On Tiantong Rujing And His Ch'anism

This article is divided into four parts.Chapter one expatiates the main problems and inadequacies of current academic researches on Master Rujing. For one thing, previous researchers haven't fully understood and grasp the profound connotation of Rujing Ch'anism. Most domestic researchers confine their vision to the influences that Chinese local culture exerts on Rujing's thoughts, while Japanese researchers put their focuses more on primitive Buddhism elements of Rujing Ch'anism. For another, Rujing Continued Quotation has not been appraised as spurious or genuine yet before by domestic researchers. Thirdly, doubts still exist about the saying that Rujing abolished his own religion tradition and let no person to inherit it.The second part records Rujing's life and historical background of Rujing Ch'anism. In this part I selectively excerpted major events of Rujing from historical materials and analyzed the main features of Zen school in Song Dynasty.Chapter three analyzes the characteristic and connotation of Rujing Ch'anism—"integration". Rujing Ch'anism is an inheritance and development of Dharma- Ch'anism in thought, from Mozhao- Ch'anism in the path of meditation, which adopts a "seat-meditation only" way for one to develop from "abnegation" to "sunyata", finally reaching the state of Prajna. Besides, it is brought forward that Rujing Continued Quotation is spurious.The fifth part is concerned with historical contributions and significance of Rujing Ch'anism to Chinese Buddhism's history and Sino-Japanese cultural exchange history. In conclusion, I think that Rujing never abolished his religion tradition by himself. By contrast, he has created a new world for Caodong schlool.