Zhu Daosheng Epiphany Thinking

Tao-sheng is a very important thinker in the history ofChinese Buddhism. Theory of sudden enlightenment is most creative in Tao-sheng' s theories. In the first part, the thesis shows that the minor subitists should be classified into two camps by analyzing the sudden and gradual ideas in the period in which Tao-sheng lived. In the second part, the thesis reveals the features in Tao-sheng' s subitism, in which the indivisibility of principle was used in the defense of subitism by Tao-sheng and in which Tao-sheng thought that the sudden enlightenment can be only attained in the teenth stage. At the same time, the thesis points out that we can' t neglect Tao-sheng' s traditional ideas that acknowledged the role of gradual training. On the basis of it, the thesis re-examines the origin of Tao-sheng' s subitism . It thinks that Tao-sheng proposed his subitism in the enligtenment of the sutra of Hinayana and Mahayana ch' an. In the end , the thesis shows the development of Tao-sheng' theory of sudden enlightenment.