou Chan.Analyzing the thought of Niutou Chan is the top priority.Chapter three studies the thought of Niutou Chan comprehensively and systematically from three aspects.First,state the basic ideas,the inherent logic rule and the course of development on Niutou Chan."empty is the essence of Tao"(?????),"empty mind is the basic way to enlighten"(????),"trees and grass can attain enlightenment"(????)are the basic ideas of Niutou Chan and "empty" is the basic concept.It can not be negligible that Niutou Chan was involved in the combination of "empty" and"phenomena",the unity of "empty mind"(??)and "true mind"(??).As regards to the course of development,before Fo-ku-yi-ze(????),the monks of Niutou Chan asserted "all things are empty"(????),"empty mind is the basic way to enlighten"(????).Since Fo-ku-yi-ze,Niutou Chan's basic concept changed from"empty" to "true mind".Second,Prajna(??)is the core spirit of Niutou Chan.Niutou Chan has the "empty" and "middle way" ideas of Prajna.Niutou Chan has correlation with the Prajna thought in Wei and Jin dynasties.The most important,Niutou Chan is closely connected with the Three-Treatise school(???).Niutou Chan contains the Three-Treatise school's thoughts of "si-chong-er-di"(????),“The tathagatagarbha which is itself empty”(????)and "trees and grass can attain enlightenment"(????).Third,Niutou Chan has the color of Taoism and Metaphysics.That is why Yin-sun deemed Niutou Chan as the real founder of Chinese Chan.Niutou Chan's ideas of "empty"(??),"nature"(??),"trees and grass can attain enlightenment"(????),"the relation between expression and meaning"(????)have close relationship with Taoism and Metaphysics.But there is fundamental distinction between Niutou Chan and Metaphysics.We can say that Buddhism spirit is the skeleton and Metaphysics is the incarnation in the thought of Niutou Chan.Jue-guan(??)is Niutou Chan's way of meditation.Chapter four takes a global view on Jue-guan from three aspects.First of all,it tries to explain the connotation of Juejuan."wu-xin-he-dao"(????),"xin-jing-jie-wu"(????),"bu-zuo-guan-xing"(????),"wu-guan-wu-xiang"(????)are the basic elements of Jue-juan.But to avoid overemphasizing "no mind"(??)and "no observe"(??),it advocates“zhen-xin-bian-zhi"(????),"xin-jing-yi-he"(????),“heng-xiang-nei-zhao"(????),“wu-suo-bu-guan"(????)to some extent.Secondly,it compares Niutou Chan's Jueguan with other ways of meditation to illustrate the content of Jue-guan.Niutou Chan's Jueguan has the correlation with Tiantai Sect's(???)"zhi-guan-shuang-yun"(????),"wu-sheng-guan"(???),"yi-xin-san-guan"(????),with Three-Treatise school's(???)"zheng-guan"(??),"wu-de-zheng-guan"(????),with the Huayan Sect's(???)"zhen-kong-guan"(???),"li-shi-yuan-rong-guan"(?????),with Chan's"bi-guan"(??)and so on.Last but no the least,Yong-ming-yan-shou emphasized the true mind(??)of the thought of "Jueguan" and argued that Jue-guan was the more advanced method of practice comparing with "kong-guan"(??)"jia-guan"(??),"zhong-guan"(??).Chapter five introduces the historical value of Niutou Chan from four aspects.First of all,the correlation between Niutou Chan and other Buddhism Sects,such as Tiantai Sect,Huayan Sect,Pure Land School and Esoteric Buddhism,is not only expresses the include spirit of Niutou Chan,but also instructs the fact that Niutou Chan absorbed the thought of other Buddhism Sects to make up the defeat of its theory.Second,the correlation between Niutou Chan and other sects of Chan,such as Dong-shan Chan,Hui-neng Chan,and Hong-zhou Chan,Shi-tou Chan,especially the correlation between Niutou Chan and Shi-tou Chan explains that Niutou Chan plaid more and more important role in the development of Chan,and became the important thinking mode of Chan.Third,the correlation between Niutou Chan and Tang Dynasty scholar-bureaucrat group reveals the social value of Niutou Chan that was neglected.Four,Although Gui-feng-zong-mi(????),Yong-ming-yan-shou(????)and Yin-shun's interpretation on Niutou Chan has great in common,different voices still existed.This means the value of Niutou Chan changes to some extent as the explanation changes.