| Lii Cheng is one of the greatest masters of modern Buddhist study. His theory of "inherent nirvana" and "innate enlightenment" is of great significance in the history of modern Chinese Buddhist Studies. The characteristics of Indian Buddhism is "inherent nirvana", while in the contrary, the characteristics of Chinese Buddhism is " innate enlightenment ". This paper argues that the concept of "innate enlightenment" begins from his critical activity towards Awakening of Mahdyana Faith. And by the critique of "tathagatagarbha", the keypoint of Awakening of Mahdyana Faith, Lii mentioned the difference between "tathagata-garbha" and "alayavijnana", and in that book "tathagata-garbha" was treated equivalently to the concept of "thusness"."tathagata-garbha", which can also be called "thusness", plays the role of direct origin of pratltyasamutpada in genealogical theory, which makes it poses all of the merits and awareneess. This is called the theory of "innate enlightenment". Such a theory actually betrayed the core ideas of Indian Buddhism.In his mind, Indian Buddhism is based on" inherent nirvana" as the core,and choose "asraya-paravrtti" as the practical actions, moreover positively try to change all unreasonable phenomenon of the real world. But the book of Awakening of Mahdyana Faith made a misinterpretation of Indian Buddhism, choosing "revert to type" as practical actions, and adapts a negative attitude towards social activities.Such a critique is a fierce shock towards Chinese Buddhism. the mainstreams of Chinese Buddhism, such as Chan Buddhism, Tiantai, Huayan China are within the objects of being criticized, therefore, since Lu Cheng proposed that concept, Chinese Buddhist scholars respond fiercely, both with approvement and disprovements.Approvers in the discourse of Chinese Buddhism often use the concept of the "innate enlightenment’, while disapprovers of Lii responded in different views, someone choosing a historical perspective with new interpretation, someone choosing to study the relationship between Lankdvatdra-sutra and Awakening of Mahdyana Faith based on new translations.This study will first explore the definition of "innate enlightenment" in Lii cheng’s critique on Awakening of Mahdyana Faith. Then in order to make it clear that Lu cheng’s theory of "innate enlightenment" is not able to adapt to all the aspects of Chinese Buddhism, I will investigate the object and scope Lu Cheng criticized Finally, with the help of modern studies, I will find out the basic points in Lu Cheng’s critique on Awakening of Mahayana Faith. |
